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The weapon looks to be around the size of a bus and US intelligence indicates it is an “Intercontinental Nuclear-Powered Nuclear-Armed Autonomous Torpedo”. Known as a Poseidon, the ominous weapon has had security experts hot under the collar since Russian President Vladimir Putin first leaked the “top secret” torpedo’s existence during a live speech in 2015. The new images give a clue as to how Russia may use their new weapon.
Experts believe it will run extremely deep and fast underwater, judging from its design.
These advancements have meant Poseidon‘s new category of strategic weapons is expected to change the shape of nuclear threats.
It comes after Mr Putin put a new arsenal of supersonic missiles on “combat alert”.
Mr Putin is driving to boost the Russian Navy’s military potential by developing more and more military bases, infrastructures and state-of-the-art weapons.
These include Russian missiles developed by the rocket design bureau NPO Mashinostroyenia, which are claimed to have been designed to strike targets on land and sea from over 1,000 kilometres (620 miles) away and can fly nine times the speed of sound.
The satellite images from Maxar Technologies taken earlier this month also confirmed that a special purpose ship, Akademik Aleksandrov, is also using the facility where the new bus-sized weapons were captured on satellite.
The facility is on the Northern shore of the Northern Dvina River on the edge White Sea.
Work on the new quay started in 2018 and finished in 2020.
READ MORE: Putin hits ‘bullseye’ with new deadly hypersonic missiles
It is also based just along the same river
Severodvinsk, where a lot of Russia’s most advanced submarines get built is already closely associated with the Poseidon weapon.
The ships and specialist submarines used in early tests were also based there.
By observing some of Russia’s new facilities like this one, it will give experts a good idea of the Russian Navy’s capabilities.
It also gives them an estimate of the cost of the programme, which requires new support infrastructure and an array of test ships and submarines.
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