Penguin
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Type 65-76 torpedoKHABAROVSK submarine
Status-6 torpedo
The Status-6 (Статус-6), aka KANYON, has been described as an unmanned midget submarine, but it is better thought of as a massively-large nuclear powered and nuclear armed torpedo. It is ginormous: 1.6m (5.5ft) in diameter and about 24m (79ft) long. To put that into perspective, it is about 27 times the volume of a regular 533mm (21”) heavyweight torpedo.
- Diameter: 650 mm (25.6 in)
- Length: 9.14m (30 ft)
A comparison of the Sarov and Khabarovsk submarines
“The leaked graphic strongly hints toward the Khabarovsk having two side-by-side hulls in the bow,” wrote Sutton.
“The basic reason behind this arrangement is that the torpedoes have to fire forward, and are carried externally to the occupied pressure hulls.”
Russian Mystery Submarine Likely Deployment Vehicle for New Nuclear Torpedo - USNI News
Some considerations on this alledged system:
- At its alleged speed of 100 knots (about 115 miles per hour), if launched from north of Russia’s Kola Peninsula, the torpedo would take some 40 hours to reach targets on the U.S. East Coast. That’s a long time; do Russian military planners really want a system that takes nearly two days to strike its objectives?
- At a speed of 100 knots, the Status-6 would be much faster than conventional torpedoes [note: though not from a different form, unlike e.g. Shkval]. When it comes to underwater travel, more speed usually means more noise, increasing the risk of detection. This would not appear to be a particularly stealthy system.
- Given its long travel time to target, possibly noisily announcing its course along the way, the Status-6 would not appear to make a good first-strike weapon.
- The Russians as a rule exercise caution about how they manage and control nuclear arms. Would Russian navy commanders be comfortable with an unmanned nuclear weapon roaming the ocean on its own for up to two days traveling to its target—or perhaps even longer if it traveled to near the target and simply lurked?
- This was no accidental leak. Televised events involving the Russian president are carefully scripted by the Kremlin.The picture was aired because the Kremlin wanted it aired and wanted the world to believe that Russia has plans for a large nuclear torpedo. That fits with Moscow’s pattern of nuclear saber-rattling over the past two years.
- The Status-6, operating underwater, presumably would not be troubled by an American missile interceptor. But does the Russian military really believe it needs such a system to overcome U.S. missile defenses? It would hardly seem so. By 2018, the United States will have 44 missile interceptors with a velocity capable of engaging a strategic ballistic missile warhead. At that time, Russia will have some 1,500 deployed warheads on its intercontinental ballistic missiles and submarine-launched ballistic missiles. The Russian military understands this. The Russian public may not. The Status-6 revelation thus may have been aimed at domestic viewers, to [re]assure them.
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