Against the background of the just concluded agreement on the extension of the START-3 treaty, experts in the field of arms control, as well as the creators of strategic systems themselves, react very painfully to the stuffing of information and the publication of dubious, anonymous sources, information about what programs are being built in Russia, prepared for adoption or already put into combat.
Such news-irritant, to say the least, was the report of a well-known news agency about the third carrier ship of underwater drones "Poseidon", which is allegedly being built in Russia. Moreover, it is being built secretly, under the guise of another submarine, which was openly laid down in July 2017 as a serial, sixth in a row, submarine of the modernized project "Ash-M".
Here is a direct quote from the news feed: "This is the younger brother of the submarine "Khabarovsk" project 09851. It has the same basic dimensions, but differs from Khabarovsk in that it will use more modern systems and mechanisms." And it is further stated that this is a special-purpose submarine, that it is being created under project 09853 and that "it will be transferred to the Navy under the current State Armament Program until 2027, along with underwater vehicles, which will also complete state tests by that time." But unlike the first two carriers of nuclear supertorpedoes (recall: this is the submarine "Khabarovsk" and "Belgorod"), the third " will be delivered as a single complex together with the means of destruction."
Repeated twice in January, this message with reference to anonymous (as is usual in similar cases) sources "in the shipbuilding industry" has not received any other confirmation to this day. But it caused silent surprise among those who designed this ship and who have been building it for three years.
We are talking about the multi-purpose nuclear submarine "Ulyanovsk" of project 08851, which was laid on the Sevmash slipway on July 28, 2017. As it was announced that day by officials, it continues a series of upgraded fourth-generation nuclear submarines "Ash-M", designed in the St. Petersburg MBM "Malachite".
According to the original (basic) project 885 "Ash", the lead submarine "Severodvinsk"has been built and is already serving in the Northern Fleet. The next "Kazan", laid with a large margin in time (after 16 years), was already built according to the new deeply modernized project "Ash-M". And taking into account the new systems and equipment introduced on it, it became the head for the line of ships that follow it - "Novosibirsk", "Krasnoyarsk", "Arkhangelsk", " Perm"…
Last fall, "Kazan" passed the final stage of the state tests with rocket firing. And now this submarine is "at the stage of finishing and revising the mechanisms, "USC President Alexey Rakhmanov told Interfax. To colleagues in RIA Novosti, he also clarified: "Readiness for the delivery of "Kazan" - February 26. From February 26, the ship will finish all the finishing, revision of all units and mechanisms based on the results of the tests."
As for the other submarines that are in the busy program of this year, including the tests of the already launched Belgorod and Novosibirsk, the withdrawal from the slipway of the Khabarovsk submarine, the head of the USC did not detail anything. As well as to talk about the new-old purpose of "Ulyanovsk".
And Mikhail Budnichenko, general director of Sevmash, where all these ships are being built, confirmed to RIA Novosti on February 17 that the creation of the newest series of submarines of the Yasen-M project is "on schedule, agreed with the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation." The nuclear-powered submarines Krasnoyarsk, Arkhangelsk and Perm are at different stages of slipway work, Budnichenko explained. According to him, another submarine of this project - "Ulyanovsk" - is also on the slipway. Work on it is also on schedule, concluded the general director of the shipyard.
Even earlier, the press service of "Sevmash", where" RG "asked for clarification, made it clear that they did not have information about the" new purpose "of the submarine"Ulyanovsk". Similar was the response and representatives SPMDB "Malahit" - citing "Commemorative certificate tab nuclear submarine "Ulyanovsk", which is issued at the time of the laying of the ship and stored in the design office.
"For us, he is" Ash " - this, if we sum up, was the general reaction.
Literally
The current commander-in-chief of the Navy, Admiral Nikolai Evmenov, while still in the position of commander of the Northern Fleet, said the following about the submarine "Ulyanovsk"::
- It is very important that the command of this particular ship includes the residents of the Ulyanovsk region, so that what is now being formed - both the ship itself and the crew-bears this spirit, so that it is not just a name on board…
It will not be so that one hundred percent of the crew is only from Ulyanovsk, but the backbone, I believe, should be from this city... Now we have time to work in naval schools and talk with those guys who entered the school from military enlistment offices, from conscription, but are from the Ulyanovsk land. Look at them, look at them, because every cadet dreams of getting on a new ship…
The most complex technical structure created by human hands is a nuclear submarine… Therefore, the construction is not a matter of one year.
Alexander Emelianenko
