In Secretive Russia, Plans Of Deadly Autonomous Submarine With Nuclear Torpedoes Are Openly Broadcast On State Television

Russia’s secret nuclear weapon is an autonomous submarine with nuclear weapons launch capability. While the country is capable of designing such a weapon, when details of it are accidentally broadcast on state television, things get a little more interesting.

Details of a new Russian unmanned stealth submarine, which can pack an arsenal of nuclear torpedoes, have been shown on state-controlled TV. While the news being aired by a single broadcaster could be considered a fluke, when two state media air it, suspicions rise of a government managed propaganda.

Two state controlled TV channels, Channel One and NTV, both aired video footage of a high level meeting which was presided by Russian President Vladimir Putin and attended by the top brass of the country’s defense forces. Surprisingly, the broadcast even showed detailed drawings and details of the Status-6 weapons system. The document had illustrations and letters that were clearly decipherable. It stated that once launched, the nuclear-tipped torpedoes would devastate its targets and render the regions a nuclear wasteland. The document was titled “Maritime Multifunctional System Status-6” and read:

“The submarine would ‘defeat important economic objects of an enemy in coastal zones, bringing guaranteed and unacceptable losses on the country’s territory’ by forming a wide area of radioactive contamination incompatible with conducting military, economic or any other activities there for a long period of time.”

The video footage has been hastily removed, but it showed a senior military officer looking at plans of a submarine and torpedo launch system that is believed to have been developed by Rubin, a weapons developer stationed in St. Petersburg, who specializes in long-range nuclear submarines.

It is seemingly obvious to some that the plans of Russia’s secret nuclear weapon would never have surfaced, let alone be broadcast on state television, accidentally. The Kremlin controls a majority of media with an iron hand and would have never allowed such sensitive information to be aired. The airing of the video on television channels under tight Kremlin control raised suspicions that it may have been done intentionally to intimidate the West, reported MSN. Experts raised doubts on how a cameraman could be allowed to film such a meeting, and more specifically, how could he zoom in on such sensitive documents right at the time a senior military personnel was opening the binder and observing them.

Relations between the United States and Russia have been deteriorating rapidly in the past few weeks. Some speculate the tensions between the two countries are nearing Cold War levels. News about such a secret nuclear weapon could be an attempt to prove to the West that Russia has a devastating weapon that can tip the scales in their favor in case hostilities do erupt between the two nations.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has been conducting meetings that were primarily focused on defense and military issues. The state media has been aware of at least four such high-level conferences, in as many days. It is apparent: Putin is paying close attention to modernization of his military powers. The country even warned that the NATO’s U.S.-led missile defense program was a deliberate attempt to break nuclear parity. It would be inevitable for Russia to respond with a strong deterrent as well as a weapons system that was capable of penetrating the shield, reported Fox News.

Interestingly, the Status-6 weapons system seems to be a revival of a rather antique, but strikingly similar concept that was tabled in 1950s Soviet Russia. At that time, the concept, though far ahead of its time, was rejected primarily because Russian submarines simply couldn’t reach U.S. shores undetected and would be destroyed long before they could launch a single missile, reported New York Times.

Though the news might be an intimidation tactic, these submarines, armed with modern technology could still be considered a grave threat. Should America take Russia’s secret nuclear weapon seriously?

[Photo by Guang Niu / Getty Images, Mikhail Klimentyev / Getty Images, Fox News Video Screen Grab]