The Sevmash shipyard has handed over the Project 09852 specialpurpose submarine Belgorod (K-329) to the Russian Navy. The vessel is an extensively modified and lengthened Oscar-II hull, which, according to Russian PR, is designed to ‘solve diverse scientific problems and conduct search and rescue operations, and can also be used as a carrier of rescue deepsea and autonomous uninhabited underwater vehicles’.
However, with the capability to land on the seabed to manipulate objects on the ocean floor, such as communication cables, and with a range of payloads that includes Poseidon drones, a deep submergence submarine, underwater autonomous vehicles and a portable nuclear turbine generator to power an underwater sensor network, the ship’s real purpose is as a strategic strike and espionage platform.