Soviet sub. in trouble?

Press, 5 November 1983, Page 1

Soviet sub. in trouble?

NZPA Washington A Soviet nuclear-powered attack submarine with unknown mechanical problems is bobbing in 2m seas in the Atlantic Ocean about 750 km off the United States east coast, according to Pentagon officials. They said yesterday that the 104 m submarine had not issued a distress call or an S.O.S. but was moving at only two knots, just enough to keep it headed into the wind. The submarine was seen on Thursday by a Navy P 3 Orion on routine anti-sub-marine patrol from Jacksonville, Florida, and was being watched by United States forces, Navy officials said. '

It is a Victor- 3 class submarine, which were first built in 1978. The Soviet Union began building the original Victor 1 class submarines in 1967. Victor 3 submarines, designed to hunt other ships, do not carry long or inter-mediate-range nuclear weapons. They can carry nuclear-tipped anti-sub-marine rockets with a range of about 25km. They have six torpedo tubes. The Soviet submarine, which normally carries a crew of 90 and displaces about 6000 tons, was 450 km west of Bermuda and 750 km east of Charleston, South Carolina, home of a big United States submarine base.