Page 7 - ADT SEPTEMBER - OCTOBER 2022 Online Magazine

torpedoes, other details on the vessel or its capabilities are sorely As the Russians get ready to put to sea these
lacking. He opined that the Khabarovsk could be the defining sub- new generation of attack submarines armed
marine of this decade. with long-range cruise missiles capable of
targeting European capitals from the North  SUBMARINE
Under the Russian State Armament Programme (SAP) 2027, Moscow Atlantic, the U.S. Navy puts its act together to
has begun a new phase of development of its armed forces, with a create a theatre anti-submarine warfare com-
focus on its potent submarine fleet. mand in the Atlantic.

SAP-2027 is expected to help finance the completion of six to seven
Yasen-M nuclear attack submarines as well as the modernisation of
four to six each of the Soviet-era Oscar- and Akula-class nuclear
attack submarines.

Currently, the Project 885M Severodvinsk-class cruise missile subma-
rines (SSGN) are at various stages of their construction at Russia’s
Sevmash Shipyard. The first Project 885M, also known as Yasen-M,
lead nuclear-powered submarine ‘Kazan’ was delivered to the
Russian Navy on May 7, 2021. Kazan was followed by ‘Novosibirsk’,
laid down in July 2013 and commissioned in December 2021. The
third-built Yasen-M submarine ‘Krasnoyarsk’ reportedly set out for
FIRE BENEATH THE ICE laid down in July 2014, is set for delivery late 2022.
its first sea trials in the White Sea recently. Krasnoyarsk, which was

The Project 885/885M submarines are armed with Kalibr-PL (SS-N-
27 Sizzler) and Onyx (SS-N-26 Strobile) cruise missiles as their basic
strike weapons. Russia is also looking ahead to its fifth generation of
attack submarines. The country’s design bureau Malakhit is report-
edly developing a new nuclear attack submarine, identified as the
Laika (Russian for ‘Husky’) class.

The construction of the first submarine for the new project is
expected to begin in 2023. Technical details of the Husky class are
not disclosed. A 2019 report by TASS noted that the Malakhit Design
Bureau had completed research work under the Husky code. Analysts
expect that the nuclear submarines of this project will be smaller
and cheaper than the ICSMs of project 885/885M.

The United Shipbuilding Corporation reported in 2017 that the
appearance and design of the Husky nuclear submarine will be com-
pleted within two years. United Ship-Building Corporation President
Alexei Rakhmanov had that said it would be “an absolutely different
submarine from the viewpoint of physical fields” to be “standardised
to combine key elements of strategic and multipurpose submarines.”

RUSSIA LOOKS AHEAD U.S. RESPONSE TO RUSSIAN SUBS

Russia is also developing two new types of nuclear submarines To counter the threat of Russian submarines, the
to replace its Project 949A Oscar-class and Project 945 Sierra- United States Navy plans to start procuring a
class vessels. Moscow is currently undertaking the overhaul and new class of nuclear-powered attack submarine
modernisation of the third-generation Project 971 (Akula class) nucle- called the NextGeneration Attack Submarine or
ar-powered attack submarines, Vladimir Dorofeyev, head of the SSN(X), in the mid-2030s. The U.S. Navy’s pro-
Malakhit Design Bureau, said. Currently, five Project 971 submarines posed FY2023 budget requests US$237.0 million
are undergoing modernisation and repairs. The Project 971 submarine in research and development funding for the
was developed by the Malakhit Design Bureau in the 1970s-80s as SSN(X) program. The SSN(X) would be the suc-
an alternative to the titanium-hull Sierra class vessels. The upgraded cessor to the Virginia-class SSN design, which
Project 971 submarines are expected to carry Kalibr-PL cruise mis- the Navy has been procuring since 1998.
siles. According to military observers the upgraded submarines will
be lethally dangerous for squadrons and aircraft carrying groups. Since 2011, the Navy has been procuring them
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