Cold War Submarines

Author : Norman Polmar
Publisher : Potomac Books, Inc.
ISBN 13 : 159797319X
Total Pages : 649 pages
Book Rating : 4.99/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Cold War Submarines written by Norman Polmar and published by Potomac Books, Inc.. This book was released on 2014-05-14 with total page 649 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Submarines had a vital, if often unheralded, role in the superpower navies during the Cold War. Their crews carried out intelligence-collection operations, sought out and stood ready to destroy opposing submarines, and, from the early 1960s, threatened missile attacks on their adversary's homeland, providing in many respects the most survivable nuclear deterrent of the Cold War. For both East and West, the modern submarine originated in German U-boat designs obtained at the end of World War II. Although enjoying a similar technology base, by the 1990s the superpowers had created submarine fleets of radically different designs and capabilities. Written in collaboration with the former Soviet submarine design bureaus, Norman Polmar and K. J. Moore authoritatively demonstrate in this landmark study how differing submarine missions, antisubmarine priorities, levels of technical competence, and approaches to submarine design organizations and management caused the divergence.

Author : Edward Hampshire
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN 13 : 1472839358
Total Pages : 49 pages
Book Rating : 4.50/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Soviet Cold War Attack Submarines written by Edward Hampshire and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2020-09-17 with total page 49 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this highly detailed book, naval historian Edward Hampshire reveals the fascinating history of the nuclear-powered attack submarines built and operated by the Soviet Union in the Cold War, including each class of these formidable craft as they developed throughout the Cold War period. The November class, which were the Soviet Union's first nuclear submarines, had originally been designed to fire a single enormous nuclear-tipped torpedo but were eventually completed as boats firing standard torpedoes. The Alfa class were perhaps the most remarkable submarines of the Cold War: titanium-hulled (which was light and strong but extremely expensive and difficult to weld successfully), crewed with only thirty men due to considerable automation and 30% faster than any US submarines, they used a radical liquid lead-bismuth alloy in the reactor plant. The Victor class formed the backbone of the Soviet nuclear submarine fleet in the 1970s and 1980s, as hunter-killer submarines began to focus on tracking and potentially destroying NATO ballistic missile submarines. The Sierra classes were further titanium-hulled submarines and the single Mike-class submarine was an experimental type containing a number of innovations. Finally, the Akula class were being constructed as the Cold War ended, and these boats form the mainstay of the Russian nuclear attack submarine fleet today. This book explores the design, development, and deployment of each of these classes in detail, offering an unparalleled insight into the submarines which served the Soviet Union throughout the Cold War period. The text is supported by stunning illustrations, photographs and diagrams of the submarines.

Author : Norman Friedman
Publisher : Seaforth Publishing
ISBN 13 : 1526771233
Total Pages : 1201 pages
Book Rating : 4.30/5 ( download)

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Download or read book British Submarines in the Cold War Era written by Norman Friedman and published by Seaforth Publishing. This book was released on 2020-09-30 with total page 1201 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The first comprehensive technical history on the subject, with photos: “A must-read for all professionals, designers and scholars of modern submarines.” —Australian Naval Institute The Royal Navy’s greatest contribution to the Allied success in World War II was undoubtedly the defeat of the U-boat menace in the North Atlantic, a victory on which all other European campaigns depended. The underwater threat was the most serious naval challenge of the war, so it was not surprising that captured German submarine technology became the focus of attention for the British submarine service after 1945. It was quick to test and adopt the schnorkel, streamlining, homing torpedoes, and, less successfully, hydrogen-peroxide propulsion. Furthermore, in the course of the long Atlantic battle, the Royal Navy had become the world’s most effective anti-submarine force and was able to utilize this expertise to improve the efficiency of its own submarines. However, in 1945 German submarine technology had also fallen into the hands of the Soviet Union—and as the Cold War developed it became clear that a growing Russian submarine fleet would pose a new threat. Britain had to go to the US for its first nuclear propulsion technology, but the Royal Navy introduced the silencing technique that made British and US nuclear submarines viable anti-submarine assets, and it pioneered in the use of passive—silent—sonars in that role. Nuclear power also changed the role of some British submarines, which replaced bombers as the core element of British Cold War and post-Cold War nuclear deterrence. As in other books in this series, this one shows how a combination of evolving strategic and tactical requirements and new technology produced successive types of submarines. It is based largely on unpublished and previously classified official documentation, and to the extent allowed by security restrictions, also tells the operational story—HMS Conqueror is still the only nuclear submarine to have sunk a warship in combat, but there are many lesser-known aspects of British submarine operations in the postwar era.

Author : Gary E. Weir
Publisher : NAL
ISBN 13 : 9780451213013
Total Pages : 0 pages
Book Rating : 4.17/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Rising Tide written by Gary E. Weir and published by NAL. This book was released on 2004 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "For devotees of the submarine espionage stories in Blind Man's Bluff, Rising Tide tells the Soviet/Russian side of the most secretive operations of the Cold War. For the first time, seven Soviet admir"

Author : Davide Orsini
Publisher : University of Pittsburgh Press
ISBN 13 : 0822988852
Total Pages : 297 pages
Book Rating : 4.54/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Atomic Archipelago written by Davide Orsini and published by University of Pittsburgh Press. This book was released on 2022-05-24 with total page 297 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Finalist, 2023 Turku Book Award In 1972, the US Navy installed a base for nuclear submarines in the Archipelago of La Maddalena off the northeastern shore of Sardinia, Italy. In response, Italy established a radiation surveillance program to monitor the impact of the base on the environment and public health. In the first systematic study of nuclear expertise in Italy, Davide Orsini focuses on the ensuing technopolitical disputes concerning the role and safety of US nuclear submarines in the Mediterranean Sea from the Cold War period to the closure of the naval base in 2008. His book follows the struggles of different groups—including local residents of the archipelago, US Navy personnel, local administrators, Italian experts, and politicians—to define nuclear submarines as either imperceptible threats, much like radiocontamination, or efficient machines at the service of liberty and freedom. Unlike inland nuclear power plants, vividly present and visible with their tall cooling towers and reactor containers, the mobility and invisibility of submarines contributed to an ambivalence about their nature, perpetuating the idea of nuclear exceptionalism. In Italy, they symbolized objects in constant motion, easily removable at the first sign of potential harm. Orsini demonstrates how these mobile sources of hazard posed special challenges for both expert assessments and public understandings of risk, and in contexts outside the Anglo-Saxon world, where unique social power dynamics held sway over the outcome of technopolitical controversies.

Author : Alfred Scott McLaren
Publisher : Naval Institute Press
ISBN 13 : 161251846X
Total Pages : 257 pages
Book Rating : 4.66/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Silent and Unseen written by Alfred Scott McLaren and published by Naval Institute Press. This book was released on 2015-05-15 with total page 257 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Silent and Unseen is a memoir of a submariner’s life on a U.S. attack submarine during the Cold War by Capt. Alfred S. McLaren, an experienced submarine officer and nuclear attack submarine commander. He describes in riveting detail the significant events that occurred early in the Cold War during his seven years, 1958–65, on board three attack submarines: the USS Greenfish (SS 351), USS Seadragon (SSN 584), and USS Skipjack (SSN 585). He took part in the first submerged transit of the Northwest Passage, a Baffin Bay expedition, and, as commander of USS Queenfish (SSN 651), a North Pole expedition that completed the first survey of the entire Siberian Continental Shelf. McLaren’s stories and anecdotes offer a look at the development of attack-boat tactics and under-ice exploration techniques. During the early high-risk years of the Cold War, submarines were continually at sea, and each reconnaissance and intelligence-collection mission was of potentially great value to the United States. The missions often required zeroing in on the potential enemy to collect the intelligence desired, generally within weapons range. Unlike a war patrol, the U.S. attack boat had to remain undetected, and then withdraw as silently and unseen as it's original approach. Greenfish was one of the most successful Pacific diesel submarines when McLaren served aboard her as a watch and weapons officer. He then served as watch officer on the Seadragon when she became the first nuclear submarine to transit from the Atlantic to the Pacific via the Arctic Ocean. En route, she examined the underside of icebergs, conducted the first underwater survey and passage through the Northwest Passage, and surfaced at the North Pole. McLaren concludes by recounting his experiences on board what was then the world’s fastest and most advanced submarine, USS Skipjack (SSN 585) during the Cuban Missile Crisis, two Cold War missions, and the very intensive and exciting period of new tactical and weapons development which followed to counter a rapidly emerging Soviet nuclear submarine threat.

Author : Edward Hampshire
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN 13 : 1472825004
Total Pages : 105 pages
Book Rating : 4.01/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Soviet Cruise Missile Submarines of the Cold War written by Edward Hampshire and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2018-07-26 with total page 105 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Soviet Union's cruise missile submarines from the modified Whiskey, to the Oscar II classes were among the most formidable vessels of the Cold War. They were initially designed to carry land attack nuclear-tipped cruise missiles designed to strike targets on the eastern coast of the United States. By the late 1960s, however, submarine-launched ballistic missiles made the nuclear land-attack mission unnecessary, so existing classes were converted to the 'carrier killer' role, armed with anti-ship cruise missiles designed to destroy US super-carriers and other important naval targets. This fully illustrated study examines these powerful machines that were some of the largest and fastest submarines ever built. If war had broken out, they would have been at the forefront of the Soviet Navy's campaign to destroy NATO's sea power and cut America's sea link with Europe.

Author : Edward Hampshire
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN 13 : 1472825012
Total Pages : 49 pages
Book Rating : 4.18/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Soviet Cruise Missile Submarines of the Cold War written by Edward Hampshire and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2018-07-26 with total page 49 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Soviet Union's cruise missile submarines from the modified Whiskey, to the Oscar II classes were among the most formidable vessels of the Cold War. They were initially designed to carry land attack nuclear-tipped cruise missiles designed to strike targets on the eastern coast of the United States. By the late 1960s, however, submarine-launched ballistic missiles made the nuclear land-attack mission unnecessary, so existing classes were converted to the 'carrier killer' role, armed with anti-ship cruise missiles designed to destroy US super-carriers and other important naval targets. This fully illustrated study examines these powerful machines that were some of the largest and fastest submarines ever built. If war had broken out, they would have been at the forefront of the Soviet Navy's campaign to destroy NATO's sea power and cut America's sea link with Europe.

Author : Norman Friedman
Publisher : US Naval Institute Press
ISBN 13 : 9781682477601
Total Pages : 400 pages
Book Rating : 4.06/5 ( download)

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Download or read book U.S. Submarines Through 1945: An Illustrated Design History written by Norman Friedman and published by US Naval Institute Press. This book was released on 2021-08-15 with total page 400 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Norman Friedman Illustrated Design History series of U.S. warships books has been an industry standard for three decades and has sold thousands of copies worldwide. To mark and celebrate this achievement, the Naval Institute Press is proud to make these books available once more. Digitally remastered for enhanced photo resolution and quality, corrected, and updated, this series will continue to serve--for scholars and enthusiasts alike--as the foundation for U.S. naval warship research and reference for years to come. U.S. Submarines Through 1945 is one the most comprehensive references available on the entire development of U.S. Submarines from the first commissioned undersea fighting vessel, Alligator, in 1862, to the S boats of World War I, and the feared fleet submarines of the Gato and Balao classes of World War II. Like the other books in Norman Friedman's design-history series, U.S. Submarines Through 1945 is based largely on formerly classified internal U.S. Navy records. Friedman, a leading authority on U.S. warships, explains the political and technical rationales of warship construction and recounts the evolution of each design. This volume is fully illustrated with deck plans, outboard profiles, sketches from major design studies, and numerous detailed photographs complement the text.

Author : Sherry Sontag
Publisher : PublicAffairs
ISBN 13 : 1586486780
Total Pages : 408 pages
Book Rating : 4.85/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Blind Man's Bluff written by Sherry Sontag and published by PublicAffairs. This book was released on 2008-03-04 with total page 408 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Discover the secret history of America's submarine warfare in this fast-paced and deeply researched chronicle of adventure and intrigue during the Cold War that reads like a spy thriller. Blind Man's Bluff is an exciting, epic story of adventure, ingenuity, courage, and disaster beneath the sea. This New York Times bestseller reveals previously unknown dramas, such as: The mission to send submarines wired with self-destruct charges into the heart of Soviet seas to tap crucial underwater telephone cables. How the Navy's own negligence may have been responsible for the loss of the USS Scorpion, a submarine that disappeared, all hands lost, in 1968. The bitter war between the CIA and the Navy and how it threatened to sabotage one of America's most important undersea missions. The audacious attempt to steal a Soviet submarine with the help of eccentric billionaire Howard Hughes, and how it was doomed from the start. A magnificent achievement in investigative reporting, Blind Man's Bluff reads like a spy thriller, but with one important difference -- everything in it is true.