June 5, 2026: The Khabarovsk, the first of a second class of very large Russian SSN/Nuclear powered attack submarines was recently spotted. This sub is armed with an enormous Poseidon subsurface drone that can reach any ocean port in the world and destroy it with its 2 megaton nuclear warhead. Sea salt made radioactive by the detonation would poison any land area it lands on for years. Poseidon weighs about 100 tons and is 20 meters long and two meters in diameter. It is powered by a nuclear reactor. These drones are designed to be stealthy and can only be detected, while travelling at 55 kilometers an hour, by American Virginia class submarine sonar 3 kilometers away. Each Poseidon costs over $100 million and Russia plans to eventually build 30 of them for use on the Khabarovsk and Belgorod class SSNs.

Two years ago, Russia’s 14,000 ton Khabarovsk predecessor Belgorod showed up. Commercial satellite photos showed the Belgorod on the surface off the northeastern Russian coast, where several ports used by the Northern Fleet are located. Russia earlier reported that Belgorod was testing mockups of its primary weapon, the Poseidon torpedo, to make sure they could be carried and launched by Belgorod. These tests also confirmed that the nuclear propulsion system worked as expected. Belgorod is a larger and heavier Oscar class sub but it still uses the same power plant as the other Oscars. The Poseidon is too large to be carried inside Belgorod and launched from a torpedo tube, and are instead affixed to the underside of the sub and released by the sub commander. The size and weight of the Poseidon attached to the bottom of the Belgorod changes the performance characteristics of the Belgorod and tests were done to note and fix any problems.

Belgorod was launched in 2019 and entered service in 2022. Between 2019 and 2022 Belgorod had special equipment installed and tested before this modified Oscar class SSGN/nuclear-powered cruise missile submarine was ready for service. Belgorod won’t work for the navy like other subs, but for the GUGI/Main Department of Deep-Water Researches which works for the intelligence services and is attached to the Navy for ship and crew support.

Belgorod has come a long way since construction began in 1982. At one point the sub was canceled while still under construction. In 2006 Russia announced it would not finish construction of the Belgorod, the last of nine Type 949A SSGNs. Known in the West as the Oscar II class, these boats began entering service just as the Cold War ended. Three were in commission when the Soviet Union disintegrated in 1991. Construction continued on six more, and by 1997, eight were in service. But, at that point the navy had run out of the money, with the Belgorod not quite complete. Another $100 million was needed to complete Belgorod and the government, not the navy, felt it wasn't worth it. Seven Oscar IIs remain in service as the Kursk was lost in 2000 to a well-publicized accident. Work then resumed on Belgorod. That did not last long because the money was not there and not likely to be in the immediate future. Then in 2012 it was announced that the Belgorod, which had not been scrapped but put in storage, was once more scheduled for completion. This time there would be some major revisions that turned Belgorod into something more than an SSGN.

The original Oscars were designed as aircraft carrier destroyers with long-range cruise missiles that could, in theory, take out an American aircraft carrier. The Oscar II class boats have a surface displacement of 14,000 tons. They have eight torpedo tubes. four 650mm, four 533mm, and 24 SS-N-19/P-700 Shipwreck missiles. These anti-ship missiles have a range of 550 kilometers, a speed of 1600 kilometers an hour, and a 750 kg high-explosive warhead, or a nuclear warhead of 350 or 500 kilotons. The Oscar's crew of 107 contains 48 officers. That's because of the high degree of automation, and the need to offer officers’ pay and accommodations to attract the technical talent required to keep these boats going.

The new Belgorod was 11 meters longer, at 184 meters, and several tons heavier than the other Oscars. It no longer carried the 24 cruise missiles but instead was equipped to handle a number of new systems. These included four to eight Poseidon drones programmed to travel autonomously to enemy coastal cities, detonate underwater and somehow create large waves that cause enormous damage and spread radioactivity along the nearby coasts. The Poseidon can travel up to 10,000 kilometers underwater on its own, at speeds of up to 100 kilometers an hour before detonating the two-megaton warhead while on the seabed of the continental shelf.

Belgorod can also transport a new, smaller, 65 meter long, and nuclear-powered Losharik mini-sub underneath it. This mini-sub can perform various operations using remotely controlled arms. It carries a crew of 25 to depths of up to 6,000 meters and has a top speed, for emergencies only, of 72 kilometers an hour. Losharik is believed to be for checking Russian underwater data cables for bugs or damage in general and tampering with underwater cables and other equipment belonging to the Americans and other Western states. Because Losharik can dive deeper than any other sub and is quite large for a deep-diving sub, it can find and retrieve useful items that end up in very deep waters like electronics from Western aircraft or ships. Losharik can also survey very deep sea-bottoms for suitable sites for placing various electronic devices.

Belgorod can also transport and install an underwater nuclear power plant that can be placed on the ocean floor to power the Harmony system of underwater sensors or any other new tech that needs to be powered for a long time. Nuclear power supplies similar to this have been used in space satellites that require a lot of power, like those equipped with radar.

Belgorod is also equipped to carry combat divers. similar to American SEALS and Harpsichord drones that are the size of standard torpedoes but contain side-scan sonar and other sensors that can operate while up to 2,000 meters underwater. Belgorod is also designed to tow objects behind it. These can be a towed array sonar or other items.

Russia already has some specialized subs equipped for special operations. These are conversions of existing subs while Belgorod was custom designed and built for the special operations tasks. In late 2016 Russia finally sent its second special operations SSN, the Podmoskovie, to sea for trials. This sub is actually a Delta IV class SSBN that began its career in 1986 as K64 Podmoskovie. Since 1999, K64 has been undergoing conversion to BS64, which appears to be something similar to customized American SSNs that have been in service since the 1970s. The current American example of this is the USS Carter, a Seawolf-class SSN converted to be 30 percent longer and 20 percent heavier than the other two Seawolfs. The additional space was to hold mini-subs for the fifty SEALs it can carry, or to tap into underwater communications cables and perform other intelligence gathering tasks. The Carter entered service in 2005 and replaced Parche, an older Sturgeon class SSN that entered service in 1991 and was retired in 2004. The Parche replaced earlier SSNs that had performed these intel missions throughout the Cold War.

The 13,500-ton Podmoskovie had its 16 ballistic missile silos replaced with facilities for launching remotely controlled mini-subs for intelligence missions. The renovations resulted in the sub becoming about five percent longer. This meant that the converted Podmoskovie was somewhat lighter, probably about 12,000 tons. The first Russian SSBN to undergo a similar conversion was the K129 Orenberg, a Delta III class SSBN whose conversion to BS136 began in 1994 and entered service in 2008. The Delta III is about the same size and displacement as the Delta IV but the Podmoskovie conversion seems to be more extensive than the Orenberg. Both the Orenberg and Podmoskovie carry the Losharik minisub beneath it.