Putin attempts to balance his nuclear submarine fleet with Trump's enormous one
The imminent meeting between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin scheduled for 15 August in Alaska is shaping up to be a showdown in which both political leaders have already laid their cards on the table, one of which is their mammoth nuclear-powered submarines armed with ballistic and cruise missiles.
Trump will arrive to end the war in Ukraine with the aura of having successfully mediated an end to nearly four decades of armed conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan, two former Soviet republics, and having deployed ‘in the appropriate regions,’ he said, two missile-launching submarines to intimidate and silence the threats made by Dmitry Medvedev, current deputy chairman of Russia's Security Council.
Putin will land in Alaska shortly after concluding recent joint naval manoeuvres with China in the Sea of Japan, demanding the old formula of ‘peace for territories’ to achieve a ceasefire with Zelensky, and having presided at the end of July over the entry into service of a new and powerful nuclear-powered missile submarine.
The fact is that in the nuclear triad of each of the two superpowers, whose components are deployed by land, sea and air, Washington and Moscow pay special attention to strategic submarines which, equipped with intercontinental ballistic missiles (SLBMs) and armed with multiple nuclear warheads, play a decisive role in deterring their adversaries.
This is understood by the current leader of Russia, who at the end of July presided over the military ceremony marking the entry into service of the new K-555 missile submarine. The event took place at the huge Sevmash state shipyard in the city of Severodvinsk, some 40 kilometres west of the large port town of Arkhangelsk in northern Russia and 800 kilometres northeast of St. Petersburg, Vladimir Putin's hometown.
A naval platform of the so-called Borei-A class, the K-555 has been christened ‘Prince Dimitri Pozharski’ - a 17th-century Russian hero - and is 170 metres long with a displacement of around 14,700 tonnes on the surface and 24,000 tonnes when submerged. In his speech to the submarine's crew, Putin emphasised that the K-555 enjoys ‘high manoeuvrability, is invisible to acoustic signature and has high-performance navigation, communications and sonar systems’, all of which are secret.
The qualitative leap Putin wants to make
It has six 533-millimetre torpedo tubes, but its main armament is 16 RSM-30 Bulava intercontinental ballistic missile tubes, each with four or six nuclear warheads, with an estimated effective range of over 8,000 kilometres. The new tsar has reiterated that his submarine force plays a ‘fundamental’ role in guaranteeing the sovereignty and security of the nation, protecting its interests and contributing ‘significantly’ to regional and global stability, ‘as well as to the maintenance of strategic parity’.
Putin is determined to increase and make a qualitative leap forward in his strategic submarine force, ‘one of our priority areas’, of which the new K-555 is a part. He claims that the construction of large missile-launching submarines is a ‘crucial component’ of Russia's nuclear triad, which allows it to ‘maintain the balance of forces in the world and respond adequately to current and future threats and risks’.
After the military ceremony, Putin held a meeting with First Deputy Prime Minister Denis Manturov, Defence Minister Andrei Bolusov and the head of the Navy since April 2024, Admiral Alexander Moiseyev, 63, a veteran nuclear submarine officer. He reminded them that in the last six years, ‘five Borei-A class strategic ballistic missile submarines and four Yasen-M class multipurpose submarines’ have been added to the Navy, all of them nuclear-powered, which translates into a production rate of 1.5 platforms per year, a high rate.
The enormous Borei-A submarines represent Moscow's most powerful strategic maritime retaliation force, which is why the president wanted to announce that there are ‘four more of the same configuration planned for the coming years’, of which ‘two are under construction’. In addition to the above, Putin has announced ‘four more of the Yasen-M class’, 130 metres long and with a displacement of around 8,600 tonnes on the surface and 13,800 tonnes when submerged.
Considered by Admiral Moiseyev as ‘the core of the submarine forces' strike capability’, the first unit of the Yasen-M family is the Perm, which does not yet have an official naval code (K-XXX) and was launched on 27 March in a ceremony also presided over by Putin, but via video conference. It is scheduled to enter service in 2026.
The Yasen-M class submarines are capable of firing the new 3M22 Tsirkon hypersonic cruise missiles, with an estimated range of up to 1,000 kilometres. They carry ten 533-millimetre torpedo tubes in the bow and are equipped with a wide range of non-nuclear weapons systems ‘and state-of-the-art technologies’, Putin stressed. It should not be forgotten that Russia's submarine fleet is completed by five huge and more outdated Antei-class attack units, 155 metres long, coded by NATO as Oscar II.
Present and future of the Russian submarine fleet
The Russian Navy operates 13 nuclear-powered submarines armed with intercontinental ballistic missiles: five of the ‘Dolphin’ class, known to NATO as ‘Delta IV’, 166 metres long, with an estimated surface displacement of 13,500 tonnes and 18,200 tonnes when submerged. In service since December 1984, they are armed with R-29RMU2 Sineva missiles with a range of over 8,000 kilometres. And eight Borei-class submarines, five of them in the upgraded Borei-A configuration, the first of which entered service in June 2020 (K-549 Prince Vladimir the Great) and the last, K-555 Prince Dimitri Pozharski, last July.
Who are they up against? The submarine fleet of the United States Navy (US Navy), with 14 Ohio-class nuclear-powered submarines with intercontinental weaponry, the first of which, USS-726 Ohio, entered service in November 2021 and the last, USS-743 Louisiana, in September 1997. Armed with 20 Trident II D5LE missiles with a range of over 12,000 kilometres, they are 114.8 metres long and have a displacement of 7,800/10,360 tonnes. All have undergone numerous upgrades, although they are expected to begin retirement in 2027.
But there is more. The Pentagon also operates three families of nuclear-powered attack submarines: the Los Angeles class, with 23 units in service armed with Tomahawk cruise missiles; the Seawolf class (three units), also with Tomahawks. Added to this is the new Virginia class, with another 23 in active service and 14 under construction or awaiting delivery, according to a US Navy report dated 1 July. Armed with Tomahawk and other missiles, they are the replacement for the Ohio class.
It is not surprising that the enormous US submarine power is the envy of Putin, who also seeks dominance under the waves. The Russian Navy's priority is to deny control of the seas and oceans to the naval forces of the United States, France and the United Kingdom, a mission entrusted to the advanced Yasen-M. For the long term, Putin has recently approved the so-called Naval Modernisation Strategy 2050, an initiative already underway, which envisages a ‘comprehensive programme to create fifth-generation submarines’ about which the president wants to be informed personally and directly.
Unless the intelligence analyses of NATO agencies and their member countries contain inaccuracies or the news released by the Kremlin and official agencies includes disinformation, the Russian state naval industry would be focused on the design of advanced strategic SLBM submarines of the ‘Arktur’ or ‘Arkturus’ class, a project announced at the 2022 International Military-Technical Forum, with construction planned for the 2040s. It is also said to be immersed in the design of the ‘Laika’ class multipurpose submarines, whose manufacture is expected to begin around 2030.
To complete its submarine arsenal, the Russian president is also keen to develop what he has called ‘promising designs for multifunctional robotic systems for submarines’ which, in his opinion, ‘will largely determine the Russian Navy of the future’. These are key disruptive technologies for aspiring to leadership in the domain of the sea, which the Trump administration will clearly do everything in its power to prevent from being taken away.