Lead submarine of Project 885 Yasen , SSGN Severodvinsk will be armed with supersonic cruise missiles Caliber which have no analogs worldwide with flight range exceeding 2,500 km, a source in Russian defense industry told reporters on Tuesday.
“The missile meets all defense ministry’s requirements regarding range, accuracy, destructive effect, and in-flight survivability. Because of unique performance characteristics, none country has such missile at the present time” , pointed out the source.
As for the expert, Caliber cruise missiles can be armed differently. “ The missile will carry one-piece warhead. If it is conventional, the missile’s flight range would exceed 2,500 km. If the warhead is kiloton-class nuclear one, flight range would be shorter” , specified the interviewee.
“Caliber is a high-precision weapon, its probable error is not more than two or three meters while flight range is thousands of kilometers” , he stressed.
On the other hand, the expert confirmed there were some problems in the sub’s nuclear powerplant. “Indeed, there is a problem of high noisiness both at work by nuclear powerplant and at power transmission to the screw. It’s not the fault of Sevmash shipwrights; there were designers who developed the nuclear reactor. All what the shipyard did was only planting the reactor into appropriate compartment” , the interviewee explained.
“And now the matter depends on power engineers. They will have to reduce the sub’s noisiness “, said the source.
[mappress] Naval Today Staff, August 16, 2012