Officially, the first mission of the Russian nuclear submarine K-239, the Belgorod, is to “participate in the development of an underwater sensor network in the Arctic in order to improve Russian detection capabilities”, under the aegis of the General Directorate of Deep Sea Research of the Ministry of Defense (Gugi). The Russian shipbuilder has highlighted the Belgorod’s non-lethal capabilities, saying in July that it opened “new opportunities for Russia” to conduct “scientific expeditions and rescue operations in the most remote areas of the world ocean”.
But this nuclear submarine, capable of carrying overpowered torpedoes named Poseidon, could well have other functions, military and lethal. As explained The International Courierwhich reports the words of Western experts interviewed by the German daily Die Welt, other submarines could dock with the Belgorod while diving, thus being able to serve as a mobile support base.
With its 184 meters long, 18 meters wide and 9 meters high, the Belgorod is today the longest submarine in the ocean. Even more than the US Navy’s Ohio-class ballistic and guided missile submarines, which come in at 171 meters, CNN relief. Developed for nearly thirty years, the K-329, received by the Russian Navy on July 8, was launched in 2019. It left the Sevmash shipyard, on the White Sea, in Severodvinsk, Il was originally scheduled to be delivered to the Russian Navy in 2020 after trials and tests, but these were delayed by the coronavirus pandemic, according to Russian news agency TASS.
The Poseidon torpedo, “unique in the history of the world”
Die Welt indicates that the K-329 Belgorod, named after the Russian town located 35 kilometers from the Ukrainian border, is equipped to fire six Poseidon torpedoes, described by many defense specialists as “the Doomsday torpedo” or the “torpedo of the Apocalypse”. According to a report by the US Congressional Research Service (CRS) unveiled in April 2022, the Belgorod would even be capable of carrying up to eight Poseidons. “This nuclear ‘mega torpedo’ is unique in the history of the world”, wrote in March 2022 the American submarine expert HI Sutton. “It is the largest torpedo ever developed in any country.”
These Poseidon torpedoes would be 24 meters long, 2.5 meters in diameter and weigh around 100 tons. Equipped with nuclear propulsion and capable of being armed with an atomic warhead, these weapons would have a range of nearly 10,000 kilometers. Equipped with a nuclear charge, these machines could, in theory, strike coastal territories, triggering devastating tsunamis.
In November 2020, well before the outbreak of war against Ukraine, therefore, Christopher A. Ford, then Assistant Secretary of State for International Security and Nonproliferation, said that the Poseidon torpedoes are designed to ” flooding American coastal cities with radioactive tsunamis”. The CRS report specified that the Poseidon torpedoes are designed and manufactured as retaliatory weapons, to retaliate against an enemy after a nuclear strike on Russia.
However, the Poseidon should not be ready for deployment until the second half of the 2020-2030 decade, Hans Kristensen, director of the nuclear information project at the Federation of American Scientists, told CNN. The US Congressional Research Service has said it does not expect the Poseidon torpedoes to be deployed until 2027.
“A function above all media”
With of the Parisian, General Dominique Trinquand, former head of the French military mission to the United Nations, believes that the Belgorod nuclear submarine, of which “we do not know the nuclear capacity” and of which we do not know whether “it is a prototype, or even if it is functional”, has “above all a media function”. “Russia is accustomed to the fact that the presentation of this device is part of Moscow’s propaganda discourse, as they have been able to do in the past with other devices that we have not seen again. It is no more and no less than a new deterrent weapon in the Russian arsenal,” he explains.
For Vincent Groizeleau, editor-in-chief of Mer et Marine, a media specializing in maritime news, interviewed by The Parisian, the Belgorod is also “capable of carrying out special operations, such as deploying small nuclear submarines, in intelligence or sabotage missions”. The journalist mentions his ability to go “cut submarine electricity supplier or internet network cables, buried nearly 6,000 meters deep.”
According to US submarine expert HI Sutton, the Belgorod could also function as an intelligence-gathering platform. “It will be outfitted by the Russian Navy but operated by the Gugi, the secret organization of the Main Directorate of Deep Sea Research”, and will carry a range of submarines and submersibles “to carry out covert special missions”, he writes.