Navy Columbia (SSBN-826) Class Ballistic Missile Submarine Program
Navy Columbia (SSBN-826) Class Ballistic Missile Submarine Program

Author: Ronald O'Rourke

Publisher:

Published: 2019-10-21

Total Pages: 60

ISBN-13: 9781701399518

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The Columbia (SSBN-826) class program is a program to design and build a class of 12 new ballistic missile submarines (SSBNs) to replace the Navy's current force of 14 aging Ohio-class SSBNs. The Navy has identified the Columbia-class program as the Navy's top priority program. The Navy wants to procure the first Columbia-class boat in FY2021. Research and development work on the program has been underway for several years, and advance procurement (AP) funding for the program began in FY2017. The Navy's proposed FY2020 budget requests $1,698.9 million in advance procurement (AP) funding and $533.1 million in research and development funding for the program. The Navy's FY2020 budget submission estimates the total procurement cost of the 12-ship class at $109.0 billion in then-year dollars. An April 2018 Government Accountability Office (GAO) report assessing selected major DOD weapon acquisition programs stated that the estimated total acquisition cost of the Columbia-class program is $102,075.3 million (about $102.1 billion) in constant FY2018 dollars, including $12,901.0 million (about $12.9 billion) in research and development costs and $89,174.3 million (about $89.2 billion) in procurement costs.

Cold War Submarines
Cold War Submarines

Author: Norman Polmar

Publisher: Potomac Books, Inc.

Published: 2014-05-14

Total Pages: 649

ISBN-13: 159797319X

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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.

Red Star Rogue
Red Star Rogue

Author: Kenneth Sewell

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

Published: 2006-09-26

Total Pages: 481

ISBN-13: 1416527338

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"The Hunt for Red October" meets "Blind Man's Bluff" in this chilling, true story of a rogue Soviet submarine that sank while trying to provoke a war between the U.S. and China.

Soviet Cold War Attack Submarines
Soviet Cold War Attack Submarines

Author: Edward Hampshire

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

Published: 2020-09-17

Total Pages: 49

ISBN-13: 1472839358

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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.

The Taking of K-129
The Taking of K-129

Author: Josh Dean

Publisher: Penguin

Published: 2018-09-25

Total Pages: 450

ISBN-13: 1101984457

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An incredible true tale of espionage and engineering set at the height of the Cold War--a mix between The Hunt for Red October and Argo--about how the CIA, the U.S. Navy, and America's most eccentric mogul spent six years and nearly a billion dollars to steal the nuclear-armed Soviet submarine K-129 after it had sunk to the bottom of the Pacific Ocean; all while the Russians were watching. In the early hours of February 25, 1968, a Russian submarine armed with three nuclear ballistic missiles set sail from its base in Siberia on a routine combat patrol to Hawaii. Then it vanished. As the Soviet Navy searched in vain for the lost vessel, a small, highly classified American operation using sophisticated deep-sea spy equipment found it--wrecked on the sea floor at a depth of 16,800 feet, far beyond the capabilities of any salvage that existed. But the potential intelligence assets onboard the ship--the nuclear warheads, battle orders, and cryptological machines--justified going to extreme lengths to find a way to raise the submarine. So began Project Azorian, a top secret mission that took six years, cost an estimated $800 million, and would become the largest and most daring covert operation in CIA history. After the U.S. Navy declared retrieving the sub "impossible," the mission fell to the CIA's burgeoning Directorate of Science and Technology, the little-known division responsible for the legendary U-2 and SR-71 Blackbird spy planes. Working with Global Marine Systems, the country's foremost maker of exotic, deep-sea drilling vessels, the CIA commissioned the most expensive ship ever built and told the world that it belonged to the reclusive billionaire Howard Hughes, who would use the mammoth ship to mine rare minerals from the ocean floor. In reality, a complex network of spies, scientists, and politicians attempted a project even crazier than Hughes's reputation: raising the sub directly under the watchful eyes of the Russians.

Russian/Soviet Submarine Launched Ballistic Missiles: Nuclear Deterrence/Counter Force Strike
Russian/Soviet Submarine Launched Ballistic Missiles: Nuclear Deterrence/Counter Force Strike

Author: Hugh Harkins

Publisher:

Published: 2018-02-04

Total Pages: 176

ISBN-13: 9781903630686

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In 2017, the sea based element of the Russian Federation nuclear deterrent triad was well advanced in its modernisation with the introduction of Project 955 Borey Strategic Missile Carrier submarines armed with the RMS-56 Bulava submarine launched ballistic missile. The Project 955/Bulava was introduced as a replacement for the Project 677BDR Strategic Missile Carrier submarines armed with R-29RKU-1/2 ballistic missiles and the Project 667BDRM Strategic Missile Carrier submarines armed with R-29RMU1/2/2.1 ballistic missiles. The Project 677BDR was on the verge of retirement whilst the Project 667BDRM was set to serve, in reducing numbers, well into the third decade of the twenty first century and possibly beyond, with an upper out of service date of 2030. The sole operational Project 941U Akula Heavy Ballistic Missile (Submarine) Cruiser remained in service in an operational/trials role with no out of service date announced by the Ministry of Defence of the Russian Federation. The Russian Federation was the major successor state from the dissolution of the Soviet Union in December 1991. This latter state introduced the world's first submarine launched ballistic missile and submarine based ballistic missile platform to service in 1959, sowing the seeds for four plus generations of missile submarines in Soviet and latter Russian Federation service. It was not, however, until the introduction of the Project 667A, armed, from 1968, with R-27 ballistic missile, that such submarine platforms began to be referred to as Strategic Missile Carriers. The Project 667A was the template for four more Strategic Missile Carrier designs - the Project 667B/BD/BDR/BDRM armed with increasingly capable intercontinental range ballistic missiles of the R-29/R/RK/RM series. These systems were, from 1983, augmented by the Project 941/U Heavy Ballistic Missile (Submarine) Cruisers armed with the R-39/U - the largest and most powerful ballistic missile ever fielded on a submarine launch platform. This volume sets out to document the four generations of Soviet and later Russian Federation submarine launched ballistic missiles carried on the four generations of conventional and nuclear powered ballistic missiles submarines that have served the Soviet and Russian Federation Northern and Pacific fleets since 1959. All technical and historical information has been furnished by the respective design bureaus, manufacturers and the Ministry of Defence of the Russian Federation with additional input from western intelligence agencies.

Project Azorian
Project Azorian

Author: Norman C Polmar

Publisher: Naval Institute Press

Published: 2012-09-15

Total Pages: 276

ISBN-13: 1612510000

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In early August 1974, despite incredible risks and after six years of secret preparations, the CIA attempted to salvage the sunken Soviet ballistic missile submarine K-129 from the depths of the North Pacific Ocean. The audacious effort was undertaken with the cover of an undersea mining operation sponsored by eccentric billionaire Howard Hughes. “Azorian”—incorrectly identified as Project Jennifer by the press—was the most ambitious ocean engineering endeavor attempted by man. Following the accidental sinking of a Soviet missile submarine in March 1968, U.S. intelligence agencies were able to determine the precise location and to develop a means of raising the submarine from a depth of 16,400 feet. The remarkable salvage effort of the K-129, which contained nuclear-armed torpedoes and one nuclear tipped missile as well as crypto equipment, was conducted with Soviet naval ships a few hundred yards from the lift ship, the Hughes Glomar Explorer. The book is based, in part, on the research for Michael White’ documentary film Azorian: The Raising of the K-129, released in late 2009. The research for the book and the documentary forced the CIA to issue a brief report on Project Azorian in early 2010, with one-third of the document redacted.

The Second Nuclear Age
The Second Nuclear Age

Author: Colin S. Gray

Publisher: Lynne Rienner Publishers

Published: 1999

Total Pages: 212

ISBN-13: 9781555873318

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The author takes issue with the complacent belief that a happy mixture of deterrence, arms control and luck will enable humanity to cope adequately with weapons of mass destruction, arguing that the risks are ever more serious.

Blind Man's Bluff
Blind Man's Bluff

Author: Sherry Sontag

Publisher: PublicAffairs

Published: 2008-03-04

Total Pages: 408

ISBN-13: 1586486780

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A New York Times bestseller The secret history of America's submarine warfare is revealed for the first time in this "vividly told, impressively documented," (The New York Times) and fast-paced chronicle of adventure and intrigue during the Cold War. For decades, only a select and powerful few knew the truth about the submarines that silently roamed the ocean in danger and in stealth, seeking information and advantage. Based on six years of groundbreaking investigation into the “silent service,” Blind Man’s Bluff uncovers an epic story of adventure, courage, victory, and disaster beneath the surface. With an unforgettable array of characters from the Cold War to the twenty-first century, Sontag and Drew recount scenes of secrecy from Washington, DC, to the depths of the sea. A magnificent achievement in investigative reporting, Blind Man’s Bluff reads like a spy thriller with one important difference: everything is true.