The Russian Navy has a new super-submarine which is capable of destroying coastal cities.
The 600-foot long Belgorod weighs 30,000 tonnes and is equipped with six 80-foot long Poseidon nuclear torpedoes.
Its astonishing size makes the Belgorod the largest submarine to have been built in the last four decades, while the Poseidon is the largest torpedo ever built anywhere in the world and is twice the size of a usual submarine-launched ballistic missile, the Daily Star reports.
The destructive torpedoes are said to have a 100 megaton nuclear payload and are so powerful they could cause a gigantic tsunami and radioactive fallout, which would “create wide areas of radioactive contamination, rendering them unusable for military, economic or other activity for a long time”.
A report says the Poseidon torpedoes do not rely on satellites and the fact they can “literally go underneath missile defences make it a slow, but inevitable death”.
They will primarily be used as a nuclear deterrent.
When talking about his fleet’s subs a few months ago, President Vladimir Putin claimed they have “hardly any vulnerabilities” and carry a “massive nuclear ordinance”.
He added: “There is simply nothing in the world capable of withstanding them.”
Belgorod will also carry a Klavesin-29-M (also known as Harpsichord) autonomous underwater vehicle.
The super-submarine was delivered to the Russian Navy Northern Fleet’s headquarters in Severodvinsk on Friday, where Commander-in-Chief Nikolay Tevmenov revealed it would be used for “research and scientific expeditions”.
He said: “Belgorod opens new opportunities for Russia in holding various researches and helps carry out diverse scientific expeditions and rescue operations in remote areas of the world ocean.”
The ship was built at the Sevmash Shipyard in Severodvinsk, the largest shipbuilding operation in Russia and the handover comes after beginning it’s first sea trials last year reportedly under the secretive Main Directorate of Undersea Research.
In January this year, the Russian Navy said they would receive the sub with nuclear-armed drones on July 31 this year – which means the transfer is three weeks early.
It will be operated by the Russian Navy, but it’s missions will be controlled by Putin.
