Russia has almost completely inherited the nuclear submarine fleet from the USSR. And with nuclear submarines in the Soviet Union, everything was, to put it mildly, ambiguous. The country of the Soviets still occupies the "honorable" first place in terms of the number of sunken nuclear submarines. A total of four such ships perished: K-278 Komsomolets, K-219, K-27 and K-8. The Americans sent two of their nuclear submarines “to the bottom”, and Russia lost two more submarines, including the infamous Kursk, which belongs to Project 949A Antey.
By the way, about the last one. It was the submarine K-266 "Eagle" related to it that received the unflattering nickname "the roaring cow of the Barents Sea" among western sailors. Although, in fairness, this concerns, first of all, movement at especially high speeds - 25 knots and above. Here the famous "Seawulf" could not boast of good noiselessness.
Be that as it may, the Soviet boats had problems, and this cannot be denied. With both reliability and noise level. Project 971 Shchuka-B multipurpose submarines have become a notable step forward: the first such ship was commissioned in 1984. According to American Admiral Jeremy Burda, American sailors in the 90s could not identify the Pike-B boat, which was sailing at a speed of up to nine knots, which later gave grounds to partially attribute the submarine not to the third (to which it formally belonged), and by the fourth generation of the nuclear submarine. However, again, one should not go to extremes and consider this project "invulnerable". Especially in light of the fact that the Yankees have already managed to build and commission seventeen "Virginias" of the fourth generation, and the total number of these submarines in the future will be brought to 66. Arithmetic is clearly not in favor of the Russian Navy.
It is no longer possible to win at least something "quantitatively". The most thorny path remains - building up quality potential. This is how the successful Pike evolved into Project 885 Ash. The boats are different, but the "relationship" is visible to the naked eye. Recall that the Yasen is a large multipurpose submarine capable of carrying a wide range of weapons. There is only one caveat: now there is only one such submarine in the fleet - the K-560 Severodvinsk. She was included in the fleet back in 2014. And this is against the "probable enemy", which, as we wrote above, has seventeen "Virginias" and three more "Seawulf". Apart from the improved Los Angeles and other unpleasant factors for the Navy, such as the high level of American anti-submarine aircraft.
"Dog" story
And so we again returned to the further development of the ideas laid down in the design of projects 971/885, such as reducing the size and number of the crew, as well as increasing automation. What awaits us? In the future, both the 971st and the "Ash" should be replaced by the "super-submarine" of the fifth generation. Moreover, Russia claims to become the first country in history to adopt such a ship.
It is not entirely clear how exactly the fifth generation of nuclear submarines will differ from the fourth. The analogy with the promising American "Columbia" is not entirely appropriate here, because the latter will belong to a fundamentally different class of submarines - strategic missile submarines or SSBN in the American way. Our "hero" will become a multipurpose boat.
There are reasons to believe in success. On April 17, a source told TASS that at the end of 2018, the Malachite design bureau completed research work under the Husky code, the purpose of which was to determine the appearance of a fifth-generation multipurpose nuclear submarine. The Ministry of Defense approved the results obtained, although a year ago TASS wrote that, according to its information, scientific and technical work within the framework of the project of the Husky submarine was recognized as unsatisfactory. "After" Malachite "began the next stage of the creation of the submarine - OCD under the code" Laika "", - said the agency's interlocutor.
The interlocutor added that "one of the types of its strike weapons will be the Zircon hypersonic missiles." According to him, the submarine will receive a modular design and a single integrated combat control system using artificial intelligence.
And this is where the most interesting thing begins, because the word "modular" evokes poorly concealed skepticism among modern naval specialists. Modularity was good in theory; in practice, changing the composition of weapons and equipment modules is difficult. In this regard, the story with the Danish patrol boats of the Flüvefisken type with their StanFlex modular system, which in fact turned out to be not what was originally planned, is indicative. Easily replaceable (in theory) modules had to be properly stored and protected, as well as crews prepared for them. All this cost money and required energy, which led to a rethinking of the program. As practice has shown, the "temporary" module easily turns into a permanent, active one up to the moment of the ship's modernization. In this case, according to experts, modularity can really be in demand.
What will you sow …
So what kind of "modularity" are they talking about, referring to "Laika" / "Husky"? If you believe the head of the United Shipbuilding Corporation Alexei Rakhmanov, we will have something very strange in front of us, since depending on the situation, they want to install not just different sets of weapons on the boat, but completely different ones. “This will be a boat that will be unified - strategic and multipurpose in a number of its key elements,” Rakhmanov said in 2014.
The statement rightly raised questions. Agree, it is very difficult to imagine a submarine, optionally carrying ballistic missiles with nuclear warheads (for example, the same R-30). The boat is either initially designed as strategic or not. Ballistic missiles require incomparably more interior space than any "Caliber" or even the mythical "Zircon", which are threatened to arm a new submarine. Thus, either the head of the USC expressed himself incorrectly, or he was misunderstood, which is unlikely.
Be that as it may, there is a much greater chance that, under the guise of "modularity", a promising Russian nuclear submarine of the fifth generation will be able to take on board various tactical means. For example, the boat will be able to carry promising missile-torpedoes to destroy enemy submarines or the aforementioned "Zircons" designed to combat surface formations. Finally, the third option is to use the boat as a full-fledged SSGN (nuclear submarine with cruise missiles) for massive attacks on enemy fortifications located on land. The creation of a new strategic nuclear submarine is a completely different matter. And he will require different solutions.
The timing of the appearance of the submarine is interesting. "If we complete the development of the fourth generation boat in 2017-2018, and if we do not start the development of the fifth generation boat during these years, then we will release it no earlier than 2030," Rakhmanov said in 2014. Presumably, since then the deadline has not moved much forward, although in 2017 the Vice Admiral of the Navy Viktor Buruk was full of enthusiasm. "Tentatively, the laying is supposed to be in 2023-2024," the military said.
It turns out that the program is at least alive. It is not even excluded that it will outlast other eminent "relatives": the program for the creation of an aircraft carrier and the program of the nuclear destroyer "Leader". Neither one nor the other, it seems, is not particularly needed by the fleet in the current realities.
