Photo: Barents Observer/Oleg Kuleshov
Its name is Belgorod. It is a 184 meters-long (603 feet) metal monster capable of carrying underwater drones that can sneak up undetected on enemy shores and nuke them. And it’s seaworthy.
On Tuesday, during a visit to a military shipyard in St. Petersburg, Russian president Vladimir Putin witnessed on TV how 600 miles away, at another shipyard in Severodvinsk, the longest nuclear submarine in the world was launched.
Called Belgorod, or KS-139, the monster uses a hull initially intended for an Oscar II class submarine that was never completed. According to Barents Observer, what came out at the end of the building process is a ship 29 meters (95 feet) longer than other Oscar II class subs.
And it’s big enough to be something not unlike the submarine of the SeaQuest DSV TV series of the 1990s.
The Belgorod is capable of carrying a host of other mini-submarines and drones. The scariest of them all is the Status-6, or Poseidon, a drone able to carry nuclear weapons up to 200 megatonnes right near enemy ports and coastal cities.
According to available information, if Poseidon is launched from the Belgorod, it can cross entire oceans at enough depth (1 km, 0.6 miles) and with so little noise as to make it virtually undetectable.
The new submarine is not complete yet, as work is scheduled to continue as it sits in the water well into next year - the official launch date is sometime in 2021. Yet, it will likely send shivers down the spines of defense departments across the globe.
For a number of years now Russia has been pushing for the modernization of its armed forces, and several times in the past Putin previewed unstoppable weapons from an apocalyptic future.
The launch of the Belgorod, even if it is yet incomplete, marks yet another important step made by Russia toward becoming the nemesis the U.S. once knew and feared.
Called Belgorod, or KS-139, the monster uses a hull initially intended for an Oscar II class submarine that was never completed. According to Barents Observer, what came out at the end of the building process is a ship 29 meters (95 feet) longer than other Oscar II class subs.
And it’s big enough to be something not unlike the submarine of the SeaQuest DSV TV series of the 1990s.
The Belgorod is capable of carrying a host of other mini-submarines and drones. The scariest of them all is the Status-6, or Poseidon, a drone able to carry nuclear weapons up to 200 megatonnes right near enemy ports and coastal cities.
According to available information, if Poseidon is launched from the Belgorod, it can cross entire oceans at enough depth (1 km, 0.6 miles) and with so little noise as to make it virtually undetectable.
The new submarine is not complete yet, as work is scheduled to continue as it sits in the water well into next year - the official launch date is sometime in 2021. Yet, it will likely send shivers down the spines of defense departments across the globe.
For a number of years now Russia has been pushing for the modernization of its armed forces, and several times in the past Putin previewed unstoppable weapons from an apocalyptic future.
The launch of the Belgorod, even if it is yet incomplete, marks yet another important step made by Russia toward becoming the nemesis the U.S. once knew and feared.
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