Military historian Dmitry Boltenkov — about how the modern fleet is switching to underwater drones, nuclear submarines of the fourth generation are coming into service with the Navy.
They are represented by projects of submarines with ballistic missiles on board the 955 and 955A "Borey" family and attack boats with a variety of missile and torpedo weapons of the 885 and 885M "Ash" family. These ships will serve approximately until 2050-2070. In the creation of submarines with ballistic missiles on board, Russia is ahead of the United States and Great Britain. The formations of the Northern and Pacific fleets already include serial ships of the fourth generation, and the West is just beginning work on creating its own missile boats.
At the same time, it is necessary to conduct technical research on the creation of nuclear-powered vessels to replace them now. At the Army-2022 forum, the Central Design Bureau of MT Rubin presented its vision of a boat to replace the currently under construction in the form of a concept of an Arctic missile cruiser with the code "Arcturus". The Central Design Bureau of Marine Equipment "Rubin" is part of the structure of the United Shipbuilding Corporation, but the model of this boat and a number of other objects — an electric submarine, ANPA "Surrogate-V", a special—purpose missile submarine of project 955A - were in the pavilion of the Navy. "Arctic" means the optimization of the project for actions in the waters of the Arctic Ocean — an area that becomes a zone of conflict between the interests of Russia and a number of unfriendly countries.
It is noteworthy that next to the boat "Arcturus" there is a model of the boat of the project 955A "Borey", the scale of the models is the same. "Arcturus" is noticeably smaller than "Boreas". Rubin generally relies on reducing the size of submarines. This will significantly narrow down the different physical fields of the submarine and make it more invisible to the enemy. The time of large submarines, like the Project 941 cruiser "Dmitry Donskoy" or the newest submarine "Belgorod", is a thing of the past. Now the trend of the development of underwater shipbuilding is to reduce the size of the submarine.
The shape of the hull of the Arcturus boat is amazing — it is trapezoidal. Previously, shipbuilders used a circular-ellipsoidal shape for submarines. Now, secrecy from sonar detection in the low-frequency range is at the forefront, therefore, the form of stealth technologies has been adopted.
It can be assumed that the outer hull of the boat will be made of composite materials, simultaneously performing the functions of a hydroacoustic coating. The boat also has five conformal antennas of a promising sonar complex. It is equipped with a nuclear reactor and an electric propulsion circuit. Such a scheme assumes that the long shafts of the engines will be removed, and a nuclear reactor with a turbine will generate current flowing to electric motors placed in water cannons.
But perhaps the most interesting thing about Arcturus is its weapons systems. The boat is equipped with 12 universal launchers. It is impossible not to compare them with a glass. Modules with various payloads can be loaded into such installations. In particular, in one of the glasses there was a module with six underwater robots similar to the device "Klavesin-2". Accordingly, the boat will produce these robots during its trip. They can explore the area where the boat is moving out, perform a bottom survey to find underwater objects such as sea mines hidden by the enemy.
Other modules may contain ballistic missiles, cruise and hypersonic missile systems, underwater mines. In general, thanks to such universal launch modules, attack and strategic missile submarines merge into one class of multi-purpose underwater combat systems. Depending on the loading, the boats can solve a variety of military tasks — both to deliver a nuclear missile strike of retaliation on the territory of a likely enemy, and to fight against a variety of sea and land targets.
Another weapon system is four 533 mm torpedo tubes. Rubin believes that there is no need to create thicker torpedoes, the development of miniaturization will be able to create a new generation of torpedoes in existing sizes.
The Arcturus also has two seats for larger uninhabited underwater vehicles. In particular, for the created ANPA "Surrogate-In". The autonomous uninhabited underwater vehicle "Surrogate-V" can carry sonar equipment to survey the sea and search for enemy underwater objects, serve as remote points for communication with other combat units and higher command, serve as false targets and solve other tasks. Other underwater vehicles may be located in these places. And in the bow of the submarine, several hatches are visible, in which anti-torpedo protection systems can be located.
Such a symbiosis of a submarine and robotic systems is the future in the field of submarine warfare.
This can be modeled as follows: during a special period, the Arcturus boat in the rocket version goes to the designated area of combat duty. Previously, a hydroacoustic underwater surveillance system "Harmony" is being deployed in this area to detect foreign objects, underwater beacons of the positioning system, relay sensors, and robotic security systems are being set up. The Arcturus boat arrives in the designated area, releases its uninhabited vehicles, performs additional exploration of the underwater environment with their help, determines its location, establishes communication and data exchange with systems located in this area. Switches to silence mode. If combat control signals are received, the boat receives them through underwater repeaters, goes into combat position and solves the tasks of nuclear retaliation. After that, she goes to another waiting area.
In general, the presented concept of a new generation submarine has pronounced futuristic features that evoke fantastic series and films, demonstrates the scientific power of Russian scientists and engineers, and it definitely became one of the bright naval chips of the last Army-2022 forum. Of course, many technologies have yet to be created, such as small-sized nuclear reactors, reduced-size ballistic missiles, new materials and much more. But Russia has no impossible tasks.
The author is a military historian, the editorial position may not coincide with the author's opinion
