If Vladimir Putin’s plans come to fruition, the Russians will soon have an underwater drone capable of wreaking disastrous havoc. TASS is reporting that Russia is working on a nuclear powered underwater drone capable of carrying a two megatonne nuclear warhead.
Kremlin.ru From the Daily Mirror: “It will be possible to mount various nuclear charges on the ‘torpedo’ of the Poseidon multipurpose seaborne system, with the thermonuclear single warhead… to have the maximum capacity of up to 2 megatonnes in TNT equivalent.” With its nuclear munition, the underwater drone “is primarily designed to destroy reinforced naval bases of a potential enemy,” the source said.
Daily Mirror The drone will have a speed of 60-70 knots and will be operational at a depth of more than 1km. The Russians certainly have high hopes for their new weapon of mass destruction. Putin boasted that the Poseidon will have “will have ‘hardly any vulnerabilities’ and said it would carry a ‘massive nuclear ordinance’. He added: ‘There is simply nothing in the world capable of withstanding them.’”
Daily Mirror Certainly, Putin likes to talk big, but would a weapon like this really be capable of massive destruction? Rex Richardson, a physicist, addressed that issue in an interview with Business Insider, and his answer was quite chilling: “A well-placed nuclear weapon of yield in the range 20 MT to 50 MT near a sea coast could certainly couple enough energy to equal the 2011 tsunami, and perhaps much more. “Taking advantage of the rising-sea-floor amplification effect, tsunami waves reaching 100 meters [330 feet] in height are possible.” For our sake and the safety of the whole world, let’s hope this thing sinks like a rock.