Belogorod Is Launched…

So, the big news today, of course, is this:

“Севмаш” передал ВМФ РФ подлодку “Белгород”, которая будет первым носителем “Посейдонов”

Translation: “Sevmash” handed over to the Russian Navy the submarine “Belgorod”, which will be the first carrier of “Poseidons”

Obviously, Poseidon, together with a number of other Russia’s serial produced weapons such as Avangard or Zircon–you know, the ones Western media called cartoons in 2018–worry the United States and there have been several attempts to “limit” the development and now the procurement of such weapons under different pretexts, including arms limitations talks. Enough to recall this:

The international community must band together to ban the use of autonomous nuclear weapons before it’s too late, argues a leading arms control group. Autonomous nukes could make mistakes humans would not, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists—a Chicago-based nonprofit made up of scientists and global security experts—says in a recent post. The artificial intelligence (AI) programs that guide these weapons are inexperienced in making even relatively simple decisions without humans. The solution, the Bulletin states, is to always keep nuclear weapons under total human control.

Well, I agree in principle with limiting the use of AI in nukes, but who said that Poseidon is fully “autonomous”? Even this article states that:

Meanwhile, Russia is developing an autonomous uninhabited undersea vehicle, Poseidon (pictured at the top of this story). The bus-sized vessel travels at 70 knots an hour, packs a two-megaton thermonuclear warhead, and is designed to be launched against aircraft carriers and coastal targets. The U.S. Navy describes Poseidon as autonomous, Kallenborn notes, but it’s unclear how much autonomy it actually has. Regardless, an autonomous system delivering a weapon with the explosive power of two million tons of TNT should make everyone uneasy.

The first thing, of course, is the use of “70 knots per hour” which is cringe-worthy because a knot IS a measure of speed and it is a nautical mile per hour. Used in knots per hour is more a description of acceleration (and old way of saying it) than of speed. Secondly, nobody but Russians know the degree of autonomy of Poseidon and Russia is not the country which takes such issues lightly.

By NC ScoutPublished On: July 9, 2022Categories: Uncategorized5 Comments

About the Author: NC Scout

NC Scout is the nom de guerre of a former Infantry Scout and Sergeant in one of the Army’s best Reconnaissance Units. He has combat tours in both Iraq and Afghanistan. He teaches a series of courses focusing on small unit skills rarely if ever taught anywhere else in the prepping and survival field, including his RTO Course which focuses on small unit communications. In his free time he is an avid hunter, bushcrafter, writer, long range shooter, prepper, amateur radio operator and Libertarian activist. He can be contacted at [email protected] or via his blog at brushbeater.wordpress.com .

5 Comments

James Carpenter aka "Felix" July 9, 2022 at 07:04

Sometimes science fiction looks at the future as history using description in rhymes, not repeats.
An oldie but prescient goodie, check out a film, “The Forbin Project”.
AI comes with warnings just like the destructive power of nukes.
Released in 1970, The Forbin Project examines what is now nearly upon us _50+_ years ago!
mike July 9, 2022 at 08:41

I better go change the batteries in my survey meter.
ralph k July 9, 2022 at 10:33

Joshua said the only way to win the game is not to play.
War Games (1983)
Jose July 9, 2022 at 13:51

Andrei is on of my favorites. He is a must follow.
boss21 July 9, 2022 at 19:27

The CIA will tell us about this with bated breath in a few years – unless it is used …. Pretty sad when a few guys like Martyanov making videos in their spare rooms produce better intel than all these salaried douchebags. He wrote books directed to the Pentagram/MIC warning of these projects while still in the testing phase. Zero attention paid.