NATO says it is closely monitoring the expansion and modernisation of Russia’s submarine force in the High North, including new-generation nuclear-powered cruise missile submarines operating from the Kola Peninsula, according to Allied Joint Force Command Brunssum.
In a statement published on X, the NATO command drew attention to developments around Russia’s Northern Fleet and said the Alliance was treating the growth of its undersea forces seriously.
Allied Joint Force Command Brunssum stated: “Something is moving beneath the surface. Russia is expanding and modernising its submarine force, with the Kola Peninsula remaining a key hub for the Northern Fleet.”
The Kola Peninsula in north-west Russia contains several of the Northern Fleet’s principal naval bases and provides access to the Barents Sea and wider North Atlantic. The area is central to Russian submarine operations in northern waters and hosts both nuclear-powered attack submarines and strategic ballistic missile submarines.
NATO specifically referred to the development of newer nuclear-powered guided missile submarines, saying: “Among them: new-generation nuclear-powered SSGNs, bringing serious long-range strike and sea-denial capabilities into the High North.”
Something is moving beneath the surface. 🌊
Russia 🇷🇺 is expanding and modernising its submarine force, with the Kola Peninsula remaining a key hub for the Northern Fleet.
Among them: new-generation nuclear-powered SSGNs, bringing serious long-range strike and sea-denial… pic.twitter.com/UneKonlDon— NATO Allied Joint Force Command Brunssum – JFCBS (@NATOJFCBS) September 2, 2026
SSGN is the designation commonly used for nuclear-powered submarines equipped primarily for cruise missile operations. Russian boats in this category can be employed against surface ships and land targets, depending on their weapons fit and tasking, while retaining the endurance associated with nuclear propulsion.
The command stated: “They may be invisible beneath the waves. But not for us. We see them, we watch the developments closely and yes, we take these developments seriously.”
The Northern Fleet is responsible for Russian naval activity across the Arctic and High North and operates from bases concentrated around the Kola Peninsula. Its submarines can reach the Norwegian Sea and North Atlantic through waters bordering NATO members Norway and Iceland and areas routinely monitored by allied maritime patrol aircraft, surface vessels and submarines.
Undersea activity in the High North has remained an important part of NATO maritime planning because the region connects Russia’s northern bases with the wider Atlantic. Allied forces regularly conduct anti-submarine warfare training in northern European waters, while maritime patrol aircraft and naval units contribute to surveillance and tracking activity.
Joint Force Command Brunssum is one of NATO’s operational-level joint headquarters and is responsible for planning and conducting activities across part of the Alliance’s northern and eastern area.
They were just saying how difficult it is to track their boats.
It’s a good thing we have plenty of SSN’s and Type 23’s to counter the threat…………..
Plenty of T23 up Farham Creek….
Hms Artful has been crewed for months, why has she not been put out to sea, by now?
So what do we know of the RN SSNs to counter
1) Astute is OS and in a mid life refit and will be for a few years.. as she goes into dry dock 15
2) Ambush is in bits and has been storerobbed and has been for 4 years.. no plans to return to service at present ( this is an issue )
3) Artful is regenerated and assuming it’s all ready to head out if needed
4) Audacious came out of dry dock in June and is assumed to regenerating to high readiness
5) Anson post deployment maintenance, may or may not require dry dock before returning to readiness ( the question is if she needs some dry dock time will they put Anson in dock 15 before Asute ?
6) Agamemnon to start sea trials for end of 2026.. so you can assume she’s not going to be operational until 2028
7) Achilles will not be handed over till about 2028 so operational around 2030
Dry dock 10 will be ready to support the fleet in 2027 (late ) or 2028 which will take of the dry dock pressure
So what can we assume for
2026/27 Artful at readiness/ deployed, Audacious coming to readiness, Anson possibly coming to readiness ( so 1-2 boats in 26-27, maybe three in extremis but at low readiness so some time to get operational)
2028/29 artful, audacious and Anson will have dock 10 to keep them maintained, Astute will come out of midlife into readiness and Agamemnon will be operational.. Ambush will go into Long midlife refit ( probably back in service 2030 after 8 years out )..
2030.. Achilles will come into operational service, Ambush will be back in service after 8 years.. this is the high water mark. 6 boats will be cycling through operational readiness levels.. so we should see two boats at high readiness and 2 further boats at reasonable readiness, 2 in post deployment maintenance and the 7th in its mid life refit…
What is interesting is the Asutes are all very late and some have literally spent 8 years not burning reactor fuel… as they have an fuel life of 25 years this means we may see a number of the Astutes still around in the mid 2050s and even ambush an early boat will have only been operational for 10 years by 2030..
So what have the Russians actually got, if we start with the peers or near peers of the Astutes
yasen 5 active, 3 in the northern fleet and 2 in the pacific.. let’s say rule of three gives the northern fleet 1 and maybe 1 from the pacific..
Akula ( not a peer but an admittedly effective SSN) Active 3, 2 in northen fleet and 1 in the pacific.so maybe 1 available . ( 5 are in bits and a further 1 in refit).. about as good as a swiftsure class
Victor3, 1 active and one in refit northern fleet.. this is a Permit equivalent a swiftsure was better.
Oscar2, 4 active, 2 northern fleet, 2 pacific.. 2 in refit or reserve.. essentially they may get 1 of these.. noise wise not up to swiftsure class.
The reality is yes the Russians have more units.. 5 active yasen vs 3 active Asutes but the Yasen are spread across two Oceans and need to be.. the other 7 active boats are really antiques from another age and 2-3 generations behind the Asutes.
The issue is the Russias are building 7 more Yasen and look like they will bring in 2 more for 27, 2 for 2028/29 for 9 for 2030 and then 3 more for the mid 2030s.. but you can essentially see all the old Cold War fossils gone by 2030-2035.
One of the very biggest mistakes the UK has made is the fuck up of its SSN building programme, when it failed to have an SSN ready to start building in 1995 . Because it then could have built 12 by 2019 and we would now have 12 boats facing Russia..