Russia to form special submarine division for carrying nuclear-capable super torpedo Poseidon

New Delhi: Russia intends to create a division of special-purpose submarines that will be a part of its Pacific Fleet and carry Poseidon nuclear-capable torpedoes by the end of 2024 or first half of 2025, according the Russian news agency TASS.

Four years after President Vladimir Putin announced the fundamentally new type of strategic nuclear weapon, Russia announced in January that it had produced the first batch of Poseidon torpedoes and confirmed it would have its own nuclear power source.

On the Kamchatka Peninsula, home to the ballistic nuclear missile submarine base for the Russian Pacific Fleet, Russia announced in late March that the coastal infrastructure for the submarines carrying the Poseidon torpedoes would be finished.

According to an unnamed defence source quoted by TASS, “the decision to form a division of special-purpose nuclear submarines in Kamchatka has been made. We’re referring to the end of 2024 or the beginning of 2025.”

Poseidon and its roots

Russian President Vladimir Putin in 2018 first revealed what would later be known as Poseidon, describing it as a fundamentally different kind of strategic nuclear weapon and announcing that it would have its own nuclear power source, according to Reuters.

The Poseidon is a cross between a torpedo and a drone that can be fired from a nuclear submarine, though there aren’t many confirmed details about it in the public domain.

It is a new class of retaliatory weapon that can cause radioactive ocean swells to make coastal cities uninhabitable, according to both US and Russian officials.

According to TASS, the main parts of Poseidon, including the nuclear reactor that will serve as the torpedo’s independent power source, have been successfully finished.

The Poseidon was inspired by Soviet plans under Joseph Stalin for a nuclear torpedo that could annihilate American coastlines.

Putin claimed in his speech from 2018 that the torpedo’s range would be limitless and that it could operate at great depths at a speed that would be many times faster than any submarine or other torpedoes.

According to Reuters, the Russian President said, “They are very low noise, have high maneuverability and are practically indestructible for the enemy. There is no weapon that can counter them in the world today.”

With inputs from agencies

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