President Vladimir Putin said on Wednesday that Russia had successfully tested the Poseidon nuclear super-torpedo, which military analysts claim could trigger vast radioactive ocean swells that could devastate coastal areas, Reuters reported.
Russia publicly demonstrated its nuclear capabilities by testing a new Burevestnik cruise missile on October 21st and holding a nuclear launch exercise on October 22nd.
There are few confirmed details about Poseidon, named after the ancient Greek god of the sea, but it is essentially a combination nuclear-capable torpedo and drone.
The tests took place on Tuesday, Putin said over tea and cake at a Moscow hospital with Russian soldiers injured in the Ukraine war.
“For the first time, we not only succeeded in launching using a launch engine from a carrier-based submarine, we also successfully launched a nuclear-powered unit using this device for a certain period of time,” Putin said.
“There is nothing like this,” he said, adding that analysts saw no way to intercept Poseidon, which has a range of 10,000 kilometers (6,200 miles) and can fly at around 185 kilometers per hour.
According to RT, the development of a giant, torpedo-shaped, nuclear-capable drone was first announced in 2018, but has remained shrouded in mystery ever since.
“We not only succeeded for the first time in launching a drone from a carrier-based submarine using a booster engine, but also successfully activated a nuclear unit that propels the drone for a certain period of time,” Putin said.
The device “is unrivaled in terms of speed and depth by any other weapon in the world,” the president stressed, adding that it was unlikely that any other country would deploy similar weapons anytime soon. Poseidon’s power significantly exceeds the characteristics of Russia’s upcoming Sarmat intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), Putin said, apparently referring to its nuclear payload.
MNA