“Status-6” (ocean multi-purpose system) is a project of a domestic unmanned submarine designed to deliver deadly cargo to the enemy’s shore. The innovative development is a new milestone in the concept of military operations, designed to nullify the missile defense system of the alleged enemy. After all, the "rocket" will fly not through the air, but under water.
First mention
Back in 2012, references to the US desire to create a missile defense system that would serve as a shield against intercontinental ballistic missiles of the Russian Federation surfaced in the media. The domestic military was asked to develop an alternative method of delivering a shell in the event of an alleged war. Mentioned weapons system using a nuclear charge of increased power, but not a "dirty bomb."
So in some places on television flickered some blueprints, which somewhere were presented as innovative development, and somewhere as prototypes of outdated weapons models. What of this is a lie, and what is true, could not be determined.
Hazardous areas
The Western press has already dubbed the new project as a "weapon of retaliation." In 2015, a report was shown on the BBC channel, which said that Russia was creating a robotic submarine capable of transporting nuclear charge up to 10,000 kilometers at a depth of 1,000 meters. An underwater torpedo is capable of creating zones unfavorable for life, fishing and military-economic activity in the area of ​​the alleged enemy.
Skeptics' opinions
The reaction of critics followed immediately. The harm from intercontinental ballistic missiles is obvious. But those start in hard-to-reach spots around the planet and make their way to the territory of the enemy by air, where they are met by the missile defense system.
The “Status-6” project of the ocean multi-purpose system “creeps” into the territory of the enemy under water at a depth of about 1 kilometer. There is an opinion that it would be necessary to develop an orientation system in such an “atmosphere”, because a torpedo can crash into underwater rocks, stumble on reefs or get lost in underwater caves.
On the other hand, it is supposed either to remotely control such a system, or to import seabed maps that are successfully used in the operation of floating oil platforms.
The logic of defeating the enemy
The developer of this system is designated TsKB MT "RUBIN". Many bloggers, imagining themselves to be experts in the military industry, tactics and military affairs, boldly rushed to claim that the news was one hundred percent true and refer to imaginary sources that were not subject to disclosure. The logic of using such torpedoes is to infect the ports of the alleged enemy with radioactive waste, thereby depriving the opponent of the fleet and the shipping industry. Such measures, if they do not lead to the collapse of the economy, will force it to be significantly revised.
Such an assumption does not tolerate any criticism (even if the author refers to specific individuals from the Central Design Bureau of MT “RUBIN”). The declared power of weapons in different sources varies from 10 to 100 megatons. For comparison: the bomb dropped on Hiroshima had only 20 kilotons, and the well-known Kuzkina Mother, also known as the Tsar Bomb, was 58.6 megatons.
It is worth recalling that according to the results of the test of the last mentioned, the following conclusions were made:
- the fireball from the explosion reached a radius of 4.6 km;
- The seismic wave generated by the explosion circled the globe three times.
The two points mentioned are enough to understand that a weapon of retaliation with a figure of 100 megatons will either put an end to all of humanity, or is nothing more than an instrument of information warfare.
References to the T-15 project
It should be said that in the fifties something similar was already proposed by Academician Sakharov. According to literary sources, torpedoes were proposed to be equipped with cobalt shells to amplify the blast wave. The idea was to produce an explosion off the coast of the United States, thereby generating giant waves that could significantly damage the enemy’s infrastructure.
The project was rejected due to the high cost and lack of underwater vehicles capable of transporting a charge of a similar design.
Many article discussions and reviews of online bloggers are full of references to this project. Nevertheless, the damaging factors for Status-6 involve contamination of the territory with radiation at 1,700 km in depth, as well as 300 km wide, taking into account a wind speed of 26 km / h. The information was modeled through the NukeMap program. And this is without taking into account cobalt gain.
The second factor is the colossal wave. Presumably, such an explosion is capable of generating a tsunami from 300 to 500 meters in height and affect a land plot of 500 kilometers.
Invisible Status-6
The ocean multi-purpose system moves for a reason at such a depth (1 km) - it is more difficult to detect it even with the help of a modern echolocation system. The only way out is the enemy’s revival of the defense naval program of the Second World War, which involves the operation of deep bombs. It is also possible to use deep-sea sonars, but they are capable of covering a distance of 18 kilometers.
Nevertheless, while the project has not been officially presented, it is difficult to judge how the stealth technology is implemented in the new torpedo. Experts suggest that when a certain speed is reached, “Status-6” will become invisible to detection systems, and at maximum speed it will be able to successfully move away from NATO torpedoes.
Scheme "Status-6"
The design, or rather its free interpretation, was made by the WBF and Russian Forces newspapers based on the same screenshot that accidentally popped up in the press. And all the assumptions about the device of a new weapon are exclusively by Western experts trying to build any guesses about the “S tatus-6” system.
The ocean multi-purpose system, according to their assumptions, is equipped with a high-strength hull. This goes without saying, because at a depth of 1000 meters high pressure.
Nuclear reactor. Of course, there is no reliable information about the type and power of such.
The stealth technology of this product is currently shrouded in mystery and consists solely of the guesses described above.
And also the drone is probably equipped with communication and remote control. Although, according to another version, the route to the target is laid before launch, the product then moves toward the target autonomously.
Given that the declared speed is approximately 95 km / h, retaliation weapons will move for 5 or 6 days to the enemy coast. During this time, the situation in the world may change, but the "death machine" will continue to carry out its combat mission.
Western opinion
A number of American analysts grasped the implication. Indeed, it was precisely in the framework of the discussion of the US missile defense system that information about “Status-6” surfaced. The ocean’s multi-purpose weapon system is a deterrent to the Western missile defense deployment program around the world.
NATO even assigned its own classification of this innovation, dubbing it the word Kanyon. According to The Daily Mirror newspaper, “S tatus-6” is a retaliatory weapon capable of restoring the balance of power in the event of a war and shifting the balance in favor of the Russian Federation.
The popular science publication New Scientist notes that the torpedo will become an unambiguous guarantor of the destruction of the United States, as well as humanity as a whole. There are already too many nuclear weapons of various capacities in the world. The recycling program starts and stops. Therefore, with the advent of the new Doomsday weapon, the balance of power in the world is approaching a dangerous line.
Meanwhile, former US State Department adviser Stephen Pifer argues that this is more like paranoia. After all, the US missile defense system is capable of holding up to 40 warheads, and Russia (according to Pifer) has more than one and a half thousand. Therefore, the development of such weapons is an excess, at least on the principle of Occam’s Razor - if you have everything you need, then something else will be added. In view of the above, it is believed that there is no urgent need to implement this project in the near future.
Export option
While the Western world stood still, the Taiwan Times published an expert opinion on the possibilities of exporting a new ocean multipurpose system to China and India. This does not contradict the concept of security of the Russian Federation for several reasons:
- technical implementation of deliveries is possible no earlier than 2029, when the project will go through all stages of testing and will be officially announced on the implementation of “Status-6”;
- an oceanic multipurpose system is not dangerous for Russia, since settlements are located far from the coast (which cannot be said about the USA);
- deliveries to India and China do not contradict international law if the system does not carry a nuclear charge.
Alex Calvo, an expert in international law, having analyzed the information on the supply of a new torpedo, came to the following conclusions:
- uninhabited nuclear systems are prohibited by international law, but here we are talking only about those based on the ocean floor, “Status-6” no longer falls under this definition;
- if it is not legally proven that the new multipurpose system carries a nuclear charge, then in fact such a torpedo can use the “right of peaceful passage” to the territorial waters of another state;
- a number of countries that are trying to ban the passage of Status-6 into their waters will face another legal problem: it is possible to ban the passage of inhabited submarines, but nowhere is there any talk of uninhabited controlled (or autonomous) drones;
- if the United States decides to strictly restrict the passage of the system into its waters, this will provoke a conflict with China, because the latter insists on the unquestioning fulfillment by the States of international agreements on freedom of navigation.
Conclusion
Such as Status-6, weapons have historically always been considered a kind of guarantee of deterrence, rather than weapons that are used almost every day. The very prospect of a state using such weapons would entail a retaliatory nuclear strike.
And the outbreak of atomic warfare will lead to the complete destruction of the planet’s atmosphere and make it unsuitable for life for many years.
Meanwhile, it is worth considering that all of the above information is 80% based on the opinions and conclusions of Western experts. The remaining 20% ​​are excerpts from numerous forums, blogs and online reviews of military equipment innovations. The only hint that the indicated “Status-6” torpedo is being developed in Russia is the image that got into the news on the central channel (photo below), accidentally snatched from the officer’s shoulder by the journalist’s camera.
From this began all discussions about the creation of the new “Doomsday Weapon”. There are no longer any officially published documents anywhere indicating the accuracy of this information. Over the years, the topic has been fueled exclusively by amateurs to discuss topics of confrontation between Russia and the United States. In such discussions, essays of the Cold War times (of course, in a free interpretation) and materials of semi-fantastic works of various writers often come up. The discussion, as a rule, comes down to theses like "Yes, we will give Pindos a light!" or "Got Game, America."
It should also be recalled that the legacy of the Soviet Union of Russia went to the information protection system, which consists of four stages.
The first stage is the so-called documents for official use (DSP), which do not carry any secret information, but it is assumed that this information is exclusively for certain persons (for example, for employees of an enterprise), and for outsiders no information values ​​are not.
The second stage (the first level of secrecy) is the documentation marked “secret”. This information has serial numbers starting with zero. As a rule, these are some orders of military “tops” to conduct certain operations. Such documents do not provide for disclosure of information, but there is no information falling under the category of “state secret”.
The third (second level of secrecy) - numbering with two zeros and the stamp "top secret". An example would be the instructions for operating new experimental types of weapons, which are still listed under the GRAU index (an example of the wording is “Product No. 13”). Instructions for using nuclear weapons, as well as torpedoes, fall into this category.
The fourth step (secrecy of the third level) is information of special importance that can affect the security of the state. In the era of the USSR, the minutes of the meetings of the Central Committee of the CPSU fell into this category.
The meeting of the President with representatives of the military command of the Russian Federation is, of course, an event of particular importance, therefore it falls under the last category indicated. Therefore, the leak of classified information is completely excluded.
This leads to the conclusion that the document, supposedly accidentally falling into the camera’s lens, can be nothing more than a “stuffing”. Nevertheless, the information war is also a war.
Given all of the above, it is impossible to say with absolute probability that such a project is being developed. It is also impossible to say with complete certainty that it is not being developed, because the domestic military-industrial complex has had all the necessary means to implement such a torpedo for several decades.
It is possible that the stuffing of this information was made deliberately in order to generate a reaction in the Western media and to observe one to analyze (or just laugh).
In conclusion, it is worth noting that there is a minimum of reliable information about the project. The only news frame still does not say anything, the vast majority of information about the project is based on the opinion of Western analysts and Russian bloggers.
If all this is true, then the Western defense structures will have to significantly revise their systems for counteracting such complexes, and make adjustments to a number of points of international law regarding the import of weapons and the presence of foreign ships and submarines in territorial waters. And this must be done as soon as possible.
What, in general, will be in the end is difficult to say. But only one state cannot have a deterrent. It is "doomed" to appear in another. Every action causes a reaction. And for every weapon its own “shield” is being developed. And so this arms race is rushing endlessly through history, giving rise to ever new, frightening weapons that threaten to wipe all living things from the face of the earth at one time or another.
One involuntarily recalls a shot of complete disarmament from the movie X-Men: Apocalypse, when rockets from all over the world launch and launch into outer space. And then they explode beyond the limits of the earth's atmosphere. Whether it will remain only a fantasy or someday will come true - time will tell.