[…] The launch on May 22 from submerged position in the Barents Sea will pave the way for full deployment of the submarine during 2025, according to the Droxford Maritime substack feed.
Submarines of the Yasen-M class has eight vertical launch tubes that can be armed with Oniks and Kalibr cruise missiles, but it is unclear if the ”Arkhangelsk” can be armed with the Tsirkon missile.
The Northern Fleet’s newspaper Na Strazhe Zapolyare reports that the distance from launch to impact ”exceeded 600 kilometres”. That information, which is a word-by-word copy from a Defense Ministry press statement, is not confirmed by independent sources.
However, the military message is clear: If the launch had happened in the opposite direction, from north of Murmansk and 600 kilometres west, the missile would hit targets in the Bear Gap, the strategic important waters where between Svalbard and North Cape where the shallow Barents Sea meets the deeper Norwegian Sea.
