05.01.2019, Moscow.
The new Russian Poseidon strategic drone will have a speed of more than 200 km/h, TASS reports on January 4, citing a source in Russian defense industry.
According to the agency, the Poseidon, which will be launched from a carrier submarine, will be able to reach speeds of over 110 knots and travel at a depth of over a thousand meters. Just like its predecessor, the Shkval torpedo, the new underwater drone will travel, or rather fly, in a “gas bubble”, or supercavitation, filled with steam.
According to the source, having left the carrier, the drone “will continuously maneuver along course and depth, which, taking into account the speed and maximum operating depth of more than 1 km, makes it impossible for any potential adversary to attack the drone with any existing means”.
Notably, the operational depth of about a thousand meters allows the drone to dive below the thermocline, an oceanic water layer at which water temperature decreases rapidly and object detection from the ground, air or space becomes very difficult.
In the summer of 2018, the Popular Mechanics magazine website called Poseidon the apocalypse torpedo, and also reported about some of its other features: more than 19 meters in length and almost two meters in diameter. The drone, equipped with a two megaton warhead, is capable, according to the authors, of crossing oceans, destroying coastal cities, naval bases and aircraft carrier groups, as well as causing tsunamis.
The new drones are expected to enter service no later than 2027. The Sarov-class submarine is expected to be its carrier. Experts consider Poseidon to be a “retaliation weapon”, guaranteed to cause unacceptable damage to a country that has committed a nuclear attack on Russia.
Source: Rossa Primavera News Agency
