The Royal Navy has claimed that they have successfully detected one of Russia’s most secretive nuclear-powered submarine, which has been identified as a Project 855 Yasen sub.
The British Royal Navy announced that their warship and P-8A Posiden anti-submarine aircraft detected the russian submarine in the Northern Seas. This Yasen class submarine is capable of carrying a payload of upto 30 heavyweight torpedoes and 40 Long-range cruise missiles.
“The Submarine Hunter frigate HMS Portland observed the russian cruise missile submarine Severodvinsk and the attack submarine Vepr, as they made their southward journey along the Norwegian coast from the North Pole.”
The frigate HMS Portland followed the submarines after they emerged individually in the North Sea, northwest of Bergen, on July 16, before they headed to St. Petersburg to prepare for Russian Navy celebrations day.
HMS Portland and a Merlin Helicopter, equipped with state-of-the-art sonar system, advanced sensors, and underwater equipments for submarine search operations, closely followed the movement of the Russian submarines.
The Frigate HMS Portland afterwards allowed the Russian submarine to move normally because the ship crew did not take any actions that were judged to be dangerous. Even so, the discovery of the Yasen Class Submarine is still considered as a great achievement.
According to a report published by Naval News, the Russian Yasen Class submarines poses a serious threat to the Naval Forces of the NATO countries.
According to experts, although the Russian Yasen Class is similar in design to the United States Navy Virginia-class submarines, developed specifically for launching cruise missiles, but Russia’s newer large submarines have superior capabilities compared to American small and lighter submarines.
The Multipurpose Yasen Class Nuclear-powered Cruise Missile Submarines has the displacement of 14 thousand tons, with a speed of 65 kilometers per hour. The submarines of the Yasen-class are equipped with latest generation of nuclear reactor, which helps in reducing the submarine noise to a minimum level while in operation.
Yasen’s new technologically advanced “heart” makes it invisible to hydroacoustic navigation systems developed and used by the Western Countries. In addition, this new reactor helps to increase the submarine life to more than 30 years.
According to Submarines Expert, Mr. HI Sutton, “The Russian Navy Yasen Class Submarines are fearsome, loaded with massive amounts of ammunition, and are extremely quiet and undetectable. We were shocked when we realized that it cannot be detected by our surveillance and monitoring systems.”
Mr. Sutton also added information about the armament capacity of the Yasen-class subs, he said that the submarines can be loaded with two types of supersonic advanced anti-ship cruise missiles, the P-800 and Caliber.
Meanwhile, against the 72 missiles of the Yasen-class, the Virginia-class Block 5 varient, the most modern US Navy attack submarine has the capacity to carry only 66 missiles.
In addition, according to experts, Russia has also planned to equip the Yasen-class submarines with hypersonic missiles, before the US Navy.
Mr. Sutton said that most probably, Russia will soon deploy its Zircon Hypersonic Cruise Missile on the Yasen-class submarines. This missile has been tested on the submarine earlier, and is fully compatible with the Yasen-class subs. The missile has the top speed of more than Mach 8, this missile will easily outperform the American Harpoon Anti-ship Missile System.