Only seeing is believing
when it comes to Russia’s ambitious 2050 shipbuilding program.
Russia is
in the process of developing its next-generation of nuclear submarines, TASS
reported last week. According to Vladimir Dorofeyev, CEO of Malakhit
Marine Engineering Design Bureau in St. Petersburg, his company is working on a
new submarine based on a “network centric system” in accordance with the
Russian military’s bold 2050 shipbuilding plan:
The work
on the fifth generation of submarines is already underway. The project will be
implemented after the Yasen nuclear submarine construction project is
completed.
Periodic announcements by
Russia’s shipbuilding industry that it is working on a next-generation
submarine have been made repeatedly over the past couple of years.
In any
case, waiting for the completion of the Yasen project could take a while. The
13,800-ton, 390-foot long and highly automated Yasen-class of
Russian attack submarines was supposed to replace older Soviet-era
multi-purpose nuclear submarine models by 2020.
Yet, the
exorbitant costs of the submarines — estimated to be twice as much as the
new Borei-class SSBNs – has so far led only to the commissioning of
one out of eight SSGNs, with a further three to four vessels likely to be
completed by 2020.
The first
of six Yasen-class multi-purpose attack nuclear submarines (SSGN)
projected to enter service in the Far East over the next ten years will join
the Pacific Fleet in 2017 at the earliest. Russia’s Northern Fleet currently
operates one Yasen-class SSGN, the K-329 Severodvinsk, but
was projected to receive six SSGNs of this class by 2020, which, given the
current status of the Yasen-class program seems highly unlikely.
Due to
these delays, the Russian Navy decided that it will upgrade ten project 971
SSN Akula-class and project 949A SSGN Oscar-class II
nuclear-powered submarines by 2020 (see: “Russia to Upgrade 10 Nuclear
Submarines by 2020”).
Very
little information is available about the likely features of Russia’s
fifth-generation sub. Back in 2013, the Malakhit Design bureau announced that it
will be equipped with new stealth features, new noise reduction technology,
automated control systems, reactor safety, and long-range weapons.
In last week’s
interview, Dorogeyev, however cautioned that not everything on the sub will be
revolutionary new technology: “The reactor [of the subs] will be certainly
based on new principles, but there will be no revolution, and it is not needed
after all.” He is also paraphrased as saying that the “boats’ dimensions and
speed, although remaining significant parameters, will cease to be of prime
importance.”
Given the
current financial constraints of the Russian armament industry and the general
dissatisfaction with the Yasen-class, the new fifth-generation sub will
in all likelihood be smaller, and carry fewer missiles, in comparison to the Yasen-class
SSGNs.
As I have
written before, Admiral Vladimir Chirkov, the Russian Navy’s
commander-in-chief, said in March of this
year that there will be no pause in the design and construction of Russia’s
next generation underwater strike force.
“We have
formulated the task for the defense and industrial sector to develop
fifth-generation submarines. This work is ongoing. There will be no pauses in
the development and designing of new submarines,” he noted.
According to Chirkov,
this is due to the, “objective timeframe and the cyclical nature of the use of
ships and submarines, and also the swift advance of ship-building technologies
and scientific and technical progress in the field of submarine-building (…)
This process is accompanied by the work to maintain the combat readiness of
existing-project strategic nuclear submarines and their basic armaments.” The
Diplomat
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