Screenshot: youtube/megaprojects
Russia has reportedly completed the first batch of its new Poseidon nuclear weapon. Despite its gigantic destructive power, the projectile should primarily aim at the deterrent effect.
It is fired from a submarine and is then supposed to shoot automatically at a previously selected target – unstoppable, in up to a thousand meters of water and at speeds of up to 200 kilometers per hour. With a range of up to 10,000 kilometers. Its nuclear warheads could reach a yield of up to 100 megatons and trigger a radioactive tsunami.
At least that is the Russian information about the new nuclear weapon “Poseidon”. And they can – for the purpose of threatening scenery – also be exaggerated.
For comparison: the atomic bomb dropped by the USA on Hiroshima had a yield of between 12 and 16 kilotons.
Now Russia has, according to the state news agency Tass, again citing a source close to the Russian military, completed construction of a first batch of the monster torpedo. Accordingly, he should be in Russia’s new nuclear submarine Belgorod be used.
Nuclear explosive power could irradiate entire coasts
“Poseidon” is the NATO name for Russia Status-6 Oceanic Multipurpose System, a new type of underwater drone capable of carrying both nuclear and conventional warheads. It is said to be so big and heavy that the Belgorod can only carry six at a time. This would make the new weapon the largest torpedo ever developed and used by any country in the world.
If the information is correct, the explosive power of the Poseidon torpedo would actually be so great that the coasts of a continent could be irradiated for decades and made uninhabitable. “It’s an insane weapon in the sense that it’s probably as indiscriminate and deadly as a nuclear weapon can be made,” said Hans Kristensen, director of the Nuclear Information Project at the Federation of American Scientists.Business Insider».
On the Belgorod The Tass news agency reported last week that launch tests with dummy “Poseidon” had been completed. The aim of the tests was “to check the operation of the Poseidon launch system”. That was successful. This week it was said that the tests of the most important weapon components of the “Poseidon” weapon were also completed.
Maturity is in the stars
It is not clear when exactly the torpedoes will actually be ready for use. Because Moscow has been leaking information about the state of development for years.
“The project benefits from all the uncertainties and speculation. Poseidon is primarily a psychological weapon,” says Ina Holst-Pedersen Kvam, a researcher at the Norwegian Naval Academy «Barents Observer». A live ammunition test would then likely take place at a time when the potential deterrent effect was most needed.
As far as she knows, the first deliveries are not planned for 2027 at the earliest, according to Ina Holst-Pedersen Kvam. “But if the track record of Russia’s notoriously underperforming industrial-military complex is any indication, ‘Poseidon’ will likely reach operational maturity much later.”
