The first Russian ‘doomsday’ submarine, armed with underwater nuclear drones, was put into active service in a ceremony Friday amid the country’s invasion of Ukraine.
The Belgorod, the first Project 09852 special purpose nuclear-powered submarine, was commissioned in the northern Russian city of Severodvinsk, the headquarters of the Northern Fleet, according to U.S. Naval Institute News. The ship was launched in April 2019 after its original commission date of late 2021 was postponed due to COVID-19, according to state news agency TASS.
RUSSIAN NAVY’S OLDEST SUBMARINE TO REENTER SERVICE AFTER REPAIRS
The Belgorod is the first submarine capable of launching the Poseidon, an “Intercontinental Nuclear-Powered Nuclear-Armed Autonomous Torpedo,” the largest torpedo ever created, according to naval expert H. I. Sutton. The nuclear-armed torpedo is twice as large as submarine-launched ballistic missiles and 30 times larger than a standard torpedo.
The weapons system made headlines in May when Dmitry Kiselyov, a presenter for state-owned media company Russia-1, threatened to use the Poseidon to destroy the United Kingdom and Ireland in a nuclear tsunami. He said the weapon’s 100-megaton yield would produce a 500-meter high radioactive tsunami that would turn the British Isles into a radioactive desert, a claim disputed by Western experts.
And another nuclear threat to the UK from Russian state TV’s Dmitry Kiselyov:
He says his country’s Poseidon nuclear underwater drone could cause a tsunami that would “plunge the British Isles into the depths of the sea” and turn them into a “radioactive desert” (with subs) pic.twitter.com/usElgqHeIG
— Francis Scarr (@francis_scarr) May 1, 2022
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The deployment of the massive submarine could mark an escalation in Russia’s war in Ukraine. As of Tuesday, Ukraine claims 36,350 Russian troops have been killed, and Russia says there have been 2,218 troops killed and 3,251 wounded in the Ukrainian armed forces. Both sides are incentivized to exaggerate the other nation’s damages.
