USSR/SUBMARINES)RATHER

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000403640070-1
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: February 27, 2012
• Sequence Number: 70
• Publication Date: January 10, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/02/28: CIA-RDP90-009658000403640070-1
CBS EVENING NEh'S
10 January 1985
>USSR/Si1BMARINES>RATHER: Tonight, a CBS Evening News Insight report on the
cost of Soviet numerical superiority in submarines. The ~ .
Soviet Union has about two and a half times the number of ?
submarines as the United States and holds a slight edge in
the number of nuclear U-boats. Bi11 Lynch as been
investigating how Moscow gained the edge and at what
price.
LYNCH: Fire at sea, terrifying to submariners. irihile
this smoky incident in the Sea of Japan last fall may have
been ,just a drill, real mishaps are all too common on
Soviet subs. On paper, the Soviet navy has a mighty force
of more than 370 submarines, half of them nuclear-powered.
But in practice, Soviet subs have proven deadly for
hundreds of Russian sailors. Half a dozen fatal
incidents, never before reported, of sinkings, fires and
repeated radiation leakage emerged from censored CIA
reports obtained by CBS News. Since the mid-1960s, six
Soviet subs have been reported lost at ses, taking some
500 cre~.-men to their deaths. The CIA documents tell for
'the first time of the 1968 sinking of a Northern Fleet sub
at the virtual doorstep of its base on the Kola Peninsula.
CMDR. ROY CORLETT (Ret.) (Soviet sub expert): For every
accident that you hear about, there must be a great many .
which don't receive publicity.
LYNCH: Soviet sailors drill for the worst and often face
real-life disasters. One CIA report describes a nuclear
sub in the Baltic suffering violent shocks and radiation
leakage in 1981. Part of the crew was sealed off as the
sub was towed home, and they all later died of radiation
poisoning. As many as 30 crewmen died on the icebreaker
Lenin in the mid-'60s, after xhat a CIA source described
as a 'meltdown of her nuclear reactor,' the xorst type of
nuclear power emergency. ADM ANTHONY WHETSTONE (Ret.,
Royal Navy): The Soviets neglected to ensure complete
safety in certain areas, and they, they have paid the ~,
penalty for that. ~ ~ ?~
I
LYNCH: By contrast, the U.S. Navy says it puts safety
first. Except for the loss of the Thresher and the
Scorpion in the 1960s, the Navy claims a spotless nuclear .
safety record. Soviet admirals,~who traditionally put
less emphasis on crew health and safety, may have learned
from their disasters how to improve their newest subs.
CORLETT: 'They don't hesitate to experiment even where
this costs money or even where, in the event they may have
gone disastrously wrong.-
LYNCH: iil?:atever role past disasters played in the latest
Soviet sub designs, Western navies nox~face a potential
adversary who 'can dive deeper, run faster and quieter than
before. Bill Lynch, CBS News, uashington. < .~
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/02/28: CIA-RDP90-009658000403640070-1