Garmoniya

Garmoniya (Гармония, Engl. " Harmony") ist the operational name of an worldwide underwater hydroacoustic surveillance system of the Russian Defense Ministry. The system is said to be capable of detecting ships, submarines and even low-flying planes and helicopters aircraft in large areas of the wordl oceans. The status of the system is publicly unknown; in functionality it is compared with the US SOSUS System from the early cold war era.

The status of the system is not publicly known - media reported that it should have been operational since 2020.

System developement

In November 2016 the Izvestia newspaper reported about Garmoniya with an article titiled “Russia Deploys a Global Marine Tracking System” and revealed some details of the general appearance of tracking tools.

The system is based on special submarine-carried robotized submersibles setting up sensitive sonars on the seabed. The seabed sonar robots are capable to uplink intel via satellite.

The prime contractor for the classified programm is the Kometa Special Space Systems Corporation, a subsidiary of the Almaz-Antei Corporation. JSC Kometa is sanctioned by the EU, Switzerland and Canada. Subcontractors includes the Malakhit Design Bureau and Istochnik Research Institute.

In 2014 the Malakhit Design Burea was issued over 5.5 billion rubles ($97 million) to conduct the Garmoniya-Garazh phase of the program. Later the company was paid 1.5 billion rubles ($26 million) for the Garmoniya-Galka phase. The company Istochnik has developed lithium-ion polymer accumulators (LiPo) and storage batteries for the power supply of the seabed sonars.

For construction of the underwater robots the Russian Federal Agency for Special Construction (Spetsstroi) had geared up an workshop in the Olenya Bay in Severomorsk; this program was designated as Garmoniya-S. At the same time, in Belushya Guba on Novaya Zemlya the system control center were build. The center, named Garmoniya-NZ was under construction in 2017.

In July 2025, the German judiciary indicted Alexander S., a businessman from Nuremberg, for alleged violations of the Foreign Trade Act. He was tracked down by the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV). Companies he operated were allegedly part of a network through which Russia procured cutting-edge technology from Europe for the Garmoniya program for years. The components are said to have reached Russia via a Cypriot company and several companies in Moscow that are close to the Russian intelligence service FSB.

The material acquired included a special drill bit from Italy and satellite antennas from a Swedish manufacturer, which cost almost 800,000 euros and are considered particularly robust and can also be used underwater.