How America and Russia’s Newest Submarines Stack Up

[vostok]

The United States and Russia are arguably the two dominant submarine powers on the planet. A natural question is how do their submarines stack up? A new article explains just how the U.S. Navy’s Virginia Block V and Russian Navy’s Yasen M submarine (top) compare. While the American subs carry more weapons, the Russian submarine has a bigger bag of tricks.

The navies of both countries have been rivals for decades, dating back to the end of the Second World War. The Cold War led to an underwater arms race between the two, with both sides racing to adopt nuclear power, guided torpedoes, and nuclear-tipped ballistic missiles. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Russia inherited the bulk of the USSR’s submarine fleet and undersea technology. As a result, while the U.S. builds some of the best nuclear powered submarines anywhere, Russia is not far behind.

Currently, as Naval News reports, the United States and Russia are both churning nuclear powered attack submarines. Russia’s shipyards are busy cranking out the Yasen M series, while America’s latest and greatest is the Block V series of the Virginia class. Russia launched its latest M series boat, K-571 Krasnoyarsk, on July 30. The first Block V, USS Oklahoma, is scheduled for completion in the early 2020s.

How will the submarines stack up in firepower? The longer but narrower Virginia-class subs can carry up to 66 weapons, divided between torpedoes and missiles in the torpedo room and missile silos located alongside the spine of the ship. The Virginia submarines can carry Mk. 48 ADCAP (Advanced Capability) heavyweight guided torpedoes for attacking ships and other submarines, plus Tomahawk Block V land attack cruise missiles. Tomahawk Block V is the latest iteration of the legendary cruise missile, adding anti-ship capability and the ability to receive course and target corrections in-flight.

The Virginias can carry a total of up to 40 cruise missiles at a time, six more than the Yasen M type, but have just four torpedo tubes. That means fewer torpedoes loaded and ready to fire in an engagement.

The shorter and wider Yasen M class, by contrast, is armed with up to 72 weapons divided between the ship’s missile silos and torpedo room. The Yasens carries UGST heavyweight torpedoes, 3M14K Kalibr subsonic cruise missiles, P-800 Onikssupersonic anti-ship missiles, and now Zircon anti-ship and land attack hypersonic weapons.

Only one of the two ships carries hypersonic weapons, but the Virginia-class submarines won’t be at a disadvantage for long. The U.S. Navy plans to put its new hypersonic weapon system on the Block Vs starting in 2025.

The United States and Russia Are Arguably the Two Dominant Submarine Powers on the Planet

Which military subs have the bigger bag of tricks?

www.popularmechanics.com

Yasen

Virginia

 

[FuturePAF]

Any indication Russia maybe selling technology developed for the Yasen/Yasen M (or the Borei Class) submarines to the Chinese for their new Type 095 designs? While China will say it doesn’t need help from the Russians, they don’t seem like they would turn down the help if they got it. The only questions would seem the willingness of the Russians, the level of technology transfer and the price they they would charge and if the Chinese are willing to pay that much; perhaps a commission for every sub China builds as a licensed copy. The added funds could help the Russians continue to fund their submarine program for decades to come, and could be a way for the Russians to keep the West alliance occupied with China while Russia does its business, although they maybe getting weary of helping the Chinese should they develop into a future threat.

This could be the Sino-Russian counter to the AUKUS deal. The Russians are still the only real near peer in submarines. As long as the Chinese don’t get this technology, the US navy will clean the PLAN’s clocks in an any sea battle, just with the Virginia boats.

yes the following is Binkov, but he explains the capabilities of the Russian subs in a decent way