The Russian Navy’s submarine Belgorod has recently “disappeared” from Western tracking systems. The worrying thing is that Belgorod carries a massive nuclear weapon, a weapon capable of destroying an entire continent.
It is common for submarines of countries to go to sea, but this time it was “massively reported by the Western press”. Because of the “disappearance” of the Belgorod, known as the “doomsday” submarine of the Russian military.
And this nuclear submarine carrying nuclear weapons with a capacity of Gigatons, equivalent to millions of tons of TNT, once fired, will be enough to destroy an entire continent.
French news agency AFP on October 6 reported that a few days ago, the Belgorod nuclear submarine (K-329), which had only entered official service in the Russian Navy for a few months, “disappeared” under the tracking systems of modern American reconnaissance satellites.
Not long ago, a US satellite discovered that the submarine Belgorod had quietly disappeared from the Severodvinsk base in its home port; This has attracted great attention from the US side. After all, this is also the “doomsday submarine” of the Russian military.
The latest satellite images show that the “missing” Belgorod nuclear submarine appears as a ghost in the Barents Sea, north of the Kola peninsula and has been operating at sea for two consecutive days. It then disappeared into the depths of the ocean and with it was a Gigaton-class “Poseidon” nuclear torpedo.
It is reported that this is the first time the Belgorod submarine has left its home port and conducted activities on the seabed; however, its area of operation remains within the traditional Russian Navy’s area of control. Therefore, it is difficult to judge, whether Belgorod has made the first real combat deterrence journey or not?
It is worth mentioning that according to US intelligence information, the main task of the Belgorod submarine when sailing this time, is not a battle-ready cruise, but an unprecedented test of the “Poseidon” nuclear torpedo.
In 2020, Russia announced that it conducted a test of the Poseidon torpedo. However, at a time when relations between Russia and the US are highly tense, the Russian side’s test of this nuclear torpedo clearly has many political considerations, such as putting pressure on the US side and using deterrence measures.
Public information from the US website “NavalNews” shows that the Poseidon nuclear torpedo is a single-warhead nuclear weapon with the largest explosive equivalent of any human weapon in use. and it is equipped with a large nuclear warhead “the size of a bus”.
According to estimates by American scientists, the equivalent of Poseidon nuclear torpedo explosion is at least equivalent to 2 million tons of TNT and the maximum can exceed 100 million tons. So according to President Putin’s statement, it is one of “six new types of strategic nuclear weapons of Russia”.
The power source of the Poseidon nuclear torpedo is a small nuclear reactor, equipped with a new silent pump engine. Poseidon can travel tens of thousands of nautical miles at a depth of 1,000 meters underwater.
There is also an opinion that the warhead of the Poseidon nuclear torpedo is a cobalt bomb and its polluting ability is much stronger than that of conventional nuclear weapons. Likely only used for “second nuclear attacks”.
So, it can be said that once the Poseidon nuclear torpedo is fired, it will basically announce the arrival of a nuclear war of humanity, that is, the “doomsday” of mankind.
Fortunately for the Americans, there is currently only one Belgorod submarine in the Russian military that can carry this “doomsday weapon”, and its actual deterrence is still inferior to submarines carrying it.
But in the future, a new generation of Russian nuclear submarines is capable of carrying more “Poseidon”, two Khabarovsk-class nuclear submarines are under construction and will enter service as early as 2024.
When the Russian Navy will put two Khabarovsk-class nuclear submarines into service, the deterrent effect of this weapon on the Western world will escalate; and the “Russian obsession” with the United States, is likely to deteriorate even further.
However, from an international point of view, the stronger the nuclear deterrence of the Russian military is, the more beneficial it is to the relative stability of the international order, as the Russian military’s nuclear strategic strength offsets that as for the Russian military’s lack of conventional military power.
And it is this balance of power that makes both “nuclear superpowers” greatly reduce the desire to “provocate a global war”, so that nuclear war can be avoided for the safety of human civilization.