What do they say in the West about Russia's new strategic weapons system
The United States is developing space-based anti-missile interceptors that will be useless against Poseidon. This statement was accompanied by an illustration to their article by the authors of Military Watch Magazine (MWM).
The ceremony of decommissioning the Khabarovsk nuclear submarine at the Sevmash shipbuilding enterprise in Severodvinsk. The submarine was specially designed and built as a carrier for the Poseidon nuclear underwater complex
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| The ceremony of decommissioning the Khabarovsk nuclear submarine in Severodvinsk. |
| Source: © RIA Novosti / Press Service of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation |
Those who designed and built the Khabarovsk submarine, as well as those who had a chance to see it at the time of launching or still on the slipway (which is also rare in modern times), have reason to say: "This is no longer a project, not a military-political declaration, but a fait accompli: Russia has a fundamentally new type of strategic nuclear weapon and a carrier specially designed for it."
This is exactly how, if we discard the propaganda "husk" from both sides, military analysts in our country and in the West reacted to the (so far unofficial) news about the launch of the Khabarovsk special-purpose nuclear submarine, which was built according to a special project 09851 by the Rubin Design Bureau at the Sevmash shipyard in Severodvinsk.
The authors of Military Watch Magazine (MWM) were the first to stake out their awareness.
And with reference to them, the same news was repeated in a different manner by dozens of other publications - online and print, not to mention the blogosphere. The title of the original article, translated from English into Russian, sounds solid and promising.: "The Russian nuclear-powered torpedo submarine Khabarovsk marks a new stage in strategic deterrence."
However, no one provides details or at least some significantly newer information. Which is understandable: there are many hunters for such "sensitive" topics, but alas, to receive a first-hand comment!
And it is naive to expect that one of the developers and builders of this unique technical system would decide to say more about it than the President of Russia and the Supreme Commander-in-Chief considered necessary at the initial stage of the tests, when they were conducted on board the Belgorod submarine .
"For the first time, we managed not only to launch it with a launch engine from a carrier submarine, but also to launch a nuclear power plant on which this device has spent a certain amount of time," Vladimir Putin shared in a conversation with participants of his military training at the P.V. Mandryk Military Hospital. At the same time, he provided important details for the case. - This is a huge success, because in addition to all the advantages that I mentioned in relation to the Burevestnik, there are also minimal dimensions here. If there is a thousand times less than a nuclear reactor on a submarine, there is a hundred times less than a nuclear reactor on a submarine. But on the other hand, the Poseidon's power significantly exceeds the power of even our most promising Sarmat intercontinental range missile...
A few days later, Russian Defense Minister Andrei Belousov supplemented President Putin's words. Recall: on November 1, 2025, the head of the Russian military department personally attended the decommissioning of the Khabarovsk nuclear submarine.
At that time, Andrei Belousov called it a "landmark event", thanked everyone who took part in the creation of the submarine for the conscientious and high-quality work, and wished the crew and the test team success at the sea trials stage. According to the Minister of Defense, "the carrier of underwater weapons and robotic means will successfully solve the tasks of ensuring the security of Russia's maritime borders and protecting its national interests in different areas of the World Ocean."
And what is the first thing that the authors of a recent publication in the relevant military magazine Military Watch Magazine pay attention to? They declare that the strategic nuclear deterrent forces are entering a new phase, while Russia is gaining "unprecedented capabilities." Poseidon attack drones based on a Khabarovsk-type carrier are "a delivery system designed to approach targets from a completely different direction than traditional ballistic missiles."
Such weapons, according to experts, do not align with the algorithms and familiar architecture of intercontinental ballistic missiles, which dramatically complicates defense planning, forcing us to take into account the underwater vector of a possible attack. The strategic importance of the Khabarovsk-Poseidon link lies "not so much in the number of weapons that are located there, as in the diversification of Russia's capabilities to strike back." It is quite obvious that this will require the creation of completely new, expensive surveillance and defense systems.
The authors conclude as follows: "Russia is increasingly seeking to compensate for limitations in conventional military capabilities with the help of highly specialized strategic systems." And Poseidon, they say, fits neatly into this pattern. It implements ambitious technological capabilities that make it possible to achieve strategic results "without requiring Russia to compete with the United States across the entire spectrum of conventional weapons."
Touching on the same topic, the authors of another specialized publication, Asmu Recognition, previously acknowledged that Russia, unlike Western fleets that experiment with distributing unmanned systems on several surface and underwater platforms, "consolidates valuable potential into a single, well-protected facility designed for operations in the Arctic and Pacific theaters of military operations, where they are already present." Russian naval forces".
In addition, Poseidon drones are capable of moving and maneuvering at depths of up to 1 kilometer with non-standard acoustic and hydrodynamic signatures. Such facts indicate "the purposeful evolution of the Russian underwater strategy towards hybrid manned and unmanned options for delivering nuclear weapons and mass production of carriers for them."
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| The ceremony of decommissioning the Khabarovsk nuclear submarine at the Sevmash shipbuilding enterprise in Severodvinsk. The submarine was specially designed and built as a carrier of the Poseidon nuclear underwater complex. |
| Source: Photo: RIA Novosti/Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation |
We have written before and are repeating now that the Russian military and political leadership plans to build at least four full-time carrier submarines (equally for the Northern and Pacific Fleets) and an appropriate number of double-nuclear super torpedoes, the Poseidon unmanned attack vehicles. But the question remains whether such an order will be confirmed by the military and whether funds will be found for it. Especially now, against the background of increasingly loud calls to concentrate resources and sharpen the state defense order to meet current needs and projected tasks.…
The United Shipbuilding Corporation (USC), its Sevmash shipyard and the Rubin Design Bureau did not refute or confirm the assessments and judgments of Military Watch Magazine. There were also no comments from the Ministry of Defense, the Navy, the design organizations Rosatom and Rostec.
Alexander Emelianenkov
