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Moreover, unlike other naval powers, the Soviet Union uses its merchant marine and other seagoing services as important arms of the navy. Russia has the world's fastest-growing merchant fleet, which will pass the lagging U.S. merchant marine in tonnage in the early 1970s. Its high-seas fishing fleet is the world's largest and most modern; many of its 4,000 craft fish for vital information along foreign coasts as well as for the creatures of the sea. The Sovi et Union also has the largest oceanographic fleet, whose 200 ships plumb the earth's waters for militarily valuable data on depths, currents, bottom topography and other information of interest to its ships and submarines. Says Admiral John McCain Jr., commander in chief of U.S. naval forces in Eu rope: "The Russian program to develop its seapower is more advanced and fully developed today than most people realize. It encompasses the full spectrum of the uses of the sea—in its military, economic, political and commercial connotations."
The new Soviet emphasis on seapower represents a major strategic decision. With its arsenal of 720 ICBMs more than offset by a larger U.S. deterrent, with its huge land army muscle-bound and deprived of global mobility in the middle of the great Eurasian land mass, Russia has turned to the sea to break out of its own geographic confines and attempt to wield truly global power.
Using the navy as a political as well as a military force, the Kremlin hopes that its mere presence in many places will act as a deterrent to the U.S. Moreover, the Russians want to be ready to move quickly into any areas where U.S. power and prestige may recede. They not only plan to project a more tangible Russian influence in the underdeveloped world but also, by using their merchant fleet, to get a strong hold on the raw materials vital to Soviet—and often to American—industry. Ultimately, though, the Russian navy's biggest threat is a military one. Its offensive strategy not only zeroes submarine-carried nuclear missiles in on U.S. cities, but aims to isolate North America from Europe and Asia in case of war.
Bridge of Trouble. The imperial reach of the Soviet navy has already begun to have its impact on world events. In the tense Sea of Japan, a flotilla of 16 Soviet cruisers and missile frigates has in the past few weeks shouldered its way between the coast of North Korea and the U.S. Navy task force that was sent into the area to add some muscle to U.S. diplomatic demands for the return of the Pueblo and its crew. Soviet destroyers have also closely shadowed the carrier Enterprise, which withdrew because of North Korean protests shortly before the Soviet navy's approach. The Soviet presence checkmates the U.S. pressure on North Korea and gives the Kremlin a local pressure point without having to resort to nuclear threats.
Soviet seapower sustains the two countries that are giving the U.S. the most trouble. A bridge of 150 freighters from Russian ports carries to Haiphong the SAMs, the petroleum, the rockets, the assault rifles and the ammunition that keep North Viet Nam fighting and killing U.S. soldiers. More over, it is the fear of hitting those Russian ships that has so far 'ept the