Russian fleet to receive powerful submarines to guard Black sea and Mediterranean basin

Russian fleet to receive powerful submarines to guard Black sea and Mediterranean basin 

The Voice of Russia 18-Jan-1

Six submarines will receive Russian Black Sea Fleet as a part of the 636.3 Project until 2016. Three submarines will be available to sailors this year. These are diesel-electric submarines: "Novorossiysk", "Rostov-on-Don," Stary Oskol." They belong to the third generation class of ships "Varshavyanka" (NATO – Kilo classification). 

First one to appear on the Black Sea Fleet willl be "Novorossiysk". The length of the submarine - 73 meters, width - 10, maximum depth - 350 meters, submerged speed - twenty knots. 

According to public data, ships have powerful weapons and can strike with cruise missiles "Club-S" that are on board. 

"Range of fire of these missiles is about 300 kilometers. If the submarine will be equipped with a complex "Kalibr", the range will be 1200-1500 kilometers. This complex, as reported by Russian Navy Commander Admiral Viktor Chirkov, is adopted by the Russian Navy. So according to this indicator Russian weapons comparable to American cruise missiles "Tomahawk". With such a range missiles can hit targets in the countries that are far outside of the Black Sea, i.e. somewhere in the region of the Middle East," the vice-president of the Academy of Geopolitical Problems, captain Konstantin Sivkov stated. 

New submarines have unique noise characteristics. Their immediate predecessors, the submarine project 877 "Varshavyanka" were named by Western naval experts "black hole" precisely because it had a very low noise level. According to this indicator, they are clearly superior to similar Western models. 

Submarine Project 636.3, which is a deeply modernized version of "Varshavianka" has even lower levels of noise. And the availability of more sophisticated sonar system gives significant superiority to the ships of the same class and even to the atomic submarines. 

New ships can solve a wide range of tasks. The first one is fights with submarines. Especially in areas close to the coast of the probable enemy and not in areas near the Russian coast. It is also the defense of naval bases, coastal and marine communications. Today, the level of tension in the Black Sea is relatively low, said Konstantin Sivkov. 

"We must not forget that the Mediterranean basin is close, which is characterized by high levels of tension. Under certain conditions, it can spread to the Black Sea, especially if the conflict in Syria will not be ended, although there have are certain prerequisites for this now. Or if conflict with Iran will be unresolved. In this case, the flow of refugees, terrorists may spread to the Black Sea. And there will be a conflict on the Black Sea," he said. 

According to experts, the increase in the number of submarines in three years in the Black Sea will immediately provide cover up to six units for the coastal territory from attack from enemy ships. In the future, the total number of submarine forces of the Black Sea Fleet should be 12-15 of non-atomic submarines. This will effectively solve all problems.