Russia may be preparing to test 'doomsday' Poseidon torpedo: CNN - Business Insider

• Russia whitethorn beryllium preparing a trial of its nuclear-powered Poseidon torpedo, CNN reported Thursday.
• A US authoritative told the outlet that Russian vessels were seen successful an Arctic Sea investigating area.
• The Poseidon torpedo was unveiled by Russian President Vladimir Putin successful 2018.

Russian efforts to trial a one-of-a-kind nuclear-powered torpedo prototype whitethorn person deed a snag, a US authoritative told CNN connected Thursday.

Unveiled by Russian President Vladimir Putin successful 2018, the self-propelled torpedo, oregon unmanned underwater vehicle, is claimed to person an unlimited scope and the quality to transportation a atomic warhead up to 125 times arsenic almighty arsenic the weaponry dropped connected Hiroshima, according to Popular Mechanics.

"Unmanned underwater vehicles tin transportation either accepted oregon atomic warheads, which enables them to prosecute assorted targets, including craft groups, coastal fortifications, and infrastructure," Putin said at the time, claiming it was invulnerable to counter-measures. "There is simply thing successful the satellite susceptible of withstanding them."

All types of torpedoes are fundamentally unstoppable. But they are constricted by the scope and velocity challenges of moving a dense entity done water, which is overmuch higher friction than air. Russia's claims to usage atomic powerfulness to propel Poseidon perchance lick this successful an unprecedented mode — if it really works. There are nary yet signs that it does, however, and a US authoritative told CNN it appears Russia is having occupation adjacent trying to spot if it does.

In 2019, Russia's defence ministry released a video appearing to amusement an underwater trial of the system, which immoderate person labeled a "doomsday" instrumentality due to the fact that of its immense imaginable payload and theoretical quality to make a radioactive tsunami that could expanse crossed coastal cities.

Indeed, Russia's attempts to physique a similar, nuclear-powered rocket person truthful acold failed and caused an August 2019 blast that killed astatine slightest 5 Russian engineers.

The latest, evident effort to trial the torpedo comes during a clip of heightened concern implicit atomic weapons, with Russia's president having threatened their usage successful an effort to scare disconnected Western enactment for Ukraine.

According to CNN, however, the effort to trial the torpedo successful unfastened h2o whitethorn person encountered method difficulties, with the submarines susceptible of carrying it having been seen returning to larboard — a information that 1 Western diplomat attributed to the Russian subject "going done hard times" acknowledgment to the strain of sanctions and the warfare successful Ukraine.

Some are skeptical the Poseidon torpedo volition ever work, believing it intolerable to reliably acceptable a moving atomic reactor into thing the size of a cruise missile. No state has yet to successfully make specified a weapon.

Cheryl Rofer, a erstwhile atomic idiosyncratic astatine Los Alamos National Laboratory, has suggested the Poseidon is simply a "boondoggle," perchance intended to goad the US into trying to make a akin (and costly) strategy of its own.

"The subject has to instrumentality the anticipation of these weapons seriously, but it's wide that they are acold from operational," she wrote successful 2021. "And I'm consenting to stake they ne'er volition be."

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