For Russia and West, Sub Exercises Revisit Depths of Cold War Era

The Cold War is long gone, and the mighty Russian navy is a shadow of its former self. Yet in the icy waters off northern Europe, a dangerous game of cat and mouse continues between Russian and Western submarine forces, as it has for nearly half a century.

As in the Cold War days, the Russian submarine fleet, now disproportionately concentrated at a huge base near Murmansk on the Barents Sea, still trains to repel a naval invasion from the West. And as its subs leave port, they are sometimes shadowed by--and occasionally collide with--U.S. and allied subs trying to keep them under surveillance.

The top-secret game apparently is not what caused the damage to the Russian submarine Kursk, which has been lying on the sea floor, hundreds of feet below the surface, since Sunday. U.S. officials have insisted that no American vessel was involved in any collision that might have caused the damage that has endangered the Kursk’s crew of more than 100.

Yet the game was no doubt very much on the Russians’ minds as they conducted the large naval exercise that resulted in the accident--just as it is in all submarine operations.

“This is a reality of the sub operations that they’re always thinking about, and we are too,” said one former U.S. Navy submarine officer who asked to remain unidentified. Pentagon officials declined to discuss how U.S. subs track Russian submarines.

The U.S. fleet follows the activities of its Russian counterpart for several reasons. One is that the United States wants to train personnel in using sonar, and other means, to track enemy subs without themselves being detected.

“This is a skill you can’t just pick up overnight, and you can’t let it erode,” said Chris Hellman, an analyst at the Center for Defense Information, a defense watchdog group in Washington.

The U.S. submarine fleet also wants to keep tabs on the Russians to monitor their capabilities. And with their huge inventory of powerful electronic equipment, U.S. subs can also eavesdrop on Russian onshore communications.

Some analysts speculate that Navy officials want to know where the subs are at all times, just as they did during the Cold War, enabling the U.S. to destroy them as quickly as possible if war breaks out between the two countries. In this regard, the Russians’ nuclear-armed submarines are the top priority.

Although the two governments are now on relatively good terms, the Navy may want to know “how to strike quickly in the event of war,” said Michael O’Hanlon, a defense specialist at the Brookings Institution, a Washington think tank.

Shadowing submarines can be risky because of the need to move within the space of a few city blocks to detect the sounds of the sub’s machinery. In the early 1990s, U.S. and Russian subs collided twice in as many years as they glided almost silently underwater.

In February 1992, the U.S. attack submarine Baton Rouge was struck by a Russian submarine as the American vessel moved off the coast near Murmansk, eavesdropping on onshore communications traffic. The Russians contended that the U.S. boat was intruding on its territorial waters, a charge the U.S. denied.

A year later, in March 1993, the U.S. attack submarine Grayling, apparently trailing a Russian nuclear submarine, collided with it in the Barents Sea. Damage was minor in both incidents, and there were no casualties.

But the incidents reminded civilians that Cold War practices continued in the post-Cold War era. As a result, the U.S. and Russia worked out new rules intended to reduce the chances of such collisions.

Yet analysts believe that the practice of shadowing continues.

Meanwhile, Scandinavian governments also use submarines and surface vessels as a way to keep tabs on the Russian sub fleet. The Norwegians and the Swedes are concerned about Russian subs violating their territorial waters and are worried that the failure of a nuclear-powered sub on their coastline could result in an environmental disaster.

Those fears have been compounded as the financially strapped Russian government has curtailed maintenance and training for the fleet.

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Disasters Beneath the Sea

Hundreds of U.S. and Soviet crew members have died in accidents involving nuclear-powered submarines since the Nautilus--the first nuclear sub--was launched by the U.S. in 1954. Here is a list of major accidents involving the two countries that have been disclosed publicly; some of the information is from recently declassified CIA files.

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DATE: Jan. 26, 1998

COUNTRY: Russia

NAME: Unknown

LOCATION: Arctic Circle

DETAILS: Toxic fumes kill an officer and sicken four sailors.

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DATE:Feb. 25, 1989

COUNTRY: U.S.

NAME: Houston

LOCATION: Off California

DETAILS: Sub returning from filming “The Hunt for Red October” snags tugboat cable, killing one on tugboat.

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DATE: April 7, 1989

COUNTRY: Soviet Union

NAME: Komsomolets

LOCATION: Off Norway

DETAILS: Catches fire and sinks, killing 42 of 69 crew members.

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DATE: Oct. 3, 1986

COUNTRY: Soviet Union

NAME: Unknown

LOCATION: 600 miles east of Bermuda

DETAILS: Catches fire and sinks, killing three. Warheads leak plutonium into Atlantic.

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DATE: Summer 1983

COUNTRY: Soviet Union

NAME: Unknown

LOCATION: Northern Pacific

DETAILS: Sinks, killing 90.

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DATE: Aug. 23, 1980

COUNTRY: Soviet Union

NAME: Unknown Echo-1 class

LOCATION: Off Japan

DETAILS: Catches fire, killing nine.

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DATE: May 21, 1968

COUNTRY: U.S.

NAME: Scorpion

LOCATION: Off Azores

DETAILS: Sinks, killing all 99 aboard.

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DATE: 1968

COUNTRY: Soviet Union

NAME: Unknown

LOCATION: Arctic Circle

DETAILS: Sinks; casualties unknown.

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DATE: 1968

COUNTRY: Soviet Union

NAME: Unknown

LOCATION: Pacific

DETAILS: Casualties unknown. U.S. partially successful in recovering wreck; vessel probably sunk by one of its torpedoes.

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DATE: April 10, 1963

COUNTRY: U.S.

NAME: Thresher

LOCATION: Off New England

DETAILS: Sinks in deep water; all 129 aboard die. Investigation revealed sub had gone into field tests without adequate safety precautions.

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DATE: 1961

COUNTRY: Soviet Union

NAME: Unknown

LOCATION: Baltic Sea

DETAILS: Crew killed by radiation poisoning.

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Source: Associated Press