upgraded Oscar II SSGN

[CaptainHaplo]

The only thing suprising about this is that its taken this long to happen. However, given the struggles of the Russian navy (along with its CIS counterparts) its not a big suprise it has taken forever to make this move.

Bottom line, they are taking a guided missile sub and making it into a....

cruise missile sub

The difference is that instead of carrying long range ASM's (ASCM), its going to carry SSM's / LACM's (at least in part). This simply gives the boat the ability to project force on land. This is not nearly the change its made out to be.

Our forces shifted more when we took three Ohio class boats and made them TLAM/TASM launch platforms.

To saturate a missile defense site, you need a lot of incoming missiles. Your standard cruise missile warhead is NOT that large - regardless of type. The only way they are going to do enough damage to make a "missile shield" system go down is to hit a fair number of sites in concert. Or use nuke warheads. Neither option makes sense.

If these boats ever get used, my bet would be out of the med or even Caspian Sea (if the depth allows) and hitting targetted strongpoints against groupls like Chechen rebels.

To use them to suppress a missile defense shield just doesn't wash given the likely capabilities.