The newest generation of Russia's multipurpose Yasen-class nuclear submarines will be armed with robots and underwater drones, news agency RIA Novosti reported on Monday, citing deputy general manager Nikolai Novosyolov of the St. Petersburg submarine design bureau Malachite. ?
According to Novosyolov, the submarine's drones could be used to mislead enemy forces about the submarine's true location by giving the impression of underwater activity, and could be remotely activated.
Novosyolov said the new, fourth-generation Yasens would also be armed with rockets, torpedos, and mines.
Russia is in the middle of a huge rearmament program that will see eight Yasen-class attack submarines and eight Borei-class "boomers: — nuclear missile launchers that skulk in the ocean depths — join the navy by 2020.
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