(Washington, D.C.) The Russian Navy is refining its ability to track, attack and destroy submarines from torpedo-armed surface warships by conducting attack drills in the White Sea, a move which signifies continued Russian ambitions to assert power, control and influence in the Arctic region.
Torpedoes Fired
Two anti-submarine Russian warfare ships from Russia’s Northern Fleet, the Onega and the Naryan-Mar fired practice torpedoes at an undersea cruiser simulating a submarine.
“The warships searched for the submarine using onboard sonars and launched a torpedo attack against it. The heavy nuclear-powered underwater cruiser Dmitry Donskoi operating at a depth of over 100 meters simulated the underwater enemy for the small anti-submarine warfare ships,” the press office of Russia’s Northern Fleet said in a statement, according to Russia’s TASS news agency.
Dominating Underseas
While the torpedoes that were fired did not have warheads, the exercise seemed aimed at refining targeting procedures and attack tactics against submarines from the surface, an ability of great strategic value in areas such as the Arctic where submarines can more easily lurk beneath the surface ice, yet still fire offensive attacks.
An ability to track and destroy submarines could be vital in vast undersea regions such as the Arctic where undersea platforms can operate more freely, be harder to detect and access geographical areas surface ships are unable to transit. Furthermore, given the pace of melting ice and the expanding waterways in the regions, submarines could increasingly be used to hold the continental U.S. at risk from portions of the Arctic Ocean given how far cruise missiles and torpedoes can travel.
Russia also appears heavily invested in an effort to try to maintain an undersea advantage against the U.S., which is now in the process of fielding a new generation of attack and ballistic missile submarines. Perhaps the drills represent a Russian effort to prepare to counter emerging U.S. submarines which are stealthier, faster and much more lethal than their predecessors.
U.S. Navy Offensive Power
In the next several years, the Block V Virginia-class Attack Submarine will arrive, bringing massive new amounts of offensive U.S. Navy firepower to the undersea domain, and the first new Columbia-class nuclear-armed ballistic missile submarines are expected to emerge by the end of the decade. Countering these new U.S. Navy submarines will likely prove quite difficult for Russian surface ships, given some of the advanced quieting technologies with which they are being built.
