A few months ago, Vladimir Putin described the West as Russia’s true enemy in the war against Ukraine. Since then, the Russian president has sent several signals that his country has no intention of backing down from its warlike intentions. As the US described in its 2022 Nuclear Posture Review, Russia “continues to expand and diversify its nuclear capabilities, to include novel and destabilizing systems.”
A few days ago, the Russian Army surprised the world by announcing Poseidon, the largest torpedo ever built that runs on a nuclear propulsion engine. Some experts describe it as a new category of retaliatory weapon, capable of unleashing radioactive tsunamis into the ocean and destroying coastal cities.
The “weapon of the apocalypse”. The Poseidon has its roots in Josef Stalin’s Soviet plans to develop a nuclear torpedo that would be capable of devastating the coastlines of the United States. In a 2018 speech, Putin said that the range of such a torpedo would be unlimited and that it could operate at extreme depths at speeds many times the speed of any submarine or other torpedoes. “They don’t make noise, they have great maneuverability and they are practically indestructible to the enemy. There is no weapon in the world today that can counter them,” he said.
According to TASS, this batch of Poseidon underwater autonomous drones is intended for use on Russia’s new nuclear-powered Belgorod submarine, which we have discussed in detail on Xataka.
The biggest torpedo in the world. In reality, we know little about this mysterious weapon and its capabilities. According to Russian sources and Western intelligence agencies, it is huge. It weighs more than 90 tons, has a diameter of 2 meters and a length of more than 18 meters. In fact, it is so large that the Belgorod can only carry six units. This makes it the largest torpedo ever developed and deployed in the world. And it’s not just the size that makes an impact on this weapon, it’s also its speed. It can cover distances at a speed of 200 km/hour.
Furthermore, it can carry nuclear warheads and is designed to attack aircraft carriers and coastal installations. Some observers have referred to the Poseidon as a “doomsday” system because it is said that its enormous charge could unleash a radioactive tsunami, destroying everything in its path. However, there is no guarantee that it will work.
Nuclear propulsion, the novelty. Both Poseidon and Skyfall use nuclear powered engines. It’s a weapon idea that the US also tried in the 1960s, but abandoned after concerns about radioactive emissions from the engine. That means that unless Russia has developed a new type of engine protection, there is a chance that its weapons will spew radioactive material in their path once fired.
And let’s not forget that Russia has already had more than one mishap due to the use of this energy. In 2019, a nuclear accident at a Russian facility in the Arctic killed 7 people. Moscow said the accident was the result of the explosion of a small nuclear reactor. The evidence, however, indicated that the Kremlin was testing a Skyfall missile and something went wrong.
An Arsenal of Ultimate Weapons. Poseidon is one of Russia’s six experimental “super weapons”, which also include the Sarmat intercontinental ballistic missile, the Avangard hypersonic glide vehicle, the Burevestnik nuclear-powered cruise missile, the Kinzhal air-launched ballistic missile, and the hypersonic anti-ship Zircon.
It is true that some of these systems have turned out to be less destructive than the Russian authorities exaggerated, while others are still in tests, which have sometimes not gone well and in others have even been deadly. A Burevestnik test ended with an explosion that killed several people working on the project. It’s unclear how development of the Poseidon has progressed thus far.