Kalibr missile across Barents Sea
Russia’s newest Yasen-M class submarine on Thursday launched a cruise missile that reached a target about 500 kilometres away.
The “Arkhangelsk” (K-562) is the Northern Fleet’s newest 4th generation multi-purpose submarine. Handed over to the navy in late December 2024, the submarine set course towards Zapadnaya Litsa base early in 2025.
The nuclear-powered submarine is the third Yasen / Yasen-M class to be based a short 60 kilometres from Russia’s border with Norway.
However, when the submarine left the Sevmash shipyard in Severodvinsk, no successful testing of the Kalibr missile had taken place.
The launch on May 22 from submerged position in the Barents Sea will pave the way for full deployment of the submarine during 2025, according to the Droxford Maritime substack feed.
Submarines of the Yasen-M class has eight vertical launch tubes that can be armed with Oniks and Kalibr cruise missiles, but it is unclear if the "Arkhangelsk" can be armed with the Tsirkon missile.
The Northern Fleet's newspaper Na Strazhe Zapolyare reports that the distance from launch to impact "exceeded 600 kilometres". That information, which is a word-by-word copy from a Defense Ministry press statement, is not confirmed by independent sources.
However, the military message is clear: If the launch had happened in the opposite direction, from north of Murmansk and 600 kilometres west, the missile would hit targets in the Bear Gap, the strategic important waters where between Svalbard and North Cape where the shallow Barents Sea meets the deeper Norwegian Sea.
Simultaneously as the Kalibr shooting took place in the Barents Sea, Nordic military commanders met in Kirkenes to discuss a boost in cooperation, while the Norwegian Government announced measures to ease the country's self-imposed restrictions on NATO training close to the border with Russia.
NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte made his first visit to Norway on Thursday. At Evenes air station above the Arctic Circle, Rutte was shown the fleet of Norwegian P-8 Poseidon maritime surveillance aircraft which main mission is to track Russian submarines in northern waters.
