Wednesday, January 14, 2015

The Top Gear OOPS! (?) Scoop: What is the Russian Navy's AC-12 Submarine Project?


The automotive magazine, “Top Gear Russia,” accidentally published a photo of a classified Russian submarine, according to news reports.

The Centre for Analysis of Strategies and Technologies, a Moscow-based think tank, was the first to report on the image of the classified deep-water sub known as the AC-12 Project. The news was subsequently picked up by such news outlets as Slon Media and Business Insider.

The magazine apparently organized a photo shoot on the shores of the White Sea for the Mercedes-Benz GL450, a full-size sports utility vehicle, and didn’t realize it had captured the stealthy submarine cruising on the surface of the water in the background.

The vessel, nicknamed, “Losharik” after a children’s movie, is part of the Russian navy’s Northern Fleet, which includes according to the Russian think tank. The magazine image of Losharika may be the highest-quality open source photo of the boat to date.


It made me wonder whether the Russians really oopsed or were doing a Chinese style leak?

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Considering it was close enough to the publicly accessible shore and cruising on the surface, which I would think you'd never do with a sub let alone secret project one, I think your supposition is probably correct.