Coastal Submarine Design Evolves

Russia is showing off its Lada export variants, the Amur class, at the Langkawi International Maritime & Aerospace Exhibition (LIMA) in Malaysia through Saturday. The Amur 1650 and Amur 950, or Project 1650 and Project 950, are the latest submarine designs Russia hopes to capitalize on. They have big shoes to fill, there are few submarines as widely exported as the Kilo class conventional submarine, which has been very successful as an export for almost 2 decades.

It is claimed the Amur is quieter than the Kilo class. For such stated capabilities, we will wait and see. What has our attention isn't the Amur 1650 patrol submarine, rather the smaller Amur 950 coastal submarine. As far as we are aware, this is the first conventional submarine on the export market to feature a vertical launch missile system, and if the Amur 950 comes with AIP it will definitely be worth watching. The Amur 950 displaces 1150 tons, offers 4 torpedo tubes in addition to the 10 vertical launch missile system cells, and requires a crew of only 18.

With the potential of 28 missiles and torpedo's, it is worth pointing out that the Amur 950 offers the most offensive weapon systems per ton of any cruiser, destroyer, frigate, or submarine in the world featuring a ration of ~25 weapons per 1000 tons. For comparison, the next highest potential offensive weapon per ton ratio warship is the Ticonderoga-class cruiser with 127 VLS, 8 Harpoons, and 6 Torpedo's comes in at ~14 weapons per 1000 tons.

To us the Amur 950 design represents the next evolution in coastal defense Anti-Access / Area Denial (A2AD) submarines. In large numbers this type of system would create tremendous problems for an enemy surface Navy within its area of defense. With endurance of 30 days and slow speeds, obviously the submarine has its limitations, and almost no capability as a forward patrol submarine. However as part of a layered defense network, with its excellent weapon payload per ton and with a price tag around $200 million; a country like Iran, Venezuela, or several nations in Africa could change the dynamics at sea in their theater with only a few billion dollar investment.