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Russia Launches Khabarovsk Nuclear Submarine as New Carrier for Robotic Undersea Weapons.
Russia launched the nuclear-powered submarine Khabarovsk at Sevmash in Severodvinsk, with Defense Minister Andrei Belousov presiding and Navy chief Adm. Aleksandr Moiseev participating in the ceremony. The boat is officially described as carrying underwater and robotic weapons, a phrasing that points to a role as a carrier for long-range unmanned undersea systems that could complicate U.S. and NATO maritime defense.
On 1 November 2025, a high-profile ceremony at the Sevmash shipyard in Severodvinsk marked the launch of the nuclear-powered submarine Khabarovsk, a platform officially described by the Russian Ministry of Defence as designed to employ “robotic weapons systems for various purposes.” Defence Minister Andrei Belousov presided over the event, while Navy Commander Admiral Aleksandr Moiseev carried out the traditional bottle-smash on the hull, underscoring the importance Moscow attaches to this programme. Although Russian officials did not specify the exact type of systems to be embarked, the wording points to a role as a carrier for long-range unmanned underwater strike vehicles, adding a new dimension to Russia’s strategic undersea posture. The submarine will now begin a sequence of harbour and sea trials before entering service.
Russia’s newly launched Khabarovsk nuclear submarine is a next-generation platform designed to carry Poseidon nuclear-powered underwater drones, capable of long-range, deep-sea missions that reinforce Russia’s maritime deterrence with robotic strike capabilities (Picture Source: Russian MoD)
The Khabarovsk is commonly identified in open sources as a specialised Project 09851 nuclear submarine, although Russian authorities have not disclosed technical specifications. Because only the stern was shown during the rollout and the programme remains classified, estimates of its submerged displacement, overall length and internal arrangement should be treated as informed assessments rather than confirmed data. What is clear from Russian defence communications is that the submarine is intended to host and deploy long-range, nuclear-powered, nuclear-armed underwater robotic systems such as Poseidon. In this sense, the vessel is closer to a manned carrier for autonomous undersea strike systems than to a traditional ballistic-missile submarine. According to Russian media, each submarine of this class could carry up to six Poseidon weapons, with a second unit, Ulyanovsk, already under construction and expected to join either the Northern Fleet or the Pacific Fleet in the future.
Construction of Khabarovsk began in July 2014, well before President Vladimir Putin publicly disclosed in 2018 the development of a nuclear-powered, nuclear-armed intercontinental underwater drone intended to threaten coastal targets in the United States. The current rollout therefore represents the materialisation of a long-running programme rather than a sudden initiative. As with other recent Russian nuclear-powered submarines, the commissioning process will involve harbour trials, propulsion and systems tests, followed by an extended period of sea trials that can last a year or more before formal acceptance by the Navy. The integration and certification of Poseidon-class systems in particular is likely to require additional underwater testing, including the verification of launch procedures, command-and-control links with an unmanned weapon and safety protocols for operating a nuclear-powered, nuclear-armed drone from a manned platform.
Operationally, the platform offers Russia several potential advantages. It concentrates an autonomous or semi-autonomous nuclear strike capability in a survivable, nuclear-powered hull capable of long-endurance missions; it complicates adversary detection efforts by operating at depth with a nonstandard acoustic and hydrodynamic signature; and it provides a flexible node for strategic signalling when deployed with novel undersea weapons that are not covered by existing arms-control regimes. Unlike legacy SSBNs that rely on dispersed patrol areas and multiple launch tubes to ensure survivability, Khabarovsk embodies a concept closer to a modernised mother-ship model for unmanned undersea weapons. In contrast to Western navies that are experimenting with distributing unmanned systems across multiple surface and subsurface platforms, Russia appears to be consolidating a high-value capability into a single, heavily protected asset intended to operate from the Arctic and Pacific theatres where Russian naval forces are already present.
Strategically, the appearance of a submarine believed to be capable of launching Poseidon-type nuclear UUVs has immediate implications for regional and alliance maritime planning. It adds a new vector to Russia’s undersea deterrent, separate from sea-launched ballistic missiles, and it complicates anti-submarine warfare postures in the Arctic, the North Atlantic and the Pacific. It may prompt NATO navies to invest further in deep-water acoustic sensors, seabed monitoring networks and operational concepts specifically designed to detect, classify and track slow but very long-range autonomous nuclear delivery systems. At the diplomatic and arms-control level, associating a manned nuclear submarine with an unmanned, nuclear-powered and nuclear-armed weapon raises renewed questions about escalation management, about the applicability of existing strategic-stability arrangements to robotic systems, and about how to treat second-strike underwater drones in future negotiations.
No budgetary or industrial details were disclosed at the ceremony beyond the prominent role of Sevmash, which belongs to the United Shipbuilding Corporation, and the visible presence of top defence and naval officials, indicating that the programme is being run under central state control and within the current Russian naval modernisation framework. Given the technical complexity of nuclear propulsion, deep-water launch systems and the integration of autonomous nuclear payloads, overall costs are likely to be comparable to other recent Russian nuclear-powered submarines, but no figure has been made public. For now, Khabarovsk has entered its testing phase rather than active operational service, and final acceptance by the Russian Navy will depend on the outcome of sea trials and on the successful completion of Poseidon-related tests, whose latest reactor start was publicly mentioned by President Putin earlier in the week of the rollout.
The rollout of the new Russian-made Khabarovsk submarine, therefore, represents more than a routine shipyard milestone. It signals a deliberate evolution of Russian undersea strategy toward hybrid manned–unmanned nuclear delivery options and toward the serialisation of a platform specifically adapted to carry nuclear-powered giga-torpedoes. As the vessel proceeds through trials, naval planners and governments will have to reassess detection, deterrence and escalation-management postures to take into account an undersea capability designed to project strategic power below the surface and outside the patterns of traditional ballistic-missile submarine operations.
Written by Teoman S. Nicanci – Defense Analyst, Army Recognition Group
Teoman S. Nicanci holds degrees in Political Science, Comparative and International Politics, and International Relations and Diplomacy from leading Belgian universities, with research focused on Russian strategic behavior, defense technology, and modern warfare. He is a defense analyst at Army Recognition, specializing in the global defense industry, military armament, and emerging defense technologies.