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The Soviet Union is adding to its fleet of 55 nuclear-powered submarines at the rate of five a year. Most of the Soviet nukes are hunter-killers whose mission is to destroy U.S. Polaris subs in time of war, but a growing number fire a new underwater missile that has a range of at least 1,500 miles (v. the U.S. missile's range of 2,500 miles). Since he believes that naval guns are obsolete, Admiral Gorshkov has equipped almost all Soviet surface ships, from the smallest to the largest, with ship-to-ship missiles. The Soviet missiles are so-called "cruise missiles" that fly about 700 miles an hour, steer themselves either by radar or heat-seeking systems and carry either conventional or nuclear warheads. The U.S. experimented with similar weapons in the 1950s but dropped them in favor of concentrating on "the Polaris and airpower. No Western navy, in fact, has such missiles.
Soviet cruisers and the Kresta-and Kynda-class destroyers carry the SSN3 missile, which can hit enemy ships at a range of 200 miles. The Krupny-and KiWm-class destroyers carry the 100-mile range SSN1 missiles, and the speedy Osa and Komar torpedo boats are armed with Styx missiles, whose effective range is 20 miles. A Styx fired by the Egyptians from a Komar sank the Israeli destroyer Elath off Port Said last October. U.S. Navymen insist that their planes would knock out Soviet ships before they got within firing range of U.S. warships or, failing that, that U.S. antiaircraft rockets would intercept the missiles in flight. But the U.S. Navy has now started work on ship-to-ship missiles of its own.
Admiral Gorshkov is also developing a new force that will give the Russians the ability to intervene in trouble spots, much as the U.S. did in Lebanon and the Dominican Republic. The Soviet navy has built its first carrier, a new 25,000-tonner called the Moscow, which is now on a training course in the Black Sea, and is readying a second, the Leningrad, for sea trials; some Western sea experts feel that the Russians may build many more. The Soviet carriers have landing areas only on the rear and can thus handle only helicopters or vertical-takeoff aircraft. They are similar, in fact, to the American I wo Jima-type LPH (for Landing Pad Helicopter), of which the U.S. Navy has eight, two of them stationed in Viet Nam waters as offshore bases for Marines. So far, the Soviets have given no indication that they will advance to the large U.S.-style attack carriers, since they consider such carriers vulnerable to attacks by missiles.
The Russians do have, however, a force similar to the U.S. Marines. It is the so-called Naval Infantry that fought as regular ground units during World
War II but was later disbanded. Reorganized in 1964 just after the construction of the carriers began, the Naval Infantry now numbers 10,000 men who wear distinctive black berets, are chosen for outstanding physical fitness and aggressiveness. The Naval Infantry are carried on special landing craft and have tanks that can "swim" from ship to shore in amphibious landings.
Collecting Lovers. The Soviet surge at sea should come as no surprise to the West. Actually, the Russians have been reaching out to the oceans since