And what tasks will its unmanned underwater vehicles performOn September 1, the opinion of a military expert, former US Army officer Brent Eastwood, about the capabilities of the Russian Navy was published in the American media.
According to him, the Russian Federation has powerful underwater forces. And the newest nuclear submarine, which joined the fleet in July, the BS—329 Belgorod special purpose submarine of project 09852, poses a special threat to America. About what role the unique Belgorod plays in the development of domestic submarine forces, read in the Izvestia material.
Without analogues
The Belgorod submarine was developed by the Rubin Central Design Bureau by order of the Main Directorate for Deep-Sea Research (GUGI) of the Russian Ministry of Defense and built by the Sevmash production association in Severodvinsk. It is believed that today the Belgorod is not only one of the most unusual submarines, but also the largest combat submarine in the world. Its length is 184 m, which is 12 m more than that of the largest submarine missile carriers of the 941 Typhoon project. But the main features of Belgorod are not in its size, but in its equipment and purpose.
The building of JSC "Sevmash Production Association" in Severodvinsk, where the launching of the Belgorod nuclear submarine took place
Image source: Photo: RIA Novosti/Pavel Lviv
Everyone remembers the unique underwater weapon system, which was first announced in the President's address to the Federal Assembly on March 1, 2018, the 2M39 Poseidon complex. It is also called a giant thermonuclear torpedo. In fact, Poseidon is an intercontinental robotic complex with a nuclear power plant. And this is more than a torpedo — an autonomous underwater vehicle that can operate under a complex program for months or even years at a distance of thousands of kilometers from native territorial waters and at almost any depth.
The main purpose of such a combat system is to ensure the destruction of large coastal and naval targets with powerful thermonuclear warheads — from squadrons of ships to naval bases, coastal territories and megacities. Relatively speaking, the explosion of a megaton charge in coastal waters can create a new Panama Canal on the site of a particular area. At the same time, Poseidons can be somewhere on the bottom of the World Ocean for years on combat duty in the waiting mode for receiving an order, but they can also be used for the purpose from special carrier submarines here and now.
It is expected that the combat carrier of the future weapons system will be the submarines of the project 09851 Khabarovsk currently under construction at the Sevmash software. Each of them will carry six Poseidon launchers. But before Khabarovsk and its younger brothers join the fleet, the weapons system must be tested, learn how to use it and turn it from an advanced experimental model of equipment into a real weapon. To fulfill these tasks, the BS-329 Belgorod special purpose boat is designed, which will become the first experimental carrier of the 2M39 Poseidon underwater complex.
Testing of the carrier submarine of the Poseidon unmanned complex
Image source: Photo: RIA Novosti/Press Service of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation
In 2012, the Ministry of Defense signed a contract for the construction of an experimental submarine of project 09852. The unfinished hull of the Belgorod project 949A submarine was taken as a basis, which remained in Severodvinsk among the unfinished "killers of aircraft carriers". The construction of several boats of that project was frozen in the 1990s. The hull of the ship was significantly modified to meet the requirements imposed by promising weapons systems and equipment for them. The peculiarity of the Belgorod is that it is intended not only for Poseidons, but also serves as a carrier of deep-sea habitable and autonomous uninhabited underwater vehicles.
Belgorod is a unique underwater platform that allows conducting diverse scientific research in remote areas of the ocean, installing various underwater equipment or inspecting and replacing previously installed underwater complexes. The most important thing is that under the bottom of the Belgorod there is a special docking compartment for the placement of nuclear deep—water stations — a type of submarines that are only in the Russian navy and that can perform missions at almost any depth in the area where they are delivered by special large carrier boats.
For all occasions
One can imagine what possibilities such a submarine as the Belgorod can have. Firstly, the testing and use of Poseidon combat underwater drones in any area of the World Ocean. Secondly, the maintenance of "Poseidons" located somewhere at the bottom in the duty mode, using special small-sized unmanned vehicles. Thirdly, the operation of an ocean autonomous warning system about an underwater attack, which theoretically can be deployed on the Russian continental shelf. The objects of such a system will need to be installed, maintained, and the energy sources of such a system will need to be updated. And then Belgorod with its drones will be irreplaceable. Finally, fourthly, the possibility of using a nuclear deep-water station will also allow Belgorod to carry out any special missions on the ocean floor — from reconnaissance to research.
Photo: commons.wikimedia.org/FriskyAnYantos
Image source: iz.ru
On December 20, 2012, at Sevmash Workshop No. 55 in Severodvinsk, the unfinished submarine K-329 Belgorod was re-mortgaged according to project 09852, and work began on the creation of the world's first underwater carrier of combat drones. In April 2019, the boat was taken out of the workshop and later launched for completion and subsequent testing. A little over a year ago, on June 25, 2021, the Belgorod left Severodvinsk for the first time, going on sea trials in the White Sea. And finally, on July 8, 2022, a special boat, so far without testing the main armament complex with unmanned nuclear submarines "Poseidon", was transferred to the fleet.
Now Belgorod will be a test bed for Poseidons, with which they will have to work out transportation, launch, control, guidance. Of course, Poseidons will not only carry a powerful thermonuclear warhead, but they can also learn to perform many completely peaceful functions — from reconnaissance and monitoring to observations in the interests of science and cargo transportation. But so far we only know about the military use of a new type of underwater systems. And as a nuclear weapon system, Poseidons will be tested on Belgorod and will be deployed later on Khabarovsk-type boats.
It is already known that the Khabarovsk boats will be based on both the Northern and Pacific fleets. The adoption of the combat system into service will definitely happen only after the test program is completed — too new and too complex a combat system is obtained. It can be assumed that such tests will take 3-5 years. And all these years, their first carrier will work with the Poseidons — the special BS-329 Belgorod nuclear submarine, which today really has no analogues either in the domestic fleet or abroad.
Dmitry Kornev