It is never easy to try to draw up a ranking of the most innovative weapon systems presented in the year that has just ended. Worse, try to decree the best one, intended as the one that most amazed for its conception, power, capacity and innovation. And why not, also for "malice", understood as the possibility of striking survivors of a nuclear holocaust with devastating power.
Officially it is not yet in service, indeed it is probably still a project on paper, but if it became reality, it would be a nightmare for NATO and the USA. Undoubtedly, "the weapon of the 2015" is the first submarine ballistic missile in the world: lo Status-6 Russian.
We are talking about a "monster". Specifically, it is a nuclear-powered radioactive torpedo capable of contaminating the economic targets of enemy coasts, such as fishing areas. According to the official description of Moscow, the "Ocean Multipurpose System: Status-6" system was designed to "cause unacceptable damage, contaminating vast enemy coastal areas making them completely lifeless for long periods of time". The prototype should be ready by 2019 with sea trials planned for the following year.
"The weapon system of the 2015" should have a range of 10.000 kilometers, a diving capacity of a thousand meters and a speed of 100 knots. Two submarines suitably modified to launch it Status-6: the "Belgorod" and the "Khabarovsk", class evolutions Oscar II. It is clearly a submarine ICBM with a cobalt warhead, a strategic nuclear weapon.
Lo Status-6 was designed to be an automatic retaliatory missile system. Indeed, it was designed exclusively for this purpose. If the US were to wipe out the Russian leadership with a pre-emptive strike, the Status-6 they would be launched from the depths of the sea.
It is clearly an atomic war reasoning, with factions that by now have nothing to lose. It is clear that even if the USA attacked beforehand, they would still be hit, at best, by at least one hundred Russian nuclear warheads. The Status-6 it would only be one more thought, but certainly not the worst.
But the Status-6 it is not only one of the many weapons of Russian strategic inventory, but it is the definitive one for its ability to create "radioactive dead zones" in the long term. Its cobalt head would be devastating for natural resources like fishing and oil fields offshorethat Status-6 It was designed to starve survivors of a nuclear holocaust from the sea. Despite this, doubts aboutOcean Multipurpose System remain.
One wonders, for example, how to navigate safely at a thousand meters depth and at that speed. We know that the Russians have made enormous progress in super-cavitation, but that technology was then used on the systems Shkval. But Shkval torpedoes are tactical weapons designed to sink ships. The Status-6 is instead a strategic nuclear weapon. Against it, there would be no defense.
