Two nuclear submarines shot missiles in Barents Sea

The subs fired cruise missiles of the type Kalibr and Granit and successfully hit their targets located about 170 km away, the Northern Fleet informs.

Reportedly, the target was an imagined group of enemy landing vessels.

Judging from a video published by the Russian Navy, the submarines both launched the missiles from submerged position.

Video by the Northern Fleet

The exercise took place on the 19th of June in the Barents Sea and was part of military preparedness plan, a notice from the Navy reads. 

Judging from data from a Russian ship warning information system, the missile launch took place in an area north of the Rybachy Peninsula, near the maritime border to Norway, towards the east, in the direction of the Kanin Peninsula.

The K-560 Severodvinsk belongs to the Yasen class (Project 855), Russia’s new multipurpose submarines. The vessel is based in Nerpicha, Zapadnaya Litsa, only about 60 kilometers from Russia’s border to Norway. It can carry Kalibr cruise missiles, as well as the hypersonic Tsirkon cruise missile.

The K-266 Orel is a Oscar-II class submarine commissioned 32 years ago. It was re-commissioned in 2017 after a longer period of overhaul at a shipyard in Severodvinsk. The vessel has tubes for a total of 24 cruise-missiles on board additional to torpedoes. Despite its age it is considered one of the most powerful warships in the Russian Navy. Also the Orel is based in Zapadnaya Litsa.