Quote:
Originally Posted by Castout
What about that cold war story where the alfa ran at flank speed under a NATO battle group exercise so deep that no weapon could harm it?
I thought that incident sparked the development of ADCAP? Or is that just another American tale to justify vast American tax dollars put into deep diving torpedo research and development?
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I think its the second thing you said.
During the cold war the american establishment mis estimanted many things in the soviet armed forces.
For instance the so-called "missile gap" during the late 50's early 60's that documents after the cold war proved that there had never been a soviet missile gap in the first place. But at the time the US went ahead in the creation of hundreds of icbms and then later nuclear ssbns.
And like this on many occasions americans misjudged soviet military capability (sometimes over estimated, other times underestimated). I'm pretty sure the same thing happened on the other side as well. Paranoia wasn't confined to the east or to the west. They both shared it.
Edit : as for the NATO exercise, maybe it was not so much a question of how deep the sub was going as a question of how "look at that speed." !!!
I mean up to that time, no submarine could even approach 40 knots, and you have the Alfa that suddenly can go easily over 40 knots ? That bit of info must have shaken pretty bad the americans, and their asw torpedo which I think were not geared to chase sub going over 40 knots. When you want money generally you "exagerate" the situation, so 2 bad things (top speed and great depth) are more easy to sell than just one bad thing (top speed). There you have a big bad soviet sub that no western navy can match = $$$$$ for defense research and the myth is born. ^_^