Part 3 of 3 Parts (Please read Parts 1 and 2 first)
     Kaushal said that a Poseidon attack could “certainly render a coastal city uninhabitable or destroy good part of a carrier battle group at sea. It could wipe out a coastal city but not the UK as a whole.” He added that dealing with flooding caused by radioactive water would be a challenge.
     Hambling noted that such an attack would throw up a huge radioactive cloud at sea “that would cause devastation over quite a region.” He added that the Scandinavian countries, France, Belgium and the Netherlands would be affected.
     As with all nuclear weapons, it is precisely that the threat of atomic fallout that counts and serves as a deterrent on the global stage, according to Podvig. He went on to say that “It’s just maybe a different level of insanity” on the scale of nuclear threats and that Poseidon is “a political weapon, in many ways: I mean, it was almost made for this kind of TV show”.
     Podvig said, “Reportedly, there were tests – but how successful those tests were, what is exactly the status of this program at this point? Frankly, we don’t know yet. I strongly believe that it is not yet anywhere ready for deployment.”
            Kaushal said that the Poseidon may be ready, but its delivery system may not be. “The special-purpose Belgorod submarine, though it’s undergone sea trials in 2021, is still not operational, to the best of our knowledge”. He noted that the submarine being prepared to deliver the Poseidon had to be elongated to serve its purpose as a mothership for the giant torpedo.
      Hi Sutton is an expert on submarine technology who runs the Covert Shores blog. He has debunked several of the claims made on Russia’s Channel One. These include the size of the Poseidon warhead and the tidal wave that it could cause. In a post on Twitter, he showed satellite imagery of the Belgorod submarine in a Russian dry dock.
      Russia has been bragging about its nuclear capabilities since it began its invasion of Ukraine. They warned the West that they had the right to use nuclear weapons to counter an “existential threat.” Kaushal said, “The destruction of conventional capabilities in the first months of this campaign means that Russia’s conventional deterrent is now far less threatening than perhaps it was on February 24 to many countries”. He also said that Russian brandishing its nuclear arsenal is a way for them to discourage any possible direct intervention from NATO and the U.S.
      Hambling said, “When you look at Ukraine, we see the reality of Russia’s military capability compared to their boasts and their ambitions. And their capabilities fall well short of their aspirations in terms of military technology. So, it may be also that Poseidon is really just a bit too ambitious for them to turn into reality”.
      It appears that the main reason for the development and publicizing of the Poseidon is to terrorize potential enemies. While the Russians may believe that they could set off a Poseidon in the harbor of an enemy without it being known who did, but it is just a fantasy.