Simply put
- Putin said Russia had tested an underwater drone called Poseidon designed to cause a radioactive tsunami off enemy coasts, but no evidence has emerged.
- Western analysts have cited past hyperbole and called the weapon a psychological tool aimed at unnerving rivals rather than changing deterrence calculus.
- There is little independent verification. Experts warn that the label “radioactive tsunami” hides physics that is devastating enough without propaganda.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said Wednesday that his country has tested a nuclear-powered underwater drone called Poseidon, designed to explode over an enemy’s coastline and cause a radioactive tsunami.
president putin explained the trial He was the first to use Poseidon nuclear propulsion after a submarine launch, claiming it was more powerful than the Sarmat intercontinental ballistic missile.
The claim revives one of Moscow’s most alarming “superweapon” concepts and raises new questions about the line between deterrence posture and nuclear brinkmanship.
Russia has so far poseidon advertisement Since 2018, as a means to evade US missile defenses. Independent verification of this week’s test remains scarce, but respected observers are keeping an eye on the program’s continued development and sea trials.
Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) will list Poseidon in 2024 yearbook As Russia’s active weapons program designed for deployment from special purpose submarines.
However, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty points out that the Russian government’s claims about testing are often preceded by independent verification.
Strategist for Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists claim Poseidon is as much a psychological weapon as it is a military one, intended to instill fear, even if its ultimate value on the battlefield is debatable.
What this weapon is supposed to do is horrifyingly simple. A super-large nuclear warhead is carried across the ocean at great depths and speeds, detonated near the coast, and floods the shore with contaminated water.
Russian media and proxies have been touting the height of the tsunami, and many Western analysts believe it is exaggerated. Still, even a conservative estimate of a multi-megaton undersea explosion near a port would be catastrophic for any coastal city.
How real is the threat?
Putin has routinely combined weapons revelations with dissatisfaction with the expiration of the ABM treaty and NATO expansion to deploy exotic systems like Poseidon as a countermeasure to U.S. missile defenses.
Last week, he conducted a “preparation” exercise for the Triad. Previously, he promoted the Burevestnik nuclear-powered cruise missile. None of this changes the central balance—Russia already has sufficient means to destroy U.S. and European cities with conventional strategic forces—but it complicates arms control diplomacy and crisis signaling.
It’s natural to be skeptical on two counts. First, independent evidence that the end-to-end Poseidon trial was a success. not surfaced. Russian statements have so far gone beyond verifiable technical details.
Second, the “radioactive tsunami” branding masks physics that is troublesome enough without exaggeration.
An undersea nuclear explosion near the coast would cause extreme local destruction and pollution, but some of the claims of apocalyptic waves come from Russian television, not from peer-reviewed hydrodynamics.
If Moscow is currently conducting nuclear propulsion tests at sea, Poseidon has moved from its sliding deck to the water.
But even when fully understood, it’s less a war-winning superweapon and more a terrifying new way to pose an old threat, tailored as much to shock audiences and unsettle negotiators as it is to rewrite deterrence calculus.
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