Here's What You Need to Know: During a conflict, losing track of a submarine is deadly.

In 2018, the Russian Navy’s most advanced submarine, the Severodvinsk, slipped into the Atlantic. For weeks the U.S. Navy couldn’t find it. Here’s why. 

Yasen-class

The Yasen-class is Russia’s most advanced nuclear-powered cruise missile submarine. The first of the class, the Severodvinsk, was commissioned into the Russian Navy in 2013 or 2014. 

One of the U.S. Navy’s top submarine officers was so impressed with the Severodvinsk that he had a model made for his office to remind him what the United States Navy is up against. 

Talking about naval threats from Russia, Rear Admiral Dave Johnson said “We’ll be facing tough potential opponents. One only has to look at the Severodvinsk, Russia’s version of a [nuclear-guided missile submarine] (SSGN). I am so impressed with this ship that I had Carderock build a model from unclassified data.” 

The Whole Shebang

The Severodvinsk is incredibly advanced and leverages some technologies that the Soviet Union researched in the 1980s. It has a large spherical sonar array in the bow that is thought to be very sensitive. 

Because of the sonar’s large size, the torpedo tubes were moved from the nose to a position amidships near the submarine’s sail and are aimed at a forward angle. The Severodvinsk’s torpedo tubes are a mix of standard 533 millimeter and 650-millimeter heavyweight torpedos. 

The Severodvinsk’s hull is made of non or low-magnetic steel, which either significantly reduces or eliminates the Severodvinsk’s magnetic signature. 

Soviet (and now Russian) submarines have favored a double hull design in the past in which a hydrodynamic outer hull encapsulates a stronger inner pressure hull. The Severodvinsk uses a hybrid design, the outer hull only partially covers the inner hull. 

There is a high degree of automation in the Severodvinsk, and the sub’s crew complement is consequently small—just sixty-five sailors and officers. 

In addition to missiles, the Severodvinsk has twenty-four tubes aft of the sail that can carry the P-800 Onyx anti-ship missiles or nuclear-capable Granat missiles.

The Severodvinsk will be armed with Zircon hypersonic anti-ship missiles, a first in submarine armament.

Silent as a Mouse

In an interview with 60 Minutes, a U.S. Navy Admiral said that Russia has a “very capable submarine force,” and that increased Russian submarine activity gives him pause.

Talking about the Severodvinsk specifically, the Admiral said that the Severodvinsk is “a brand new class of submarine, and it’s very capable, and it’s very quiet, so that’s the most important thing I think, in submarine warfare.”

Although he would not comment on reports that the U.S. Navy lost the Severodvinsk, Pentagon officials said that the Severodvinsk went into the Atlantic Ocean in 2018—and managed to evade detection for weeks.

During peacetime, losing a Russian submarine is a headache. During a conflict, losing track of a submarine is deadly.

Caleb Larson holds a Master of Public Policy degree from the Willy Brandt School of Public Policy. He lives in Berlin and writes on U.S. and Russian foreign and defense policy, German politics, and culture.

This article first appeared in April 2020.

Image: Wikimedia Commons