I'm completely capable of having a conversation about Russian sub capability and keeping that separate from the political and military situation in Eastern Europe, as I imagine most of your audience is. Thanks for the video.
When russian Subs starting kaliber Missiles on Ukrainian territory, they are part of the attacing force and the war! And dont forget, they mostly built these ships to destroy our western citys and countrys with nukes. They support putin, they are accountable
well said,as a former submariner I've always had a great respect for the Russian submariners. But thanks to recent events I've had people commenting stuff like how about them Russians now and feel that is a huge mistake especially considering what I know and it's nice to see the facts in a clear and concise manner..... once again you have nailed it and thanks for doing what you do. There's only so much I can say without getting closer than I like to classified materials. Being able to direct people to your site and now videos makes educating people so much easier and I wanted to say thanks
Russia hugely benefits from upholding the mythos of their forces of all kinds. It's not like anyone plans to attack Russia with strategic weapons so their submarine force shouldn't be a part of the current tactical equation.
@@N1njaSnake I agree that Russia benefits from keeping up a facade but out of all their services the sub fleet has one of the lowest turnovers of them all and is one of the few that value experience. Even their pilots tend to leave for the private sector.
One small point, russia is not fighting ukraine...it is fighting ukraine packed with £130 billion of nato weapons. Most medium sized militaries wouldve collapsed in a week.
"During times of war, truth is the first casualty." As said by some one much smarter than myself. Thank you for keeping this video as fact based as possible. It's a very interesting topic, and I think has more bearing on the future of warfare than the current land war. Sadly it's becoming ever more difficult to find objectively researched presentations over feelings, hopes, wishes and outright propaganda.
I'm amazed by Americans' reactions to this conflict. So many channels putting out unverified information, only to take it down a week later. You'd think they'd been invaded rather than Ukraine, from the amount of zealot screeching over here.
@@SwitchTF2 indeed the bbc news is full of "ive been told ________ happened here not so long ago". no independant eye witness accounts. no evidence of _______. the most eye opening thing of all is - just what else have we had the same spin treatment applied to in the uk?
@@mrrolandlawrence Man you must live under a rock in Faslane. Don't you remember Alistair Campbell and the Blair years? "Dodgy dossier" and Baghdad ring any bells? American spin is nothing compared to the media work by Brown or Blair governments. I don't agree with you that the BBC lies, but to be swept away in anger by dead civilians is willful stupidity.
The AUKUS agreement will see Australia receive the technology to develop/build nuclear powered subs. The view, at least here in Australia, is that we'll base a design on a US frame, but it's my view that the Astute class would be a better fit for our navy. I'd be fascinated on your views on the topic.
I think we will be getting the Astute class as Britain is nearly finished building theirs and ours can roll over into production. Our sailors can rotate through American and British nuke subs for experience, they certainly will not be building them in South Australia after the Collins mess.
@@bestestusername oh dear haha. Listen mate. The rest of the Astute Class are behind and won't be finished for nearly 10 years. Then the facility will be building the Dreadnought Class which are also behind and are a priority then when they are finished we start building the Astute replacement for the next 20 years. Naye luck. Ps the US are in the same position. Go design and build your own and find the 170 billion to do so.
mate don’t trust the liberals the subs we were supposed to get from france were converted from nuclear designs it would have cost much less and subs would of been delivered alot quicker than the AUKUS subs if we just converted them back to nuclear besides australia will never have the industry to build our own if the liberals keep selling land and major companies away if you want a safer world for yourself and your kids you’d vote labor
People getting butthurt about yet another war. When they probably haven't given a rats ass about most wars, ever. Probably couldn't find Donbas on a map prior lmao.
I've been watching your videos for quite a while now and I think I just gotta say thank you for this great and interesting content! I enjoyed every single one of your chats and it's been giving me a very good insight into a topic that I used to have little to no knowledge about. So thank you for that, I hope you have a nice day :)
Excellent job covering a lot of material! Thank you and keep up the good work. I was a sonar tech aboard the USS Kinkaid (DD-965) from 1985-1989 out of San Diego and like to keep up on info.
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Possibly, it's the road ahead. Although that too requires development and integration. There have been reports of RuN trying Li tech batteries but not in this application yet
The modernized Oscar is supposed to carry quite the load, as well as the modernized Kirov after refit. Guess that's a positive of such huge platforms is the sheer amount if tubes and VLS cells.
Based on your Russian funding conclusions, I would like to see detailed financial analysis of Russian Submarine construction and maintenance. This analysis should include paying of sailors. Given data we now have I wonder. Russia has had notable failures in nuclear propulsion that contaminated a Russian village. What water testing has been done? So far their hypersonics, including Zircon, are “converted” conventional missiles. These are designs or actual hardware. The development of small crew “baby submarines” to be launched clandestinely should be a US and British consideration. If nothing more than rescue capability.
My understanding is that zircon is not a hypersonic in the same sense that western missiles are currently being developed. I am almost certain that saying that russia is ahead of the west in this department is misleading as to be a false claim.
I love your videos and analysis. You mentioned something to the effect of being careful about totally believing mainstream media (sorry that is my paraphrase of my memory). What site or you tube channel do you recommend for a more truthful account of the ongoing war to this curious Texan?
Try twitter Naval aspects (mine) twitter.com/CovertShores OSINT gathering twitter.com/RALee85 Losses counting and monitoring twitter.com/oryxspioenkop More monitoring and counting twitter.com/UAWeapons Quality observations on land warfare twitter.com/WarintheFuture Many other accounts too, but those are the obvious one for this war
For the Kilo class AIP problem the Export variant “Amur“ class deals with this which means that it is most certain that Russia has an upgrade package for them already otherwise they won’t be exporting it. Great video that’s a sub for you. Looking forward to your channel and keep up the work.
Nice video as usual. Oh.. Do you have a plan to make a video talking about submarine weapon, like maybe russian/us torpedo, their guided misille, or other system?
I call it Cold War 2. But now it's different: Russia's economy is more sound than the USA's unless you think that huge amounts of government, state, local, corporate, and individual debt are irrelevant in the USA. Round 2: unless you think the huge MONETARY inflation, trade and budget deficits in the USA are irrelevant. Follow Peter Schiff to learn that what I state is true.
Thanks for this installment. I especially liked the opening touching on the mistake of viewing the events in Ukraine as a sign of overall Russian capabilities.
I would challenge your assertion that Russia places greater emphasis on special operation submarines than US. The reason US capabilities appear less is that the programs and technologies are very highly classified even within the Navy itself. Even the budgets are Top Secret compartmentalized info. Very few people know both the technical and operational compartments at the same time.
Informative and insightful as always, thank you! Considering your future predictions: what has the impact of previous sanction been on the submarine fleet and what do you think will current/future sanctions mean, eg in terms of availability of critical materials etc
I disagree. Russia have a long history of copying Western technology and in doing so bypass essential research required in learning exactly how to make it all happen themselves. ECM makes all the difference in war machines and this is also why superior war machines that are sold to allied forces are sold to allied forces without the game changing ECM they possess. The ECM I refer to here is an umbrella term for anything and everything that detects and counters the enemy, such as, radar and sonar. Add to this that Russia has not won a naval battle in one hundred years so why should we imagine that they are capable of winning one now. Their use of titanium for submarine pressure hulls was a big expensive mistake and anyone like me who has researched that will know exactly why. The loss of the Kursk and the Losharik says it all that in a nutshell Russia knows very little worth a spit about naval matters and this also explains why Russia has not won a naval battle in a hundred years. I rest my case.
i am confused, the UK spends more on defense then russia. has a smaller army a smaller air force and a smaller navy. and so my question is how can russia have such a larger armed forces and be of high quality as well? the most advanced technology companies in the world are western
You have to understand that the vast majority of information that OSI uses is based on Russian propaganda. Russian maintenance is notoriously bad and corruption runs rampant.
Thank you again for your wonderful videos. You are truly a wonderful source of information. In the last few years, I have become more interested in subs and the history of them. Being from the eastern part of North Carolina in the US, I have always enjoyed the history of this area. I remember when the Hunley was found and eventually raised. Having traveled extensively up and down the East coast, I have gone past the exits for Groton Ct and Savannah Ga sub bases. I’m thankful for finding Sub Brief and eventually, your channel. Lots of great info from you both. It’s nice to know what the “other team” is bringing to the fight. One of my fathers good friends was on attack boats in the 70’s when the “Cold war” was in full swing.
Очень интересно смотреть аналитику запада про вмс рф. Могу предположить что демографический кризис приведёт к беспилотным системам, беспилотные танки уже есть, беспилотные самолёты есть, подводные лодки нового поколения будут с малочисленными экипажами и высокой степенью роботизированными система управления. Война двигатель прогресс...к сожалению.
I’m surprised there hasn’t been more development of torpedo mines. It would be lovely to just gently eject torpedos that can fire themselves. That sounds like a real problem for US carrier groups
that you think the Russian economy is suffering undermines your understanding of their weaponry. that you suggest Russians destroyed Nordstream undermines any trust in your sanity.
Well, they're going to need a lot of high-tech components to keep to their timetable. I'm not so sure they'll have an easy time getting those. Hopefully, sanctions will give them enough of a pause that we can be sure to head them off technologically. We'll see!
It is interesting to contrast Russian approaches to noise supression with US. Historically, Russia exploited their double hull design approach to install noise supression mechanical devices and treatments in the flooded void between the pressure hull and outer hull. This was true up until 1990 - not sure if still true. US on the other hand developed coatings for their pressure hulls that were elastomeric material with entrained air bubbles. The problem with the US approach was that as you go deep the micro bubbles compress which has the effect of making the submarine heavier. This imposed real operational limits on how thick coatings can be applied.
@@HISuttonCovertShores if fact soviets used anaechoic coating already in the late 60s on the Victors and Charlies. No idea why the US only started applying them on 688s in the 80s
The Russians have also got the new Moskva Class Submarine, Apparently Putin sent the Moskva out on a ‘Special Operation’ to test it’s diving capabilities, they could confirm that it’s diving capabilities actually work, but when it came to resurfacing it, they then found out that they forgot to add the ballast tanks to their Flagship, L🤣L👍🏼
Poseidon is an economy measure. If you need to respond to a CSG moving into a theater of interest and you lack access or numbers to penetrate their SSN screens and possibly (now, certainly, future) satellite tracking of thermal wakes, you can instead send in these from a mothership some considerable distance outside the COEA (Atlantic on a Mediterranean target set) without exposing your primary system investment and while still having the performance and quieting needed to get inside on a much smaller, deeper diving and ultimately, _faster_ system. I doubt very much if 'tactical' variants are nuclear armed (though warhead sections may be variable) but I would bet that they use an RTG or similar to follow underwater terrain in deep-silent cruise. Assuming they have decent INS systems and the Russians have done good bottom mapping, they can self-nav to get close and then make final run-ins like an Alpha class, at 2,000ft and 40-60 knots. We may be able to hear them coming but I doubt if we can stop them. If they _are_ equipped with say a 100KT warhead, that's enough to blow both surface combatants from well down and more particularly, to attack submarine telecomms cables. Cross Roads was only 23KT and, while shallow, managed to do this- en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Crossroads#/media/File:Operation_Crossroads_Baker_(wide).jpg This is Wig Wam which detonated at 2,000ft, also with 30KT- en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Wigwam#/media/File:Wigwam.jpg You don't have to form a strategic radiological menace to civilian targets (i.e. one which is both blatant and traceable to specific IAEA reactor cores in terms of trace elements) via port or offloading station attack, you can use these systems as explicit and exclusive naval and data infrastructure attack weapons. In the latter role, depending on how deep the weapons can go, there doesn't even have to be a visible surface surge to their use. Let's be generous and say that they cost 50 million each. And need 2 million in repairs between cruises. For the equivalent of 3 billion dollars (one, low end, SSN) and 2.4 billion for 20 cruises worth of maintenance; you are talking about the ability to deploy 60 hulls at roughly 11 times less cost than a believable class number (20) of Virginia equivalents. That's 60,800,000,000 vs, 5,400,000,000 dollars. Yes, they are mission restrictive. Yes, they are NOT true attack submarines. But in terms of value for utility, they represent not just cost savings but an immeasurable political leverage. Because there might come a day, when Russia's economically weak back was against a wall, with the entire known world levelling sanctions against the country. And having the sub-strategic option to hostage global currency trades, the petroleum lading points and even global navies might be seen as a survivable escalation before MAD. Say what you will about the Russian's morals. But they are not stupid people. And their leaders in particular, are far more skilled as strategists than ours. We don't know what exactly is going on in Ukraine. The media is completely propagandized. We don't know why it is happening, presupposing Putin is either a mafia thug or mad is ridiculous. What we can and must do is determine the believable geopolitical pathways from this event as though it was an intentional act with further, subsequent, iterations intended or likely to derive from it's opening.
In your videos, could you differentiate what you mean by "West"? It would be interesting to know whether you are talking about German, Swedish, US, French, or whatever submarines rather than lumping them together as "West", because I would think there are vast differences in the modernity of navies.
Well you summarized the west right there. That is in fact what he is referring to, if he wanted to be more specific he would have listed a country specifically. Using the west as a conglomerate is logical as the west acts in alliance via nato and the standards range of all of nato is highly relevant to russian naval strategy as nato is a unified alliance. Because there is also a great deal of variety in a country year to year, between two classes of boat, and the difference even in crew. So in short: he was speaking generally because that was what was relevant. Speaking more specifically is for other topics and can quickly trail into silence as osint runs dry
We have over-estimated Russian numbers and capabilities forever. And I'm sure we are doing it now with their subs. We keep assuming their advertised capabilities are valid, and that they can field the full quantities they advertise. I'll accept that the sub service is better run and funded than other Russian armed services, but I won't give it the full credit others do. Can they launch nukes? Sure, and that's why we assume they're capable and act accordingly, but I'd give them 50% credit for SUSTAINED operations. They can deploy, bit it's real thin.
Awesome video, as always. Looking at your roadmap regarding future Russian submarine procurement. Do you think this will suffer with current sanctions, or do you see them collaborating more with China? Building and maintaining a massive conventional and nuclear fleet is expensive. I am not sure if the have the budget to build what they estimate.
russian exports are not effected at all at least not important ones. if anything they have even more money. as for technology they are developing their own since 2014 when first sanctions hit. actually cheap chinese submarines will effect more negative on russia. russia did export tons of kilo class but if countries will buy chinese submarines russia surely will suffer there. also india wants to build their own submarines... so yes russia is loosing market but not due to current situation
The 2020s and 2030s are shaping up to be "interesting times" where the norm could well be nations spending more on defense, so even though there is more competition the pie could be getting a lot bigger.
@@ivancho5854 I recall reading things about the "four turnings" and the whole different generations cause, inherit, cause, etc., certain things. Stats, historical precedents, etc., etc.. and a lot of them stated that due to these factors that the 202s would be the beginning of some very hard and/or chaotic times. Due to timing and a culmination of the aforementioned factors. I think the most succinct gist is the "four turnings". Make pf it what you will, but from the reading I had done--this was from 2015-2019--and yeah, again, they all had come to conclusion that of the 2020s being turbulent which would go on to really shape the 2030s and by the 2050s being what would shape the new millennium in the 2100s. Which sounds about right coming from the 1950s,1850, etc., etc.. And the 2020s started with quiet the bang.
The thing I like about this is it almost seems like a military briefing. No nonsense, no “like and subscribe”, no woke opinions, just information. Please do not modify this format.
They don’t have 8 yasens, they have 3 in service with 1 in trials. And the block 5 virginias will have more cruise missiles than yasens. We’re making 6 now and have 22 in service. Hypersonic missiles are only useful if they’re nukes, frankly. We stopped researching them in the 70s due to their uselessness. Russia hasn’t the economy to keep up
Have you done a video on the two Ubatsbas, Russian Submarines in the White Sea, docked in the port of Severodvinsk, Arkhangelsk Oblast, Russia? Or do you know of any info on them, (class, capabilities etc...)? 🤔
good job Mr. Sutton I like your videos and website as it is the best open source of info on sub development I can find on the internet. no political agenda or dramatic stuff that tries to illicit some emotional response or get you to convert to their side. I also think it's OK speculate (with a margin of error) in mind new sub numbers as old ones will eventually have to be replaced anyway. Cost is a big issue of course but also the stability of a nation's economy overall.
One thing every engineer needs to reconcile themselves with is that what they do will inevitably be used in war. I'm glad your channel and the comments here all approach that in a mature way.
The Yasen is a Flight 3 Los Angeles Class. It is not too far fetched to do the same with a Virginia and add an extra mid section for VLT. The problem with the Russian Navy is budget. They do not maintain their fleets and their designs are rushed into service.
Also, "more stealthy" for russia really isnt saying much. Seen too many comments from submariners that tracked them talking about how they could tell who it was just by how loud they are. One comment said, "sounded like they had a chain wrapped around their prop shaft." Also russia definitely isn't ahead of the US in terms of hypersonic missile technology. Cats kinda outa the bag now that they've been used and countered in Ukraine.
There's also a tradition of overestimating russian capabilities in the west. That's not to say we should continue to err on the prudent side of things, but still systems like Armata, SU-57, TOS, etc. have turned out to not be as much of a threat as some Russo-Boos would have liked.
As a former submariner I’ll say you can’t operate as incompetently as the Russian Army has been in Ukraine. Not without sinking your own vessels. Which hasn’t happened
