Russian Varshavyanka-class stealth submarines to be based in Pacific

MOSCOW’s been boosting its presence in the Asia Pacific. It’s been sending bombers on visits to Indonesia. Its fleet regularly exercises with the Chinese. Now its sending reinforcements — in the form of two new stealth submarines.

Russian state-media outlet TASS reports the two Project 636.3 Varshavyanka-class diesel-electric submarines will be deployed with its Pacific Fleet in November 2020. They’re the first of an expected six to eventually be delivered to the region.

While they have significantly less endurance than nuclear-powered submarines, diesel-electric boats are generally much quieter.

The Varshavyanka-class is an evolved version of the Cold War era Kilo-class submarines. But considerable new technology has gone into the construction of the 4000-ton vessels.

“The multipurpose, low-noise and highly manoeuvrable Varshavyanka-class (Project 636.3) submarine is named after the city of Rostov-on-Don,” Russia Today reports.

“Armed with 18 torpedoes and eight surface-to-air Club missiles, Project 636.3 submarines are mainly intended for anti-shipping and anti-submarine missions in relatively shallow waters. They have an extended combat range and can strike surface, underwater and land targets”.

Military analysts say new materials, coatings, dampersand noise-cancelling technology have been introduced to make the boats quieter. And new rechargeable batteries give the new boats about 25 per cent extra range, while allowing its electric-drive to operate in virtual silence.

They also have modern combat systems.

The submarines are designed to be hunter-killers, tracking down and sinking opposing submarines and ships. But they’re also capable of stealthy reconnaissance and patrol missions.

Moscow state-run media boasts the submarines are the quietest in the world.

They certainly pose a challenge to the West.

Last year, NATO engaged in a three-month game of cat-and-mouse as it attempted to track one of the subs, the Krasnodar, from its North Sea base to the troubled waters of Syria in the Mediterranean. Once there, US and allied frigates, cruisers and P-8 Poseidon aircraft strove to locate the submarine before and after it launched missile attacks on Syrian rebel and Islamic State forces.

Earlier this year, a similar scenario unfolded as British and US submarines strove to get into position to launch their own missile attacks on Syria. Russia sent out a force of frigates, aircraft — submarines — to track them down. A tense Cold War era pursuit unfolded as the Russian submarines chased a modern British Astute-class nuclear powered submarine for three days.

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HERA the Stars said:

The Russians are coming!... along with everyone else, apparently, half the world's submarines will operate in the Indo-Pacific by 2035 according to an Australian Defence White Paper. (http://www.defence.gov.au/WhitePaper/Docs/2016-Defence-White-Paper.pdf)
The reason at least largely likely due to half the worlds economic output estimated from this region by 2050.

Certainly looks like we're going back to the days of sub stalking and I can't say I'm sorry, I love the subs.. dark, sleek and dangerous what's not to like.

The US and Britain have already met the Krasnodar, The Black Hole in the Mediterranean. When Donald Trump sent missiles into Syria in April this year, we missed all the action that played out between the submarines in the Eastern Mediterranean the week prior to this event. I wonder how they fared against the Russian subs?



https://www.couriermail.com.au/news/world/russian-varshavyankaclass-stealth-submarines-to-be-based-in-pacific/news-story/44aedda3648115122b06b5bf3aa212b0

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Hawkeye10 said:

Apparently the Russians build some really good stuff, under difficult economic conditions, under attack from the West from what they feel was them justifiably looking out for their interests in the near abroad and elsewhere.

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Did you know that the military uses its submarines as underwater hacking platforms?

In fact, subs represent an important component of America's cyber strategy. They act defensively to protect themselves and the country from digital attack, but — more interestingly — they also have a role to play in carrying out cyberattacks, according to two U.S. Navy officials at a recent Washington conference.

"There is a — an offensive capability that we are, that we prize very highly," said Rear Adm. Michael Jabaley, the U.S. Navy's program executive officer for submarines. "And this is where I really can't talk about much, but suffice to say we have submarines out there on the front lines that are very involved, at the highest technical level, doing exactly the kind of things that you would want them to do."

The so-called "silent service" has a long history of using information technology to gain an edge on America's rivals. In the 1970s, the U.S. government instructed its submarines to tap undersea communications cables off the Russian coast, recording the messages being relayed back and forth between Soviet forces. (The National Security Agency has continued that tradition, monitoring underwater fiber cables as part of its globe-spanning intelligence-gathering apparatus. In some cases, the government has struck closed-door deals with the cable operators ensuring that U.S. spies can gain secure access to the information traveling over those pipes.)

These days, some U.S. subs come equipped with sophisticated antennas that can be used to intercept and manipulate other people's communications traffic, particularly on weak or unencrypted networks.

"We've gone where our targets have gone" — that is to say, online, said Stewart Baker, the National Security Agency's former general counsel, in an interview. "Only the most security-conscious now are completely cut off from the Internet." Cyberattacks are also much easier to carry out than to defend against, he said.

One of America's premier hacker subs, the USS Annapolis, is hooked into a much wider U.S. spying net that was disclosed as part of the 2013 Edward Snowden leaks, according to Adam Weinstein and William Arkin, writing last year for Gawker's intelligence and national security blog, Phase Zero. A leaked slide showed that in a typical week, the Navy performs hundreds of so-called "computer network exploitations," many of which are likely the result of submarine-based hacking.

"Annapolis and its sisters are the infiltrators of the new new of cyber warfare," wrote Arkin and Weinstein, "getting close to whatever enemy — inside their defensive zones — to jam and emit and spoof and hack. They do this through mast-mounted antennas and collection systems atop the conning tower, some of them one-of-a-kind devices made for hard to reach or specific targets, all of them black boxes of future war."

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Last year, NATO engaged in a three-month game of cat-and-mouse as it attempted to track one of the subs, the Krasnodar, from its North Sea base to the troubled waters of Syria in the Mediterranean. Once there, US and allied frigates, cruisers and P-8 Poseidon aircraft strove to locate the submarine before and after it launched missile attacks on Syrian rebel and Islamic State forces.

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Tim the plumber said:

Hell's teeth, how did they manage to keep that base secret?

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HERA the Stars said:

Yeah, although how much of it is stolen only they and the Americans will know, but that's not the point. Point is the subs are back and in the Indo Pacific, we're entering a new age of cyber espionage and would explain the rise of the subs.

America uses stealthy submarines to hack other countries’ systems (article two years old)

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-switch/wp/2016/07/29/america-is-hacking-other-countries-with-stealthy-submarines/?utm_term=.b654e5226827

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HERA the Stars said:

Yeah, although how much of it is stolen only they and the Americans will know, but that's not the point. Point is the subs are back and in the Indo Pacific, we're entering a new age of cyber espionage and would explain the rise of the subs.

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Westphalian said:

:shock:

Stolen from the Americans - you mean during that non existent time when the US built submarines for the Russians, or otherwise just left one carelessly lying around?

Using open sources, it's fair to note that Russian submarine building suffered amongst the least from the disastrous atrophy of the Yeltsin era.

The Varshavyanka class is nothing like western subs - employing a double hulled design. Note that it's diesel electric, not AIP (a technology which Russia has struggled to perfect). The deployment of the second batch of 636.3s (currently in build) to the Pacific Fleet has been public knowledge for over a year.

This is of course no threat to Australia. The prime purpose is to defend Pacific Sea lanes from hostile naval vessels, of which the US and Japan are prime concerns. But the growing Sino-Russian military co-operation should be a concern to pro western regional powers. The US Navy is immensely powerful and can control most of the world's seas, but I doubt it would be able to prevail in the Pacific region given the proximity to China, and that's a sea change.

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Westphalian said:

:shock:

Stolen from the Americans - you mean during that non existent time when the US built submarines for the Russians, or otherwise just left one carelessly lying around?

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Westphalian said:

Using open sources, it's fair to note that Russian submarine building suffered amongst the least from the disastrous atrophy of the Yeltsin era.

The Varshavyanka class is nothing like western subs - employing a double hulled design. Note that it's diesel electric, not AIP (a technology which Russia has struggled to perfect). The deployment of the second batch of 636.3s (currently in build) to the Pacific Fleet has been public knowledge for over a year.

This is of course no threat to Australia. The prime purpose is to defend Pacific Sea lanes from hostile naval vessels, of which the US and Japan are prime concerns. But the growing Sino-Russian military co-operation should be a concern to pro western regional powers. The US Navy is immensely powerful and can control most of the world's seas, but I doubt it would be able to prevail in the Pacific region given the proximity to China, and that's a sea change.

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RetiredUSN said:

Nothing you are posting here is news.

The US submarine force has hacked Russian intelligence for decades.

Meanwhile some folks here on DP want to whine about election adds. :lamo

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Chinese government hackers have compromised the computers of a Navy contractor, stealing massive amounts of highly sensitive data related to undersea warfare — including secret plans to develop a supersonic anti-ship missile for use on U.S. submarines by 2020, according to American officials.

Taken were 614 gigabytes of material relating to a closely held project known as Sea Dragon, as well as signals and sensor data, submarine radio room information relating to cryptographic systems, and the Navy submarine development unit’s electronic warfare library.

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Hawkeye10 said:

Apparently the Russians build some really good stuff, under difficult economic conditions, under attack from the West from what they feel was them justifiably looking out for their interests in the near abroad and elsewhere.

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Baron Samedi said:

Oh no. Not again. Does this forum have a no Russian bot policy?

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