Soviets 'planning new silent submarines?

Press, 5 January 1987, Page 6

Soviets 'planning new silent submarines?

NZPA-AP London Soviet naval planners are concentrating on a new type of silent submarine capable of launching long-range cruise missiles, says a respected writer on naval affairs. Desmond Wettern, naval correspondent of London’s "Sunday Telegraph,” newspaper said plans for big surface warships for the Soviet Navy have been curbed in favour of new submarines. The submarines would be designed to sidestep the United States* strategic defence initiative for a space-based missile shield and at the same time

reduce the soaring costs of building surface ships. . The submarines would be able to launch cruise missiles with a range of 2570 km and more from torpedo tubes to skim the surface of the sea before striking targets far inland, the report said. Wettern, who has contacts in naval intelligence, quoted unidentified Western intelligence experts as saying there had been a significant downturn in Soviet construction of surface warships and the supply vessels needed to support a worldwide

ocean-going Navy on the scale planned by the former Navy chief, Admiral Sergey Gorshkov. Admiral Gorshkov’s successor, Admiral Vladimir Chernavin, was a leading exponent of submarine warfare, the report said. The latest edition of the British reference manual, “Jane’s Fighting Ships 1986-87,” reported that at least one Soviet nuclear submarine had been rebuilt to carry the SSNX24 land attack cruise missile, which had a range up to 7700 km and was being tested.