These 5 Russian Weapons Were Total Military Disasters

Michael Peck

Security, Europe

Not everything can be a winner.

Key point: There can be no innovation without experimentation.

It's not usual for Russia to admit that its weapons have failed. Especially Russian media, purveyor of glorious stories of space MiGs and interplanetary tanks.

Yet Russia's Sputnik News recently published an article on Russian and Soviet weapons that fizzled.

"For each military vehicle that is accepted into service, there are often roughly ten others that never proved to be either effective or economically viable," Sputnik News tactfully reminded its readers. "However, they are not usually 'born' in vain – some of them are later used for the development of new generations of weapons."

Sputnik News cited five examples:

The Papa-Class Submarine

The K-222 nuclear attack submarine (NATO code name "Papa"), launched in 1969, was considered the world's fastest submarine. It reportedly reached a record speed of 44.7 knots. But only one model was ever built. "The problem with the K-222 was that its hull was built from titanium, which made it exceedingly expensive (it was even known by the nickname the 'Golden Fish')," according to Sputnik News. "Aside from this, the submarine was also very noisy, which stripped it of a key advantage — low detectability." However, the article also claimed that it provided valuable lessons for subsequent Russian subs, such as the Charlie-class. Papa also encouraged the development of more advanced U.S. Navy anti-submarine weapons.

Su-47 Berkut