Americans have recently launched the newest aircraft carrier Gerald Ford which is incidentally, the first in 40 years. As usual, in such cases optimism remains high.
Especially,when a bottle of champagne on board of the ship was smashed by Susan Ford, the youngest child and only daughter of the 38th U.S. President Gerald Ford.
Shipbuilders and admirals appreciated the giant hulk, which according to them, absorbed all the most advanced military-technical bells and whistles and they already cost US taxpayers $14 billion.
But Pentagon officials suffered a rookie ship over bumps: for the aircraft catapults it remains weak. Moreover, the ship’s radar is unreliable. A sound conclusion has already been reached that “Ford” is even weaker than it’s predecessors. Besides, some experts at the U.S. Defense Department need to redesign many portions of the ship.
And then there’s Congress Accounting Office which found that the ship cost increased by 22% compared to the initial estimates.
Against this background,clenched teeth criticism began to be sounded from the Pentagon about K-329 Severodvinsk, a Yasen-class nuclear attack submarine of the Russian Navy.
In the Western press, some military experts having weighed fatty compliments, termed the Russian submarine “practically invulnerable”.
Both Pentagon and western media say, “By taking on K-329 Severodvinsk’s board Russia took the lead in submarine technology,” “the end of the Test Suitable Diving Submarine”, “K-329 Severodvinsk means that Russia has gone far ahead in submarine technology,” “Performances of the new submarine is such that it almost is impossible to detect in the oceans, making K-329 Severodvinsk virtually invulnerable in the face of the latest anti-weapons systems etc. ”
And one of the employees of Naval Intelligence was even more explicit: “The first appearance of the new Russian submarine aroused concern in the U.S. because we do not know even half of what’s on board of K-329 Severodvinsk “.
But one thing is already known. That is that Russian submarine K-329 Severodvinsk has reduced the level of the acoustic field which will be difficult to detect. The project also has a special feature – a mixed system design when light body “covers” only a part of the pressure hull in the bow of the submarine in order to reduce noise.
First torpedo tubes are not in front of the ship. And for the central control compartment, allowing to place the antenna in the bow of a new sonar system, which “sees” far under water. For missile weapons are used eight vertical launchers.
K-329 Severodvinsk went to sea at the factory sea trials on December 1, 2013.