Russian President Vladimir Putin has confirmed that his country has successfully tested the Poseidon — a nuclear-powered, nuclear-capable underwater drone said to possess unprecedented destructive potential.
Speaking on Wednesday while meeting Russian soldiers wounded in Ukraine, Putin revealed that the test took place a day earlier and was the first to fully activate the weapon’s nuclear propulsion system.
“For the first time, we managed not only to launch it from a carrier submarine but also to start its nuclear power unit,” he said. “There is nothing like this.”
The Poseidon, known by NATO as “Kanyon,” is not a conventional torpedo but an autonomous underwater vehicle designed for long-range strategic strikes.
Measuring about 20 metres long and powered by a small nuclear reactor, it can reportedly cross entire oceans undetected — with what Russia claims is “unlimited range.”
According to Russian defense sources, the Poseidon carries a multi-megaton nuclear warhead, potentially over 2 megatons — more than 130 times the force of the Hiroshima bomb.
Such power could generate devastating underwater shockwaves and radioactive tsunamis capable of crippling coastal cities.
Putin said the test marked a “huge success,” asserting that the Poseidon’s destructive capacity “significantly exceeds the power of even our most promising Sarmat intercontinental missile,” known in the West as Satan II.
The announcement follows Russia’s recent nuclear launch drills and last week’s test of the Burevestnik cruise missile — another nuclear-powered system capable of evading Western missile defenses.
Putin has long presented both weapons as Moscow’s answer to the U.S. withdrawal from the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty and the expansion of NATO.
The Poseidon’s deployment could mark a dangerous escalation in the global arms race, reviving fears of Cold War–style nuclear brinkmanship beneath the seas.
So, has the world drifted to a new era of underwater deterrence?
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