Key Points and Summary – Russia is modernizing its naval power, shifting from large, Soviet-era vessels to a smaller, stealthier, and more heavily armed submarine fleet centered on the new Borei-class ballistic missile boats.
-These submarines are acoustically superior and designed to pose a sophisticated threat to NATO.
-However, this transition faces significant challenges, including slow production and, most critically, major cybersecurity vulnerabilities.
-A recent and embarrassing hack by Ukrainian intelligence successfully stole a raft of sensitive technical and operational data from one of Russia’s newest ballistic missile submarines, the Knyaz Pozharsky, undermining the credibility of these critical strategic assets.
Smaller and Heavily Armed, Russia’s Ballistic Missile Fleet Faces Challenges
Keen to resurrect the status of the Soviet Navy, the Russian Navy’s new submarines are sophisticated—but significant challenges persist.
The Russian Navy’s submarine fleet is undergoing a transition, shifting away from its older, legacy Soviet-era nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarines—particularly the large Delta IV submarines—to a modernized, acoustically superior fleet of smaller Borei-class submarines.
Construction of the Borei-class, as well as the subvariants within the Borei-class, is ongoing, and it would appear as if the Kremlin would like to see an even split of that fleet between the Northern and Pacific Fleets.
Once implemented, bringing those newer submarines into service will enable the Russian Navy to retire some of its older SSBNs. This measure will reduce costs through decreased maintenance and upkeep requirements.
Borei-Class Submarine
The Borei-K-class is the newest class of submarines in the Russian Navy, and is a sophisticated subvariant of the Borei-class.
Both classes rely on pump-jet propulsion and significant improvements that make them acoustically superior to their Soviet-era boomer counterparts. Compared to the Borei-class, the Borei-K-class’s hull is modified for quieter operations, and they are equipped not with submarine-launched ballistic missiles but with cruise missiles.
In addition to six 533mm torpedo tubes, the submarines’ primary weapon system is the D-30 Bulava missile system, and each submarine carries 16 3M30 intercontinental ballistic missiles, each carrying six warheads.
In addition to their more advanced stealth features, they are overall smaller in size and have correspondingly smaller crews. Despite the class’s advanced features, however, the fleet does face some challenges, including the production of submarines at realistic time scales and clear gaps in the submarines’ cybersecurity.
Into the Future?
In an interview published in Argumenti i Fakti, a Russian newspaper in June, Nikolai Patrushev, an aide to the Kremlin, explained that the Russian Navy is moving forward with a Kremlin-approved naval strategy that has the potential to bolster its status amidst the growing technological sophistication of the Chinese Navy. If successfully implemented, the plan has the potential to boost the Russian Navy’s standing internationally from its post-Cold War nadir.
“Russia’s position as one of the world’s greatest maritime powers is gradually recovering,” Patrushev said, as reported on by Reuters.
“It is impossible to carry out such work without a long—term vision of the scenarios for the development of the situation in the oceans, the evolution of challenges and threats, and, of course, without defining the goals and objectives facing the Russian Navy,” Patrushev added.
Patrushev stated that the strategy, titled “The Strategy for the Development of the Russian Navy up to 2050,” had been approved by Russian President Vladimir Putin in May of this year.
Hacked
The Defence Intelligence of Ukraine, a military intelligence unit, pulled off a surprising coup earlier this month, gleaning a raft of documentation about the Knyaz Pozharsky, a Project 955A Borei‑A class submarine, and one of the most advanced pieces of Russia’s nuclear deterrence triad.
The hacking operation, reported on by The Times, a leading British newspaper, gathered data that included “detailed crew rosters, combat instructions, technical diagrams of combat systems and survivability measures, operational schedules and engineering reports.” Although the information gleaned by the DIU is specific to the Knyaz Pozharsky, the information would almost certainly offer insight into the rest of the Borei-A-class fleet, which is part of the backbone of Russia’s seaborne nuclear deterrent.
What Happens Next?
In contrast to the United States Navy, which is a large, blue-water navy capable of projecting power from multiple points of the globe simultaneously, the Russian Navy’s aspirations are somewhat more modest. Rather than patrolling international maritime trade routes, the Russian Navy, like its Soviet predecessor, focuses instead on presenting a credible threat to its adversaries. And like the Soviet Navy, the Russian Navy’s primary opponents are the U.S. Navy as well as the navies of other NATO members.
To that end, much of the force compensates for lesser technological sophistication with a robust weapons suite. However, Russian submarines buck this trend to a certain extent and are widely considered some of the most advanced submarines in the world, behind those of the United States Navy.
While the Russian Navy still has much ground to make up before it could begin to rival the abilities of the United States Navy, the trend in the Russian Navy appears to be a shift toward smaller, harder to detect platforms with sophisticated hypersonic and nuclear weapons designed to complicate the calculus of NATO and the United States.
About the Author: Caleb Larson
Caleb Larson is an American multiformat journalist based in Berlin, Germany. His work covers the intersection of conflict and society, focusing on American foreign policy and European security. He has reported from Germany, Russia, and the United States. Most recently, he covered the war in Ukraine, reporting extensively on the war’s shifting battle lines from Donbas and writing on the war’s civilian and humanitarian toll. Previously, he worked as a Defense Reporter for POLITICO Europe. You can follow his latest work on X.
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