[7] On 10 November 2015, a page of a document that contained information about a secret "oceanic multi-purpose system" called "Status-6" was "accidentally" revealed by Russian NTV television channel.

The leak happened during Russian President Vladimir Putin's speech denouncing American plans concerning "defensive" missile technology.

[17] On 20 February 2019, the Russian Defence Ministry released a video, showing a Poseidon being test-launched by a B-90 Sarov special purpose submarine.

[23][24] Normal (not salted) thermonuclear weapons cause radioactive fallout primarily through neutron activation of material at the detonation site.

The drone could detonate its very large warhead at standoff range, and anti-submarine warfare units would have very little time to react because of the speed at which it travels.

Low depth in stealth mode is preferred because sound waves move to ocean floor and reduce radius of detection.

The National Interest compiled several unclassified defense sources from General Electric experts about the similar 601B project[32][33][34] and they predicted low weight and compact gas-cooled nuclear reactor in the drone.

[37] Poseidon is a family of drones, some of which are designed only for destroying coastal cities and thus rely on "stealth" capabilities rather than on high speed,[29] others of which are primarily designed to attack carrier battle groups[26] and were claimed to possibly harness supercavitation, like the VA-111 Shkval torpedo, to attain extremely high speeds (>230 mph) in attack mode.

In this configuration, known as Skif (Скиф) and patented by designer Alexander Shalnev,[46] Poseidon can be staged on the sea floor in a special container as long as necessary.

As a comparison, the energy release that caused the 2011 Japan Tsunami was 163,000 times larger than Tsar Bomba, the upper estimate of Poseidon's possible power.

[52] Following the Russian President Vladimir Putin's statements during his presentation of several new Russian super-weapons[53][54] in March 2018, in which he specifically referenced the Poseidon as a weapon which could also target American port cities, U.S. Defense Secretary James Mattis stated Russia already had the potential capability of targeting certain port cities on the American coastline with missiles, and said thus Poseidon "does not change at all the strategic balance".