Russia’s Mysterious New Nuclear Torpedo: What We Know | WSJ Equipped

- [Narrator] This dark and grainy footage shows Russia testing its new nuclear torpedo, Poseidon. The massive torpedo has been in the works for at least a decade. Once complete, experts say Poseidon can help Russia target coastal cities and military bases in the US and other NATO countries. - The goal is very clearly to show that they are still a first class nuclear power. - [Narrator] But since Vladimir Putin announced the weapon, it's been shrouded in mystery and misinformation. (gentle techno music) (logo whooshing) - Nuclear weapons technology, for the most part, it's not new technology. - [Narrator] Traditionally, nukes are delivered by gravity bombs or ballistic missiles. But in 2018, Putin unveiled plans for nuclear weapons that would be delivered on modern systems. Among them was Poseidon. As shown in this clip from Russia's Ministry of Defense, Poseidon will be equipped on submarines similar to some ballistic missiles in Russia's current nuclear arsenal. But what happens after its launched is debated. And the answer relies on knowing what Poseidon actually is. - Poseidon has been called many things. - [Narrator] Russia calls it an unmanned underwater vehicle or drone. It portrays Poseidon as able to guide itself around obstacles and enemy countermeasures, reaching great depths and high speeds. In the Pentagon's 2018 nuclear posture, the weapon is referred to instead as an autonomous torpedo able to operate independently after launch. But a nuclear researcher says it's more likely that Poseidon will have some type of advanced homing and guidance systems, which would allow it to avoid some countermeasures, but would not allow for complex maneuverability. Putin has said Poseidon will be dual capable. Meaning, it can carry a conventional warhead or a nuclear one. - One of the many things that we don't know about Poseidon is the yield of the warhead that it is carrying. - [Narrator] The largest nuke in the US' arsenal is the B83 at 1.2 megatons. Although initial Russian media reports indicated Poseidon's nuclear warhead could be up to 100 megatons, more recently, Russian media has reported that the warhead would instead be two megatons. - There's no real obvious strategic reason why you would need a hundred megaton warhead. - [Narrator] Even then, the explosive yield of a two-megaton warhead is about 95 times larger than the bomb the US dropped over Nagasaki, and 133 times larger than the one dropped over Hiroshima. - This is orders of magnitude larger in terms of the scale, the destruction, the devastation that this weapon could create. - [Narrator] But because Poseidon is meant to detonate underwater, its exact impact is unknown. - Some Russia have suggested that this could create a tsunami with 10,000 foot waves or something along those lines. There's competing reports that that's not how tsunamis work and that it wouldn't actually have that effect. But that discussion about the tsunami effect, it really does just feed into that Russian narrative about these weapons being highly performing and about them having these catastrophic effects, because that is intended to deter over the long term. - [Narrator] Russia says Poseidon is designed to circumvent all missile defense systems like the US'. - [Translator] There is no defense system in the world today that can cope with subsurface vehicles. - [Narrator] But experts say the US Missile Defense System wasn't designed to stop an attack from Russia's existing arsenal. - So, when Russia claims that it's developing these systems because of Western missile defense, it is either being far more optimistic about the missile defense capabilities that the US can develop or it's being disingenuous. - [Narrator] A congressional report said, "Russia views Poseidon as a second strike weapon, but its potential capabilities led some analysts to believe it could function as a first strike weapon." - Russia has very specifically said that it is prepared to use nuclear weapons first if NATO countries attack Russia directly. And so, this would potentially give an option to the Russian leadership for how to do that. - [Narrator] Though Russia began building Poseidon before it invaded Ukraine, defense analysts say it has used the weapon system to project power at a time when its conventional forces are weakened. A strategy imposed upon Moscow by its history. When the Soviet Union collapsed, its conventional forces were greatly weakened. - And it was around this time that Russia changed their nuclear doctrine. They felt they had to increase reliance on nuclear weapons and to actually consider scenarios in which they would have to use nuclear weapons first to compensate for that conventional inferiority. That still does apply today. What Putin is perhaps most afraid of militarily is NATO's conventional superiority. - [Narrator] The Federation of American Scientists says, "Russia is constructing storage facilities for warheads and the submarines that will carry Poseidon torpedoes." And in a recent speech, Putin said, "Tests of Poseidon are being completed." Though it's unclear what stage in testing the weapon has reached. So the question remains, "Will it work?" - It's fair to say that what the Russians pronounce about their weapons capabilities and what they actually can do rarely intersect. They want everybody to be thinking about the possibility of nuclear war, thinking about a ruinous arms race, and so they are exaggerating what their capabilities are. - [Narrator] Russia has faced setbacks with some of its new weapon systems in recent years. And in 2022, Russia abandoned a planned test of Poseidon without saying why. - There are several challenges that Russia continues to face. Resources is one of them. The second is that their technology does not equal what is available to the West. The sanctions that were imposed on Russia because of the Ukraine War have constrained their ability to acquire some of these components. - [Narrator] Though Poseidon's future is uncertain, experts say one thing is for sure. - With the end of the Cold War, nuclear weapons reeling left the public consciousness. Putin has brought nuclear weapons back. Poseidon is just one example of that but it's really important to differentiate between the reality and the facade that Putin is trying to portray. (somber techno music) (logo whooshing)

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Id: 4YtOJ5W0EXg

Length: 6min 11sec (371 seconds)

Published: Tue Apr 09 2024