Russian propaganda "media" report plans to construct nuclear submarines with a hull length of up to 360 meters for transporting liquefied gas through the waters of the "Northern Sea Route." This underwater movement is expected to reduce the average transit time from 20 to 12 days.
However, it is important to note that currently, the largest nuclear submarine in Russia has a hull length of only 184 meters. This suggests that the "analogousness" in Russian projects is now extending to the realm of "dual-use" projects.
To elaborate, the largest submarine in Russia at present is the special project submarine 09852 "Belgorod", which has a hull length of 184 meters and was built primarily as a means of delivering nuclear torpedoes "Poseidon," the project of which has not yet been realized "in metal," and even the Russian propagandists prefer not to mention this fact.
Before the beginning of 2023, the "largest submarine in the world" for the Russians was also the TK-208 "Dmitry Donskoy," a Soviet project 941 submarine with a hull length of 174 meters and a submerged displacement of up to 50,000 tons, for which they planned to install as many as 200 launchers for "Kalibr" missiles. However, this submarine cruiser was sent for disposal due to the aggressor country's lack of resources to maintain such a large underwater vessel.
Against this backdrop, the technological capability of Russia to build a 360-meter nuclear submarine for transporting liquefied gas, which is supposed to have a capacity of 180,000 tons of cargo and a draft of 14 meters, appears quite dubious.
0At the same time, regarding the very idea of constructing a submarine for cargo transport, there is a certain "rational" kernel to it. One can start by recalling the historical example of the German submarine U-155 Deutschland from World War I, which was initially built for transporting goods from the USA and breaking blockades, and later converted into a "classic" submarine cruiser that sank around five dozen enemy vessels.
Moreover, Nazi Germany actively used conventional submarines to deliver scarce goods from Japan during World War II.
1Ultimately, during the "Cold War," the USSR had a number of projects for landing submarines, none of which, however, were realized. The largest in terms of specifications was the project for a nuclear landing submarine designated 717 from the early 1970s, which was supposed to have a hull length and width of 190 meters and 23 meters respectively, with a submerged displacement of 25,000 tons, and a capacity of 800 troops or 20 units of various types of equipment.
The power plant was to provide a speed of up to 18 knots underwater, with the presence of six 533-mm torpedo tubes and an armament of 18 torpedoes. The construction of nuclear landing submarines under project 717 was not pursued due to a shortage of resources; the USSR preferred to focus on building a series of submarines from the aforementioned project 941.
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