RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – On July 8, the Russian Navy received the nuclear-powered submarine K-329, displaying a record length of 180 meters. In particular, it will carry a new weapon presented in 2018 by Vladimir Putin as “invincible.”
For a country with a long tradition in this field since the Soviet era, these headlines are perhaps nothing out of the ordinary. Nevertheless, the K-329 Belgorod has several features that make it very special, even unique.
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At some 180 meters, it is the longest submarine in the world, slightly exceeding the famous Soviet Typhoons, which inspired Tom Clancy’s 1984 Chase Red October plot.
Beyond this Soviet-style race for gigantism, the main characteristic of the Belgorod lies elsewhere.
Released from the Sevmash shipyard in the icy waters of the White Sea in Severodvinsk, the submarine is officially dedicated to “special missions”, a mysterious qualifier within the Russian fleet to the large “mother submarines”.
The submarine has oversized torpedo tubes compared to those of a conventional submarine.
And for good reason, the Belgorod’s weapons will be anything but ordinary.
These will be torpedoes with nuclear propulsion and charge, a new category of weapons in the armor of the Russian atomic arsenal.
Called Poseidon or Status-6, these torpedoes, which are underwater drones, were presented by Vladimir Putin in March 2018 amid various systems, including hypersonic missiles, described by the Russian President as “invincible”.
Of imposing dimensions – 24 meters long and 2.5 in diameter – this nuclear weapon still under test could reach 200 km/h, an unattainable speed without the “cavitation effect”, a technology that the Russians have mastered since the 1970s and which consists of creating an envelope of air bubbles around the torpedo to reduce water friction.
In addition, she could dive up to 1000 meters and have a range of about 10,000 kilometers thanks to its nuclear propulsion.
In a few hours, such a weapon equipped with a nuclear charge of several megatons could thus strike coastal territories, causing tsunamis all the more devastating as the addition of cobalt 60 could further amplify the radioactive fallout.
Analyst: “Oh Belgorod, what big bow doors you have,”
Belgorod: “All the better to launch massive nuclear-powered nuclear-armed UUVs with. pic.twitter.com/dCkVkDagzx
— Joseph Dempsey (@JosephHDempsey) June 30, 2021
Poseidon torpedoes could thus render coastal areas uninhabitable for several decades. The deterrent effect could be powerful considering the increasing development of urban areas along the coasts.
TWO OTHER NUCLEAR SUBMARINES IN 2022
It will still take time – most certainly years – for the Belgorod, whose construction began in 1992 and was quickly interrupted before resuming in 2006, to deploy the Poseidon underwater drone, which is not yet operational.
At least a second carrier of this weapon, the nuclear submarine Khabarovsk, which could be admitted to active service in 2024, is currently under construction in Sevmash. This year, the shipyard is also expected to deliver two other nuclear submarines to the Russian fleet, a Borei-A ballistic missile submarine, and a Yasen-M attack submarine.