Nuclear torpedo being developed by the Russians?

Nuclear torpedo being developed by the Russians?

A news footage accidentally showed a Russian general studying a diagram of a new torpedo system during a report on state-run Channel One about President Vladimir Putin meeting military chiefs in the city of Sochi.

Dubbed “Status-6” – it is believed to be a long-range nuclear torpedo. Launched by a submarine, it would create “wide areas of radioactive contamination”. The “oceanic multi-purpose Status-6 system” is designed to “destroy important economic installations of the enemy in coastal areas and cause guaranteed devastating damage to the country’s territory by creating wide areas of radioactive contamination, rendering them unusable for military, economic or other activity for a long time”, the document says.

Although several commentators questioned its authenticity, the Russian government newspaper Rossiiskaya Gazeta later reported details of the weapon, without showing the diagram, and speculated about a super-radioactive cobalt device.

On the diagram the giant torpedo’s range is given as “up to 10,000km” (6,200 miles) and depth of trajectory is “up to 1,000m” (3,300ft). It was developed by Rubin, a submarine design bureau in St Petersburg. It would, apparently, be launched by nuclear-powered submarines of the 09852 “Belgorod” and 09851 “Khabarovsk” series. Rossiiskaya Gazeta called the torpedo a “robotic mini-submarine”, travelling at 100 knots (185km/h; 115mph), which would “avoid all acoustic tracking devices and other traps”.

The destructive power attributed to the new torpedo’s warhead would fit the description of a cobalt bomb. That would be a type of thermonuclear warhead with a layer of cobalt-59, which on detonation would be transmuted into highly radioactive cobalt-60 with a half-life longer than five years. Such a weapon would guarantee “that everything living will be killed”, the paper said – there would not even be any survivors in bunkers. A cobalt bomb has never been tested because of the devastating radiation it would unleash. “But it can be considered as a means of deterrence – like the Perimetr system, which is on combat readiness, which guarantees retaliation with all of Russia’s nuclear forces even if command posts and the country’s leadership have been annihilated”.

This “leak” could be a warning to the US and NATO forces.

Nuclear torpedo being developed by the Russians?