Russia’s newest diesel-electric submarine Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky launched a Kalibr
cruise missile from the Sea of Japan, hitting a coastal target around 1,000 km or 621 miles away
The Russian Navy’s Pacific Fleet said in a statement,
“The Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky launched a cruise missile of the Kalibr complex
at a ground target from a submerged position in the Sea of Japan. At the estimated time,
the missile hit the coastal target position on the tactical field
of Surkum [in the Khabarovsk region]. The firing range exceeded 1,000 kilometers”
In this video Defense Updates analyzes why Kilo-class submarine Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky
launching Kalibr missile is a deadly combination? Let's get started.
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Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky is a Project 636.3 submarine .
The class is having NATO reporting name of Improved Kilo-II
The Russian Kilo-class submarine is nothing new. It’s been around in some form or another
since the 1980s. But the class has seen continuous improvement over the years.
Project 636.3. is the latest incremental update of Kilo Class.
Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky was laid down at the Admiralty Shipyard on July 28, 2017.
It was floated out on March 28, 2019.
It entered service with the Russian Navy on November 25, 2019, after passing trials.
The Kilo-class submarines have a length of around 70 to 74 meters, a displacement of
2,300–2,350 tons when surfaced and around 3,000–4,000 tons when submerged.
So, the submarines are relatively small.
For example, the American Virginia class has a length of 115 m and displaces around 7,900 tons.
The small profile is a well-thought-out design
decision by Russia and makes the submarine hard to detect.
It is propelled by a Diesel-electric system that has 5,900 shp (4,400 kW) power output.
Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky like all improved Kilo-class has a max speed of 10–12 knots
(18–22 km/h) when surfaced & 17–25 knots (31–46 km/h) when submerged.
The submarine has an impressive range of 8600 miles or about 13,900 km with a diesel
engine and 460 miles or 740 km when employing electric propulsion using its storage batteries.
The maximum depth of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky is thought to be 300 meters, though exact
details are kept under wraps. The class is reported to have a 45 days sea endurance.
Though Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky has a compact profile,
the submarine possesses an excellent armament which includes:
1. 6 x 533 mm torpedo tubes for a total of 18 torpedoes.
2. 4 Kalibr or Club missile for land-attack, anti-ship missile and anti-submarine role
3. 24 mines 4. 8 Strela-3 or 8 Igla-1 Surface-to-air missiles
Some variants of Kalibr are equivalent to the American Tomahawk cruise missile in many
parameters such as range, warhead, and propulsion. These have a range of 2500 km
or 1554 miles , are equipped with a 450 kg or 1000 pound high-explosive warhead
and are powered by a turbofan engine. Similar to Tomahawk, they have a speed of Mach 0.8.
There are some variants of the missile that have second-stage propulsion enabling a
supersonic sprint in the terminal approach to the target which reduces the reaction time.
Importantly, Kalibr can be armed with nuclear warheads.
Here is an incident from 2017 that indicates,
how tough it is to detect the Improved Kilo-class submarine.
Russia had warned NATO that Krasnodar which has the same configuration as Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky
would be pass through the blue waters of the Mediterranean
towards the Black Sea which will be its home.
NATO knew the new submarine was passing by and new submarines are items of keen
interest since any information could be useful in a future conflict.
Several specialist NATO assets were on the lookout including the nuclear-powered aircraft
carrier USS George H.W. Bush which put its sea-scanning Seahawk helicopters to the task,
P-8 Poseidon sub-hunting aircraft based in Italy as well as Britain’s HMS Somerset.
But the Russians weren’t going to play ball. The submarine had traveled
on the surface — in plain sight and didn't submerge.
When it reached Libya, Russia’s Defence Ministry abruptly warned international
airlines that it would be taking part in military exercises off the coast.
NATO lost Krasnodar in the middle of the exercise and out of the blue on May 29, a series of cruise
missiles tore through the air towards targets around Syria’s besieged city of Palmyra.
They were Russian missiles and they came from the Krasnodar.
The submarine was able to move from Libya to Syria a distance of more than 2000 km or 1245
miles undetected even with a significant number of NATO assets trying to track it.
The incident changed how the Improved Kilo-class
is looked upon by the world. Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky
being an Improved Kilo-class submarine pose a serious challenge to the U.S & NATO.
Comparatively much cheaper than American Supercarriers,
but these can still threaten the prized asset of U.S Navy- Nimitz & Ford-class supercarriers.
This is where Russia is good at - developing asymmetric weapons through which it can put
up a fight against an adversary like America whose defense budget
at more than $700 billion is around 10 times the Russian budget.
Russian submarine activities have spiked since 2018 and the submarines like
Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky which are armed with long-range Kalibr cruise missiles
are a serious challenge to its adversary.