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Future of Russian Navy Submarine Force Within State Armaments Program 2025 - Part 2

Analysis - Experts assess the prospects for the Russian Navy’s submarine forces

Future of Russian Navy Submarine Force Within State Armaments Program 2025 - Part 2

The new State Armaments Program (SAP) for 2018-2025 that comes into effect from January 2018 reportedly calls for drastic cuts to a number of expensive programs. The effects of restraints on the Russian Navy’s rearmament plans will be more severe, however, the upgrade of the submarine forces will continue, writes the online media outlet Lenta.ru.

Artist impression of "Husky" project as shown by Malachite (JSC «Saint-Petersburg Marine Design Bureau «Malachite») during a defense exhibition in 2016.

The issue of designing a new generation nuclear submarine in Russia arose back in 2013-2014 and it was about an attack submarine. Then a number of sources reported a strategic missile submarine, while some media talked about the preparations for building a "versatile" submarine that would combine the capabilities of strategic and attack boats. The code name ‘Husky’ for the project was reported in the media. The keel of a new generation lead boat is expected to be laid in 2020-2021.

Summarizing the available information, the following can be concluded:
1. It’s about the design of a family of nuclear-powered submarines of three main classes - SSBN and two attack boats, a cruise missile submarine (SSGN) and a SSN submarine carrying mines and torpedoes as predominant armament;
2. The new family of boats will share the general ship systems, including primarily the propulsion, control and underwater acoustic systems;
3. The family’s baseline design is an attack submarine carrying mines and torpedoes, capable of launching cruise missiles from torpedo tubes, with a submerged displacement of presumably 8,000-9,000 tons and a speed of 32-33 knots. The submarine should also be able to carry combat swimmers and their vehicles. The SSBN and SSGN designs are distinguished by additional compartments in the pressure hull with launchers for the corresponding types of missiles;
4. It is not ruled out that universal launchers will be installed on the boats of this generation that make it possible to house either one ballistic missile or a container for 5-7 cruise missiles of different types in a silo;
5. The boats will be fitted with a quite traditional nuclear propulsion system: they will be able to use the off-the-shelf steam-turbine units with water-powered power reactors that have been proven on the Projects 885 and 955 submarines being currently under construction;
6. The project's economics should provide for the construction of at least 16-20 attack submarines (and the possibility of continuation) with the keel-laying of an average of three submarines every two years and a construction period from keel-laying to delivery to the customer of 4-4.5 years. Thus, the first submarines of the new project should be available in around 2025, the delivery of the last ships of the series - in the mid-2030s;
7. The availability of a strategic submarine in the family of new generation nuclear submarines will make it possible to continue the rearmament of the naval strategic nuclear forces in the 2020s if a compromise on a further reduction of strategic offensive arms between Russia and the United States (and also other nuclear powers) is not achieved.

Lada class Diesel Electric Submarine (SSK) Project 677. The future Kalina project is set to be equipped with an air-independent propulsion unit and combine the best characteristics of the Project 636 and Project 677 submarines.

The renewal program for diesel submarines, designed to meet challenges in the "closed" theaters of the Baltic, Black, Mediterranean, Japanese seas and near the coast in the Arctic and Pacific oceans also raises a number of questions. The obvious failure of new Project 677 (Lada), upon which high expectations were once placed, to meet deadlines, has forced the Navy to re-equip the "diesel" squadrons of the Black Sea and Pacific submarine forces with the boats of previous Project 636. Moreover, the order for these submarines, consisting already of 12 units, may be increased.

These submarines were to be superseded on the slipway by a boat of a new project, which received the code name Kalina. In 2016, it was announced that the construction of submarines of this type will begin as soon as 2018. However, a year later, on June 28, 2017, Deputy Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Navy for Armament, Vice Admiral Viktor Bursuk said at the International Naval Show in St. Petersburg that two production Project 677 submarines will be contracted soon. There are plans to build them at Admiralty Shipyard through 2025, with the subsequent continuation. The fate of the Kalina project was not mentioned.

Coupled with the news of 2016 about the beginning of the sea trials of Russian-designed air-independent propulsion (AIP) systems, it can be assumed that the domestic industry managed to cope with the main problems that prevented the batch construction of Project 677 boats. As for the number of new ships, it should be expected that by the late 2020s the Navy will have 12-18 Project 636 submarines and 6-9 new generation boats, the main feature of which is a drastic increase in the submerged range due to the AIP system, writes the online media outlet Lenta.ru.

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