World’s Largest Cruise Missile Launched By Russian Nuclear Attack Submarine with Ground and Surface Support

The Russian Navy’s Project 949A Oscar II Class nuclear powered attack submarine the Orel has launched a cruise missile strike during the July Storm live fire exercises. The warship was joined by the Admiral Gorshkov Class frigateAdmiral Golovko and by a Bastion coastal defence system. “On the concluding day of the large-scale manoeuvres at the Northern Fleet, the frigate Admiral Golovko, the nuclear-powered submarine cruiser Orel and a Bastion coastal defence missile system conducted joint missile firings by Kalibr, Granit and [P-800] Oniks cruise missiles at a multiple sea target in the Barents Sea,” the Russian Defence Ministry announced regarding the exercises. Oscar II Class ships are entered service in the Soviet Navy from 1986, with the last joining the Russian Navy in 1994. The ships were considered revolutionary for the Soviet Navy, and were widely regarded as the most capable attack submarine class of the Cold War era for anti-shipping duties.

Oscar II Class ships are the last class of Russian warships equipped with P-700 Granit cruise missiles, which are approximately four times as large as standard sized cruise missiles deployed by modern vessels. Each of the ships carries 24 of the cruise missiles, which were designed to target heavily defended carrier strike groups at ranges of close to 500 kilometres. At 7000 kilograms each, the P-700s size meant they were only ever accommodated on Oscar II Class submarines, Kirov Class battlecruisers, and Kuznetsov Class aircraft carriers, with their flight paths and guidance systems having been cutting edge at the time. The Oscar II Class has gradually been phased out of service as it is replaced by the new Yasen Class attack submarines, which benefits from a much stealthier design particularly in its reactor cooling system, and with a larger arsenal of 32 more modern and smaller cruise missiles including the new Zircon hypersonic cruise missile.