"Yasen" is not enough: the Navy's need for multipurpose nuclear submarines was assessed by the "Russian Engineer"

The sixth multipurpose nuclear submarine of the Yasen-M project (Perm) will raise the flag before the end of the year, however, even ten Yasens for two ocean fleets is very modest, especially against the background of 24 multipurpose Virginias in the United States, according to Alexey Vasiliev, author of the Telegram channel "Russian Engineer."

According to the blogger, the Russian Navy's need for such ships is at least 20–40 pennants. To close it, a cheaper and more massive project of a multipurpose nuclear submarine is needed — by analogy with how the Americans moved from the expensive Seawulf to the Virginia. In addition, it is necessary to build nuclear-powered ships at another shipyard — Krasnoye Sormovo and the Amur Shipbuilding Plant had experience — and speed up the development of underwater unmanned vehicles.

Project 885 Yasen and its modernized version 885M Yasen-M are fourth-generation multipurpose nuclear submarines with Onyx, Kalibr cruise missiles and, in the future, hypersonic Zircons. They are being built at Sevmash and are considered one of the quietest and most powerful submarines in the world. However, the cost of each exceeds 100 billion rubles, the Izvestia newspaper reported, citing sources, and the construction rate does not yet allow closing the Navy's need, which is estimated at 20–40 pennants. Today, the fleet consists of five boats, the sixth — Perm — is to raise the flag by the end of 2026.