Mr. Sutton, a fairly well-known researcher of the topic of secret submarine warfare, sabotage submarine forces and means and submarines in general, both conventional and sabotage, the author of books and reference books on such products, published in Forbes a very interesting article about another " the light "associated with an" self-propelled underwater vehicle "of unlimited radius with a nuclear power plant" Poseidon "(believed to have the GRAU code 2M39) of the weapon system known as" Status-6 ". Or with one of the systems akin to Poseidon.
"Easter egg" on video
There were even publications on the site where the authors considered 2M39 a "hoax", "cutting money" or something far from reality. But this program is real and very close to its successful completion. And in general, wow "hoax", lasting (without ancestor programs) since the beginning of the 90s, according to which three submarines have already been built, of which two are nuclear-powered, at least 3 or 4 more will be built, and not only them! However, “a happy horseshoe does not care whether you believe in it or not - it works anyway,” as one clever man of Anglo-Saxon nationality used to say, so little depends on faith.
The article by Mr. Sutton is titled "Video suggests Russian Poseidon has a seabed-launched version." What video are we talking about? About the news item of the State Television and Radio Broadcasting Company "Pomorie" - the Arkhangelsk branch of the All-Russian State Television and Radio Broadcasting Company. The plot was released on the channel as early as June 4 this year - in any case, it appeared on the YouTube channel "Pomorie" just then ("Academician Alexandrov" at the final stage of testing). And until recently, this story had less than 400 views (now it is already under 1.5 thousand, which is also extremely small). It was not Sutton himself who found it, but a Twitter user. The plot told about entering the final stage of testing of the project 20183 "Academic Aleksandrov" oceanographic research vessel (OIS), freshly built on the Severodvinsk "Zvezdochka", built by order of the very same GUGI of the Navy.
"Zvezdochka" and nuclear academics
The vessel of the reinforced ice class with a displacement of 5800 tons is officially intended for research and scientific work on the shelf of the Arctic seas, to ensure the operation of Arctic marine equipment, and rescue operations in the Arctic. The OIS is capable of monitoring the areas of the fleet, testing areas, locations of potentially hazardous bottom objects, areas of economic activity, installing bottom navigation, control and measuring and other equipment in them.
The vessel's dual purpose allows for search and rescue operations, dredging, towing, installation and reloading of military and special equipment, inspection and recovery of sunken marine equipment, including objects posing a potential or actual environmental hazard. So, in any case, it is reported officially. But the very fact that the ship belongs to the GUGI is already suspicious. The vessel is the third sister ship in a series started by the Zvezdochka vessel, project 20180, initially declared as a "universal maritime transport of weapons", then re-qualified as an "ice-class rescue tugboat designed for search and rescue operations, support of tests of naval weapons and equipment" …Also, the vessel can conduct a search, survey of sunken objects, for which it carries on board a manned self-propelled deep-sea rescue vehicle of the Bester type and uninhabited types of Tiger and Quantum.
Serves "Zvezdochka" in the Northern Fleet, in the White Sea naval base. The next in the series was the "maritime transport of weapons" (MTV), project 20180TV "Akademik Kovalev", who left to serve in the Pacific Ocean, the third was the OIS of the project 20183 "Akademik Aleksandrov". The change in the figure is associated with import substitution and the replacement of a number of important ship units and systems with Russian ones. Soon the ship Akademik Makeev, project 20183TV (this is again MTV, but "import-substituted"), will be put on trial, with the expected commissioning date next year. And the fifth ship, "Akademik Laverov", has not yet been laid down.
As we can see, 4 out of 5 courts are named after undoubtedly great people related to each other by the same theme. It's about the nuclear missile shield and the sword of our Motherland. Academician Makeev was the general designer of naval strategic missile systems, who, in fact, created most of the domestic SLBMs. And the current Sineva-Liner R-29RMU2.1 SLBM is also a successor to the design of the Makeevskaya R-29RM, which V. P. Makeev did not see any more. Is that the R-30 "Bulava" stands alone, and even then, it would hardly have been created without Makeyev's baggage. Academician A. P. Aleksandrov is one of the creators of the USSR atomic project and an associate of the famous Boroda - Kurchatov; on his initiative, nuclear power plants were created for the first nuclear icebreaker "Lenin" and our first nuclear submarine K-3. And for the rest too, by the way. He was engaged in the topic of liquid helium and superconductivity, was the scientific supervisor of one of our most powerful reactors for nuclear power plants - RBMK-1000. Academician S. N. Kovalev is the permanent general designer of domestic SSBNs, starting with project 658 and up to project 941; 92 nuclear submarines were built according to his designs. Well, academician N. P. Laverov is also from the same galaxy - he did a lot to resolve issues with uranium ores and ensure the complete independence of our country in a strategically important issue (he did a lot of things, including even research on climate change and quite clearly proved that the so-called "global warming "- a myth, a fairy tale for fools and politicians).
"Product" at the stern. What is it?
But back to the plot and the OIS "Academician Alexandrov". In this plot, we see that at the stern of the ship, right in the cut of the transom, there is a huge "item", very similar to the "Poseidon" in both caliber and length. But earlier the ship was not mentioned in connection with the "Status-6" program, Sutton notes. Although the head "Zvezdochka" back in 2014, when there was still more than a year left before the first specially controlled discharge of the "Status", it participated in some tests of the "new weapon" in cooperation with the experimental submarine B-90 "Sarov", which is now known as a testing base for Poseidon and his friends. Mr. Sutton believes that the entire series of these vessels is probably associated with the Status-6 program, or with it and other top-secret projects under the patronage of the Navy's GUGI. And "Zvezdochka", in his opinion, quite coping with the tasks of catching the prototypes of the "Poseidon" after testing and delivering them to the coastal base, obviously, cannot cope with the more capacious tasks of the program. Therefore, it took an "oceanographer" with a large covered hangar on it, in which such weapons as "Poseidon" would fit. In addition, the "Akademik Aleksandrov" is equipped with a unique set of cranes, including a deep-water one, and a large deck cranes with a lifting capacity of more than 100 tons. It is believed by many, including Sutton, that the approximate weight of a 25-meter super torpedo with a caliber of about 1.5 m is located in this area. In addition, the video shows that the product can either move out from its position at the stern in the cutout of the transom into the water, or be taken out of the water. At the stern, it probably comes from the very hangar where it is being prepared for launch or serviced after returning.
Differences in the appearance of the product at the stern and the very presence of such a ship, Sutton explains by the fact that we see in the video not a Poseidon for the submarine's torpedo tube, but a different version of the products. The American believes that it is about the "Skif" (this mysterious product became known even before the appearance of the first fragmentary information about the "Status-6"). According to one of the versions, "Skif" - this is "Poseidon". According to another, this is the bottom version of "Poseidon", that is, in advance in a special period, it is placed from the side of the carrier somewhere on the bottom of the sea, from where, upon receiving an order, it starts to the target. Such a self-transporting torpedo mine, but vice versa. According to the third version, it is not a super torpedo, but a bottom launch ICBM (which pops up before launch in a transport and launch container to the surface). There are other versions as well. Sutton believes that we are talking about the second version - the bottom version of the giant torpedo. However, the idea of bottom rockets and even torpedoes itself contains a lot of reasons for criticism. For example, how to ensure the safety and integrity of products before the start? How to serve? And how to take the items back if they were not required (the war did not start)? All these issues, in principle, can be solved, but especially in the case of ICBMs, there are too many of them, and the game may not be worth the candle. It is easier with a torpedo, all the more so if the vessel is ice-class - it will be even more difficult for the enemy to find them in the Arctic than elsewhere, but there are also enough questions to which it is difficult to find answers.
Another version
As for the product (or model) at the stern of the Aleksandrov, maybe we are not talking about any bottom version (if it exists at all)? Maybe this is one of the versions of Poseidon, say, equipped not with various thermonuclear warheads of different (large or special) power, but equipped, for example, with search engines? A similar option was reported not so long ago, but as a peaceful one, but it may well be that the apparatus is simply being created to ensure the combat work of the Poseidon itself. Search for targets for striking vehicles hiding in the depths, control of smaller underwater search drones, and the like. This version seems to be quite adequate. Other options are also possible - we, after all, know little about all the potential capabilities of such devices and about the variety of its options.
There is one more question: why, in fact, such a "leak" of information about the appointment of "Academician Aleksandrov" was allowed? Perhaps, of course, this is an accidental puncture - they did not keep track of it. But with the topic of this level of secrecy, even after the disclosure of some of the general information on it, this seems unlikely, although it does happen. But, perhaps, it was just such a delayed leak (not very successful, because the information was found by random people and by accident), which should eventually get to someone on the table in Washington. To be smarter and more accommodating and not to act to the detriment of the United States, first of all, by its extremely ill-considered actions in the field of strategic stability, in particular, to extend START-3. And then suddenly some "leak" will happen, and absolutely someone with a heart will get sick on the Potomac. We still have a lot of things in the storehouse.
