Russia: Pr.09851 Khabarovsk Class Submarine

[covert_shores]

From http://www.hisutton.com/Khabarovsk-Class-Submarine.html

When Russia embarked on the path of introducing a completely new category of nuclear weapon, the gigantic Poseidon drone torpedo, they had to create a whole new category of submarine to carry it. In a move that harks back to the Cold War, the Russian Navy is quietly building a fleet of these submarines. The first dedicated boat, Khabarovsk, is expected to enter the water next year. The existence of the “Project 08951” submarine has never been a secret, but it is barely talked about in Russian sources. Gradually, from the few sources and old-fashioned analysis, a picture has emerged. Khabarovsk will likely share a lot of elements of the BOREI / BOREI-II Class Ballistic Missile Submarine (SSBN). This should reduce cost and also make it more stealthy than many other submarines in service with the Russian Navy. The forward half will be taken up by the six ginormous Poseidon drone torpedoes.

 

[merriman]

We better wake up fast and work to negate these harbor killers. The cold-war is still very much on in some theaters.

David

 

[Brickmuppet]

With sufficient interceptors we can almost, but not quite negate ICBMs. We're not going to negate a submarine lobbing a torpedo into a harbor. Even with massive asw forces around our biggest harbors, a salvo of six 80 knot torpedoes is going to be very hard to stop in total. I also think that it is possible that this thing has a "quiet" mode where these big torpedoes /drones move slowly and quietly until their final dash and boom. 4 boats firing full salvoes into Norfolk, King's Bay, Bremerton, Pearl Harbor, & New York would almost certainly have at least one each get through and really miss things up. Of course they might divide their salvoes and aim a few at other harbors. If one goes off in the Houston shipping channel, the U.S energy sector gets clobbered. Depending on the yield of these things, (I've heard estimates from 2 all the way up to 100+ megatons) one going off in SanFransico Bay takes out a huge chunk of the U.S. tech sector. An admittedly unlikely shot up the Mississippi could take out the nations internal freight network and irradiate the nations breadbasket.

Shoot. If they just fired all 24 into the mud on the West Coast, they could irradiate the whole country (and a good chunk of Canada) via the jet stream. And still have the largest nuclear arsenal on earth in reserve.

I don't think they would, but this is an impressive deterrent and this sort of thing really only works for Russia and possibly China, because of the jet stream. China has lots of ports, and industry concentrated on the coasts, but detonating huge nuclear ground bursts in Chinese Harbors mostly irradiates US Allies. Russia is mostly a land power and its power projection mostly consists of ICBMs and bombers that wouldn't be affected by this. The US really gains nothing by having something like this nightmare weapon in its arsenal.

 

[covert_shores]

Yes, it seems to be a very Russian weapon, not something anyone else will look to emulate. Stopping it will be very hard. Some thoughts from a while ago http://www.hisutton.com/Countering_Russian_Poseidon_Torpedo.html

 

[styx]

in my opinion the main function of the poseidon is to constraint in defensive posture US asw forces (near continental mainland) in event of war so russian submarines can easily wreck havoc on allied navies. Very intelligent move

 

[Foo Fighter]

A successor to the Squall torpedo? Certainly something to disrupt any carrier BG around with a nuclear warhead.