MOSCOW, April 15 (Xinhua) -- Russia on Sunday launched the first of eight planned Borei-class strategic nuclear submarines.

"This is a holiday for Russia...We have now not only what to protect, but with what to protect," First Vice Premier Sergei Ivanov told the launch ceremony at the Yuri Dolgoruky submarine in the Sevmash shipyard in northwestern Russia, the Itar-Tass news agency reported.

The Yuri Dolgoruky submarine, named after a hero of Moscow and the first nuclear submarine Russia ever built in 17 years, will start trials later this year.

The submarine is expected to come into service in 2008 and cost Russia 23 billion roubles (884.6 million U.S. dollars).

"Under the armaments program, seven Project Borei nuclear missile submarines are to be built by 2015 and another by 2017," Interfax news agency quoted Deputy Defense Minister and armaments chief Alexei Moskovsky as saying.

Two similar submarines, the Alexander Nevsky and Vladimir Monomakh, were laid on the shipyard in 2004 and 2006. They could be completed in 2009 and 2011, according to Interfax.

Each submarine is equipped with 12 solid-fuel Bulava intercontinental ballistic missiles tipped by ten warheads.

The 170-meter long sub carries a crew of 107 sailors and can dive 450 meters deep.