Indeed the US has the Nautilus and the Russians K3 both are historic boats for their respective navies.
and to lie i wouldn't call it a lie, you see a lot of the Alfa designs and systems are still highly classified which include test depths and speed, it was hinted at while i was in St Petersburg that the USN publications are quite accurate.
The notion of 900m for a titanium boat which the Mike Papa and Sierra class are made of would fit the depth requirements, however the alfa was constructed using a titanium nickle alloy the USN puts their maximum depth at 750m which is still below USN submarines of the day which tended to be around 400m mark.
The soviets were great at over estimating things, not only that when the Americans over estimated something they didnt correct them they let them believe it, point in case would be the Mig 25 developments which led to the F15 being created the scare with the alfa which led to the development eventually of MK 48 ADCAP.
the truth is a lot of the alfa design and systems are still classified because some systems although modified and modernized are still used (last one was de activated in 1995) as are most of our own, for example HMS Ocelot decommissioned in 1991 became a museum ship yet her systems and logs remain classified and will do so until 2042 at the earliest.
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