A senior U.S. military officer has expressed his concerns regarding the newest Russian submarines.At a hearing on Capitol Hill, U.S. Air Force General Glen VanHerck, who is head of U.S. Northern Command and the U.S.-Canadian North American Aerospace Defense Command, sounded an alarm.VanHerck stated, as part of a response to a question about threats that fall below the nuclear threshold that potential adversaries pose to the United States:”Russia just fielded their second Sev class [submarine], which is on par with ours. Within a five-year period, they’ll have eight to nine of those submarines, which will be a persistent proximate threat off of our east and west coasts that we haven’t had ever in the past.”The “Sev class” boat VanHerck was referring to was the Kazan and was formally commissioned into Russian Navy in May.It is actually the second Yasen class vessel and first Yasen M class boat and is being referred to as Sev class since the lead ship of Yasen class is named Severodvinsk.VanHerck made these comments before members of the House Armed Services Committee during a hearing on missile defense on June 15, 2021. The general was one of five officials testifying before the Subcommittee on Strategic Forces.In this video Defense Updates analyzes why the Russian Yasen M class submarine is considered almost ‘on par’ with U.S. Navy?
