SOVIETS PLANNING TO WIN THE "UNTHINKABLE" WAR - Gene H Hogberg - November 1976

Gene H Hogberg

The Soviet admiralty openly proclaims that its goal is dominance of the world's oceans. The U.S.S.R. is also wresting nuclear weapons superiority from the U.S. despite treaties designed to halt the arms race. What will the West's response be to the growing Soviet challenge? The maiden voyage this past July of the Soviet Union's first aircraft carrier, the 40,000-ton Kiev, is but a harbinger of greater things to come for the Soviet navy, according to leading Western military experts. With its advent, a new chapter in Moscow's growing challenge to the West has opened up. Jane's Fighting Ships, the authoritative reference for the world's navies, declares that the Soviet navy's growing "blue-water" strength and worldwide deployment appear designed for a war of aggression against the West. Jane's, in its 1976- 1977 edition, reports that the Soviet Union now has three times as many submarines, for example, as the United States. The American underwater fleet, on the other hand, includes 73 attack submarines, designed specifically to seek out and destroy enemy submarines. The Soviets have few, if any, submarines designed for this purpose. - Information Supplied By: Herbert W Armstrong Library