Poseidon strategic underwater drone. IMAGE: A screenshot from Russian Defense Ministry video
The state-run news agency TASS reports (source):
The Project 09852 special-purpose submarine Belgorod that will be floated out in the second quarter of this year will be the first carrier of Poseidon nuclear-capable underwater drones, a source in the domestic defense industry told TASS on Wednesday.
“The Project 09852 special-purpose nuclear-powered submarine Belgorod will become the first carrier of Poseidons. It will be launched from the Sevmash slipway and floated out in the second quarter,” the source said, adding that the submarine’s further construction afloat will be completed and its dockside trials will be carried out throughout 2019. The Belgorod is expected to assume combat duty in 2020.
The special-purpose submarine Belgorod will be capable of carrying six Poseidon strategic underwater drones. The second basic carrier of Poseidon underwater drones, the Project 09851 submarine Khabarovsk, is expected to the floated out in the spring of 2020 and be made operational in the Russian Navy in 2022, the source added.
TASS does not have an official confirmation of this information yet.
In his state-of-the-nation address to both houses of Russia’s parliament on March 1 last year, Russian President Vladimir Putin mentioned for the first time the country’s efforts to develop a nuclear-powered unmanned underwater vehicle that can carry both conventional and nuclear warheads and is capable of destroying enemy infrastructural facilities, aircraft carrier groups and other targets.
The Russian president said at the time that the first submarine that would carry Poseidon underwater drones would be floated out in the spring of 2019. On the same day, Russia’s Defense Ministry posted the first video of the drone’s sea launch. Before that, the Russian president said on February 2 that the key stage of the Poseidon trials had been completed. A source in the defense industry later told TASS about the completion of the trials of the drone’s nuclear propulsion unit, which confirmed the weapon’s unlimited range capability and a speed of over 200 km/h.
Poseidon drones together with their carriers – nuclear-powered submarines – make part of the so-called oceanic multipurpose system. The drone got its name following the results of open voting on the website of Russia’s Defense Ministry.
A source in the defense industry earlier told TASS that the Poseidon drone being developed in Russia would be capable of carrying a nuclear warhead with a yield of up to 2 megatonnes to destroy enemy naval bases.
According to reported data, the Poseidon will feature an intercontinental range capability and an operational depth of over 1 km.
Poseidon to ‘cripple’ US missile shield
Russia’s Poseidon strategic underwater drone will frustrate US efforts to create the global missile shield and its sea component, retired Rear Admiral Vsevolod Khmyrov said in late February.
“The Poseidon will make it possible to frustrate all the US efforts to create the global missile shield system and, primarily, its sea component,” the rear admiral stressed.
It will be very hard for enemy defenses to detect and, all the more so, intercept seaborne drones, the rear admiral noted.
It is also very important that the Poseidon strategic underwater drone is hundreds of times cheaper than both the missile shield the US is deploying and American carrier striking groups, to which it will also pose a serious threat, the rear admiral said.
The Poseidon underwater drone has undergone a full cycle of bench tests, including the tests of its nuclear propulsion unit, and trials at sea ranges, he stressed.
The good thing about these weapons, is you could kill over half of the American population, and not have much atmospheric radiation.
yeah its a “good thing” to kill 180 million people! Now im starting to understand why u like china so much!
Funny how people LOVE Russian weapons but HATE and Degrade US weapons!
Bias much?
Any realists on this site or just haters like this fuckin commie, chinese, globalist lovin fuckwit Sinbad!
Wouldnt it be better if China lost half of its population Sinbad?? u dont think 1.3 billion is a bit much?? since you like millions to die…. wouldnt it be better if it was china that lost half (650 million people) than the usa losing (180 million)?
Because if we just changed it to China u could get another 470 milliion peple killed!
Ahhh yeah but i forgot…. u dont like the people who saved Australia from the Japanese…… ahh yeah i forgot ure a traitor!
i forgot u love communist China with a president for life, Digital spy grid (thats lawfull) who killed 80 million of its own in a communist revolution that starved its own supporters to death! Ahhh yeah i forgot u love those kind of people more than those other Americans who saved Australia!
hmmm yeah i forgot!
But i just thought that if u loved killing half a countries population….. wouldnt it be better to kill China’s???
i forgot how much of a FUCKIN CUNT TRAITOR COMMIE u are!
I’m Crazy?? YOU LOVE CHINA!!!! COMMUNIST, GLOBALIST, ZIONIST CREATED FUCKING CHINA!!!
U DIRTY FUCKIN ZIONIST RAT!
LEARN U RAT TRAITOR!!! LEEEEAARRNN!!!!!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NB5hH3ksvKE
….Do u see me now??
“Former Defense Intelligence Officer Pleads Guilty to Attempted Espionage Ron Rockwell Hansen, 58, a resident of Syracuse, Utah, and a former Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) officer, pleaded guilty today in the District of Utah in connection with his attempted transmission of national defense information to the People’s Republic of China. Sentencing is set for Sept. 24, 2019. ” https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/former-defense-intelligence-officer-pleads-guilty-attempted-espionage
Underwater drones are the way forward. I’ve predicted this for years. I’m sure (partially) submerged bases for these drones are also already being build to control strategic choke points to further negate the influence of US carriers. That’s probably the real purpose of those Chinese man made islands and why the US dislikes them so much. They aren’t ‘beached carriers’, they are MASSIVE static and partially submerged submarines. Launching pads for these drones can be towed and left by submarines anywhere in the world secretly. And from big ships openly. A bit like remotely operated anti-ship MANPADS.