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30th October 2025
09:49am GMT
Vladimir Putin's Russia have successfully tested a nuclear-powered torpedo with the power to wipe out entire coastal cities.
The successful tests of the new weapon, dubbed "The Poseidon", were confirmed by the long-serving Russian leader on Wednesday, just days after tests of a new cruise missile were completed.
Putin's American counterpart Donald Trump has already responded to the reported tests, calling them “not appropriate.”
Trump suggested that Russia's time would be better served focusing on ending the war in Ukraine.
When announcing the success of the tests, Putin added: "There is nothing like this,” before describing the weapon's supposed ability to arrive at targets without being intercepted.
Per The Telegraph, some analysts have suggested that the range of the missiles could reach as far as 6,200 miles and can travel at 115mph.
If used in action, there is fear that The Poseidon could "render coastal cities on the shores of the United States uninhabitable."
Christopher Ford, then the US assistant secretary of state for international security and non-proliferation, warned in 2020 that the weapons were being designed to “inundate US coastal cities with radioactive tsunamis”.
Alongside the potential risk to the USA, the new weapon also comes amidst repeated threats from Moscow to attack Britain with a torpedo.
Some 78ft (24m) in length, the torpedo is designed to carry a nuclear warhead 100 times more powerful than the bomb dropped by the US Air Force on Hiroshima in 1945.
Again per the Telegraph report, analysts have suggested that the Russian aim for the Poseidon is within a potential future conflict with NATO in the Arctic Circle.
Its development comes within a much wider conflict; with Russia amassing weapons in the far north.
This was confirmed by Norway’s defence minister earlier this year, who said: "Russia is building up on the Kola peninsula [...] where one of the largest arsenals of nuclear warheads in the world is located.
"They [the nuclear weapons] are not only pointed towards Norway, but towards the UK and over the pole towards Canada and the US."
