MOSCOW, November 6. /TASS/. Washington's colossal investments in the anti-missile and anti-aircraft defense system are almost nullified by Russia's achievements in developing its nuclear submarine fleet and its latest weapons, Alexander Stepanov, a military expert at the RANEPA Institute of Law and National Security, said.

"The enemy (US — TASS) has made a strategic miscalculation: by pouring trillions of dollars into the construction of a layered missile defense system, putting thousands of satellites into orbit to provide additional missile attack warning system capabilities, NATO strategists missed the main point - a devastating retaliatory strike could follow from the depths of the sea," he said in a column he contributed to TASS.

On October 29, President Vladimir Putin said Russia has successfully completed tests of the Poseidon unmanned underwater vehicle with a nuclear power plant, which is more powerful than the promising Sarmat intercontinental missile. Stepanov noted that due to its low noise and speed of up to 185 km/h, Poseidon is invulnerable to any means of sonar monitoring and interception. The device has an almost unlimited range and is equipped with warheads, which, according to various estimates, are capable of carrying up to 20 megatons each.

The expert explained that, according to the criterion of "unacceptable damage" proposed in the 1960s by US Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara, it is enough to destroy 50-75% of its industrial potential and 25-30% of the population to inflict a guaranteed defeat on the enemy. For such an outcome, according to Stepanov, a combined impact potential of 400 megatons is required.

"A simple calculation of only four special submarines Khabarovsk and Belgorod, each of which can carry up to six Poseidons, suggests that they are independently capable of exceeding this lethal threshold for the enemy," the expert said.

Thus, Stepanov concludes, the unique tactical and technical characteristics and formidable striking power of Russian unmanned aerial vehicles make any attempts to create an "impenetrable" shield, including the Golden Dome, meaningless.