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Russia’s latest Yasen-M subs to get capability to salvo-launch cruise missiles

The nuclear-powered submarine Kazan made a salvo launch of two missiles from a vertical launcher and a torpedo tube during state trials, according to a source
Nuclear-powered submarine Kazan Alexander Ryumin/TASS
Nuclear-powered submarine Kazan
© Alexander Ryumin/TASS

MOSCOW, April 20. /TASS/. Russia’s improved Project 885M (Yasen-M) nuclear-powered submarines will feature the capability of salvo-launching Kalibr-PL and Oniks cruise missiles, a source in the domestic defense industry told TASS on Tuesday.

"The Project 885M nuclear-powered submarine Kazan made a salvo launch of two missiles from a vertical launcher and a torpedo tube during state trials," the source said.

In November 2020, "the Kazan made a salvo during state trials, which confirmed the possibility of such launches," the source said. A Kalibr-PL cruise missile was fired from a vertical launcher against a coastal target while an Oniks missile was launched from a torpedo tube against a surface target. Both targets were successfully struck, the source specified.

TASS has no official confirmation of this information yet. The Research and Production Association of Machine-Building, the developer and manufacturer of Oniks cruise missiles, declined to comment on this information.

It was reported in early April that shipbuilders would deliver the improved Project 885M (Yasen-M) lead nuclear-powered submarine Kazan to the Russian Fleet by Navy Day that will be celebrated on July 25 this year.

The Project 885M lead nuclear-powered submarine Kazan was floated out at the Sevmash Shipyard on March 31, 2017. The sub entered shipbuilders’ sea trials on September 25, 2018.

The timeframe of the sub’s delivery to the Russian Navy was numerously rescheduled. The nuclear-powered sub failed to fulfil the planned program of state trials on schedule for some reasons. The Sevmash Shipyard press office announced on December 31 that the Kazan would be delivered to the Navy in 2021.

It was reported that the Kazan had fulfilled the program of Kalibr and Oniks cruise missile launches during the trials and no other launches were planned.

Project 885/885M submarines are armed with Kalibr-PL and Oniks cruise missiles and will eventually carry Tsirkon hypersonic missiles as their basic weapons.