The Emergence of Soviet Sea Power
McTiernan, Robert L.
in the fight sequences which occupy the center of interest in Hard Times. Although the movie deals with violent men engaged in a violent enterprise, there is surprisingly little actual violence...
...Carriers also have operational flexibility...
...The use of nearly all of its harbors is impeded by winter ice...
...The idea for the cruiser, which may be revived next year, originated not in the Navy, but with Admiral Hyman Rickover and Representative Charles E. Bennett, Chairman of the House Sea Power Subcommittee...
...Those are typically modern attitudes, of course...
...The advent of nuclear weapons has also given our navy partial responsibility for strategic deterrence, the burden for which falls on our ballistic missile submarines, such as Polaris/Poseidon and the proposed Trident...
...Determination in Congress alone, however, cannot ensure adequate naval strength...
...Nearly everyone concedes that nuclear propulsion is an important advantage for a submarine...
...but a certain image of a man, a style, which expresses itself most clearly in violence...
...Rumor has it that a sign in Soviet Admiral Gorshkov's office reads: "Better is the enemy of good enough...
...In the late 1960s, two 18,000-ton helicopter cruisers were completed...
...Even where the Western nations have clear superiority, the consequences of skirmishing with a capable Soviet fleet are sobering...
...and most of its northern waters are available for only a few weeks a year...
...But even given an adequate overall defense budget, the higher salaries required for a volunteer military, crucial needs in other defense areas, and the high rate of inflation within the shipbuilding industry will necessarily restrict the growth of the U.S...
...Soviet operations in the Indian Ocean could also prove an important factor in oil politics...
...According to the former CNO, the Israelis had trapped and threatened to destroy Egypt's important Third Army, but the United States restrained the Israelis in the face of Soviet threats to intervene to save it...
...Though former CNOs have usually set a goal closer to 800 ships, at present construction rates the United States will probablyfall slightly short even of the new, lower figure...
...Since 1971, the Soviets have also added seven Krivak-class destroyers, the most heavily armed ship of its type in any navy...
...On some occasions he has added that it would probably suffer painful losses in the process...
...Rather than concentrating their naval power in coastal waters and around their home ports, the Soviets regularly send their ships into inter16 The Alternative: An American Spectator January 1976 national waters...
...Admiral Holloway estimates that a navy of at least 600 ships will be necessary in the 1980s if the U.S...
...Nevertheless, it would be irresponsible to deprive ourselves of the capability to aid our allies...
...Because Russia is contiguous with the rest of Europe, it has traditionally been able to pursue its diplomatic and military goals without the use of a large fleet...
...Hundreds of shattering blows delivered by unbreakable fists strike indestructible cheeks and chins—and there is not a cut nor a bruise (nor a broken hand or nose, which would be the real-life result), and only the slightest trickles of blood...
...counterparts...
...In addition, while U.S...
...Nevertheless, as former Secretary of Defense James R. Schlesinger frequently reminded the Navy, the new carrier, which has been designated the CVNX, will result in significant savings to their shipbuilding programs...
...Even the large missile cruisers must return to port after firing their surface-to-surface missile launchers...
...And their behavior during the "Yom Kippur" war is an ominous indication of possibly belligerent intentions...
...and the USSR have roughly equal numbers of nuclear-powered, nonballistic missile submarines, the Soviets continue to outbuild us in this category...
...Building an airbase is an expensive and time-consuming process...
...They would need their navy only in order to frustrate U.S...
...14 new ships in fiscal year 1974 to the current level of about 22 ships per year...
...Nor is everyone in Congress favorable to Admiral Holloway's request...
...By keeping a permanent fleet of about fifty ships in the Mediterranean, the Soviets avoid the risk that their entire Black Sea fleet could be barred from the Mediterranean by a blockade of the Turkish Straits...
...These goals explain the emphasis Soviet strategists have given attack and cruise-missile submarines...
...The U.S...
...Nevertheless, the Soviets have the edge here...
...This drastic drop was due to the Navy's decision to retire obsolete World War II warships in order to concentrate all of its resources on new construction...
...Despite this encouraging note, there are other areas where U.S...
...With the recent Senate approval of a U.S...
...It also gives the Soviets the potential ability to interfere with shipping lanes from the Persian Gulf around the Cape of Good Hope...
...Oceans can no longer protect us from foreign involvements, but they can be a major obstacle to maintaining supply and communication lines with our closest allies, particularly in the event of war in Europe...
...A lot of people pay a lot of money to see a lot of Charles Bronson's movies...
...Its job during hostilities is the defense of the Soviet Union's coastline and the interdiction of United States supply-and communications lines...
...A similar policy has been followed with the Baltic fleet...
...seapower will be a permanent feature of our defense policy...
...Congress has made a strong move to prevent this by increasing ship authorization from...
...Regardless of who would begin the initial confrontation, the Soviets count on making the initial and final strike at sea...
...This elaborate stylization forces us to concentrate on the bearing of the fighters, rather than the physical effects of their brutality: There is no cruelty, and no opportunity for vicarious pleasure in the infliction of pain...
...Whatever course naval planners follow, a more modest vision of the reach of U.S...
...The Soviets are currently building at least one more like it, according to Rear Admiral Bobby Inmann, Director of Naval Intelligence...
...For much of Soviet history especially, Russia's rulers have concentrated nearly all of its resources on building a strong army...
...Soviet long-range missiles and guns can reach enemy ships within a 300-mile radius...
...advantages, such as sophisticated carrier technology and long experience in training carrier personnel...
...An illustration is the huge nuclear strike cruiser, which was cut recently from this year's budget...
...The strong friendship between Somalia and the Soviet Union provides the Russians a safe harbor at Berbera in the Gulf of Aden at the mouth of the Red Sea...
...The first of 30 nev,, Spruance-clas's multi-mission gas-powered destroyers has already appeared...
...One of the figures that is frequently cited with concern is that the Soviets have a fleet of nearly 270 attack and cruise-missile submarines, compared with 80 U.S...
...but for the most part, it adds only to a surface ship's endurance...
...Navy and its supp,,rr ers have an understandable prefertnt e for large, lavishly-equipped ships...
...The same factors govern Soviet strategy today...
...carrier force is a key element in maintaining our ability to control sea lanes...
...The Defense Department's program to maintain the size of the U.S...
...attack subs...
...Separated from its allies by water, the United States must also be able to "project" its power, through offensive air strikes and amphibious assault operations against hostile shores...
...With the outbreak of large-scale hostilities, a scattered Soviet fleet would attack all U.S...
...Despite the fact that these ships must be replenished more frequently than U.S...
...But such projects, besides interfering with higher force levels, make ideal targets for those who think we're already spending too much on the Navy...
...Some liberals such as Representative Les Aspin have already announced their opposition to the plan...
...These highly innovative ships have missile cruiser forwards and helicopter flight-deck afts...
...While polls indicate support for a strong national defense, Americans are unlikely to favor any large increases in defense spending...
...I shall concern myself here, however, with whether the growth of the Soviet navy poses dangers to our own navy's "conventional" mission of sea control...
...perhaps it is the mark of Bronson's genius that he can recapture an aesthetic, rather than moral, ideal of heroism that hearkens back to a pre-modern era...
...warned in the pages of National Review that the Russian navy is an "offensive weapon," the creation of which "plainly signals Russia's intention of expanding its dominion over the world...
...Many critics of current naval policy, such as Admiral Zumwalt, urge repeal of Title VIII and the building of smaller, lighter, nonnuclear ships as the only realistic means of reaching adequate force levels...
...The fact that the Soviet navy had the United States outnumbered by 33 ships, combined with the threat of a Soviet attack on the U.S...
...The United States Navy must maintain those supply and communications lines and must be able to guarantee the safety of friendly shipping, whichtransports essential strategic materials...
...It is 40,000 tons and over 900 feet in length...
...A reopened Suez Canal could double its importance...
...The crucial question is whether the United States Navy could carry out its missions today in the face of an increasingly competent Soviet navy...
...Sixth Fleet from four land bases, forced the United States to back down...
...More of the same attitude would benefit U.S...
...This ship is a significant advance for the Soviet Union, especially in antisubmarine warfare...
...In his acting out of "his own high sense of himself," Chaney's heroism entirely manifests itself—in his fighting, in his relationship with Speed and Poe, and in his quiet arrival and departure by boxcar...
...fleet—unless the Navy makes very efficient use of its defense dollars...
...It is also very expensive, the first cruiser costing $1.2 billion and those that follow about $850 million each...
...beyond home waters, ship-days than any other region...
...The Soviet navy's basic mission is sea denial, the direct opposite of the United States Navy's...
...Fortunately, a crash program will soon equip United States ships with a "Harpoon" missile, effective against enemy ships from a distance of fifty to sixty •These figures are the author's estimates based on recent editions of Jane's Fighting Ships and Jane's Weapons Systems...
...These would be of use mainly in the unlikely event of an extended war on Western shipping...
...Former Secretary of Defense James R. Schlesinger has said that this out-of-area activity seems to have stabilized below the U.S...
...There-will be limits to the amount of money available for naval procurement in the coming years...
...The most startling example was revealed last summer by Admiral Zumwalt, who claims that during the 1973 "Yom Kippur" war, the Soviet Union issued a "savage ultimatum" to President Nixon...
...Proponents of a strong Navy must also be realistic...
...Admiral James L. Holloway III, the Chief of Naval Operations, estimates that the two navies are roughly comparable in cruiser, frigate, and destroyer capability...
...And even though the U.S...
...On the other hand, the United States has a lead in carriers that is virtually insurmountable...
...Since the mid-1960s, the Soviets have established a permanent presence in the Mediterranean Sea, and that area accounts for more Soviet "outof-area," i.e...
...Though these nuclear-powered "mediums" will still be larger than any Soviet carrier, critics of this move, such as Admiral Rickover, claim that the higher cost of the big carriers is justified since they can carry and support larger planes and more of them...
...efforts to do the same thing by sea...
...Ensuring that the United States Navy has the right type of ships for sea control is also crucial...
...Hopefully recent defense cuts are not a signal that Congress will trade this prudent policy for a shortsighted one...
...This should help close the gap in the area of anti-sub and anti ship submarines...
...He is entirely "external"—for him there is no separation between idea and act, and thus he can be completely straightforward in all his dealings...
...The Soviets have always been deficient in mobile tactical air support and in the numbers of amphibious warfare troops and landing craft needed for such operations...
...Although he is a loner, he is not alienated...
...While the Soviet navy has grown rapidly during the past decade, the U.S...
...naval base on Diego Garcia, however, the United States can now continue its periodic operations in the Indian Ocean without having to rely on a 3,500-mile support-line from Subic Bay in the Philippines...
...Aside from upgrading the quality of individual naval units, the most noticeable change in the Soviet navy has been in its deployment patterns...
...More recently, former Chief of Naval Operations, retired Admiral Elmo R. Zumwalt, told newspaper reporters that the United States had to back down from a naval confrontation with the Soviets during the 1973 "Yom Kippur" war because the Russian fleet had the United States outnumbered in the Mediterranean 98 warships to 65...
...Navy could successfully carry out its responsibilities in most situations that can be expected to arise, and especially in the case of a Warsaw Pact-NATO conflict...
...Spencer, Jr...
...Despite its lack of support ships, none of the Soviet navy's surface warships are nuclear-powered...
...fleets within a ninety-second period...
...The most impressive additions to the Soviet surface fleet in recent years have been its cruisers...
...With the development over the past ten years of a modern surface fleet, the Soviets have initiated a new operational policy of "forward-deployment...
...The United States now has a fleet of 13 carriers, including two new 90,000-ton, Nimitz-class nuclear attack carriers...
...The Kiev, which will soon be fully operational, is of a more conventional design...
...seapower will be a necessary element in any successful defense policy in the coming decade...
...It also gives them a direct line to the Middle East, which provides Western Europe with about two-thirds and Japan with three-fourths of their oil needs...
...is to maintain its capability for success...
...There has also been a permanent presence in the Indian Ocean since 1968...
...But as the Soviets demonstrated during the "Yom Kippur" war, they still have the capacity to "surge" naval forces into strategic theaters...
...It is the advent of Soviet "mini-carriers," however, that has caused the most comment and speculation about Soviet intentions...
...The kind of heroism which Chaney em-bodies in the movie is possible only because Bronson, the actor, dignifies the movie with the same kind of straightforwardness that Chaney, the character, is supposed to possess...
...and its usefulness lasts only as long as good relations with the government of the country where it is located...
...attack carrier fleet shows a better way to balance capability and economy...
...naval superiority is by no means guaranteed...
...No shipbuilding program can restore our naval strength to the position it held before the Soviets developed their surface fleet...
...The United States abandoned the Regulus II missile program in 1958, and for years had no comparable weapon...
...It is not as valuable as U.S...
...Nearly as important as the size of the fleet are less visible U.S...
...The United States now has only a slight edge in numbers of major combatants...
...That mission of sea control requires not only a large number of combat ships, but the maintenance of an extensive support fleet...
...The political will to face up to a credible Soviet challenge to U.S...
...The design of Soviet surface warships also supports this assessment...
...Carriers are still the most effective means to this end, since they carry aircraft effective against submarines and anti-ship missiles as well as planes for bombing other ships and land targets...
...The Soviets have completed only one carrier of conventional design...
...It is the improved quality of individual warships that has increased Russia's total naval capability...
...According to Admiral Holloway, the U.S...
...Indeed, the emergence of an impressive Soviet navy over the last decade has recently caused increasing comment, and in some cases alarm...
...The "Okean 1975" worldwide Soviet naval maneuvers demonstrated conclusively that, whatever their intentions, the Soviets now have an impressive oceangoing fleet...
...Since the early 1960s, the Soviet Union has added 270 major surface combatants and submarines (including ballistic missile subs) to their fleet, compared with 176 such additions for the United States...
...Geography is in part responsible for confining Russia to the role of a continental power...
...An important feature of nearly all of the new surface ships is the SS-N-10 surface-to-surface missile, a horizon-range, anti-ship missile that is difficult to counter...
...There are also plans to develop patrol frigates and hydrofoils and continue work on long-range cruise missiles and the sophisticated Aegis system for defense against missiles and aircraft...
...Most of the Soviet fleet consists of diesel-powered subs built in the mid-1950s...
...But carrier aircraft can The Alternative: An American Spectator January 1976 17 strike at a distance of over 1,200 miles...
...To gain these advantages, however, the Soviets have sacrificed habitability and, above all, endurance...
...It would not be an exaggeration to say that Charles Bronson is the only actor who could have played Chaney—or any similar role...
...ships, the Soviets have only a small support fleet...
...Robert L. McTiernan The Emergence of Soviet Sea Power • When the United States Navy celebrated its two hundredth anniversary last October, the optimism characteristic of such occasions was marred by a recognition of discipline problems in the service, of personnel shortages, and, above all, of the growing strength of the Soviet navy...
...In addition, the Soviet vessels have little reload capacity...
...Last May, D.F...
...As moderns, we believe that the essence of "seriousness" lies in irony, ambiguity, and self-consciousness...
...It is unclear just how well the Soviets are equipped to engage in such interventions close to the USSR...
...Thus, the damage that U.S...
...level...
...miles...
...Next year t'he first of 26 huge Los Angeles-class nuclear attack subs will be commissioned...
...Congress has already demonstrated a stubborn refusal to allow the Soviets to shift the balance of power in a vital area by approving a naval base for the Indian Ocean...
...This new deployment policy also alleviates the traditionally troublesome geographic problem in Russian naval strategy...
...Most analysts agree that the USSR is planning its naval program around a "first-salvo" strategy...
...A recent study by the Naval Ship Engineering Center in Hyattsville, Maryland concluded that Soviet warships are smaller, faster, and more heavily armed than their U.S...
...and I suspect that it might be because movies such as Hard Times are "like the way movies used to be"—before they were crippled by self-consciousness...
...The reasons for Soviet interest in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Indian Ocean become clear with a glance at a map...
...But this is only our first attempt at such a missile, and the Russians have a technological lead in this area...
...These tasks are in keeping with Russian needs and traditions...
...But there is more to it than just that: Bronson brings more than just a weather-beaten face to the role in Hard Times...
...carriers for providing air support, and therefore not as effective in "projecting" power into a region...
...As the Navy's Forrestal-class carriers approach obsolescence, the United States will have to build at least one carrier every two years in order to maintain a force level of 12 carriers in the 1980s...
...In the event of war in Europe, the Soviets could send troops and supplies there by land routes...
...Instead of building a fourth 90,000-ton, Nimitz-class nuclear carrier, which would probably cost about $2 billion, the current Administration is determined to move to the smaller, 50-60,000-ton carrier...
...Most naval analysts agree that the United States must increase the size of its fleet in order to guarantee the Navy's ability to perform its mission...
...Although the movie deals with violent men engaged in a violent enterprise, there is surprisingly little actual violence shown on the screen...
...Still, they are no doubt training army divisions to supplement their force of 15,000 marines, as well as increasing their fleet of amphibious ships...
...But we just might find that it lies in acting straightforwardly...
...By stationing ships in the Mediterranean, the Soviets have a portion of their ships "on-task," thus saving the transit time from their home ports...
...One of the barriers to the construction of a larger Navy is Title VIII of Public Law 93-365, which requires that all new naval combat forces be nuclear-powered...
...Numbers alone, however, tell us much less about the comparative power of the two navies than most commentators would have us believe...
...Actors recently have become increasingly self-conscious, and their characteristic stance toward their roles, especially in genre movies, has increasingly become irony, or parody, or self-parody...
...Two of them have become operational since 1973, and along with six Kresta-II and four Kresta-I cruisers (all completed in the last ten years) they give the Soviets a formidable cruiser force...
...What Warshow wrote about the violence in Westerns is perfectly to the point here: "Really, it is not violence at all which is the 'point...
...In fact, most observers expect the number of Soviet warships to decline in the next few years...
...What those who...
...While the Soviet presence there has not been as large as in the Mediterranean, it is still large enough to establish Soviet interest in the region, and to influence the foreign policy of littoral states...
...Several procurement programs intended to correct imbalances in our naval forces have received consistent support in Congress and are well underway...
...attack carriers could inflict on the Soviet offensive fleet with even the slightest warning gives them additional reason to hope that they will be able to land the first and final blow in any conflict...
...missile defense systems are quite good, the deficiencies in Soviet missile defense systems (in 1973 the Israelis sank 13 Russian-built missile boats without a single loss) indicate that even if Soviet warships could manage to get off a first strike their success is not guaranteed...
...This problem can be circumvented through the use of carriers, which can be sent to an area as soon as an emergency arises and withdrawn immediately when it has past, without any wasteful abandonment of equipment...
...18 The Alternative: An American Spectator January 1976...
...That mission is primarily "sea control," guaranteeing that during hostilities we can use the sea for ourselves and deny its use to our enemies...
...Numbers alone, however, are not the best indicators of the progress that the Soviet navy has made...
...This has brought the Soviet navy to a level of 466 combat ships...
...The essence of comedy, it is said, lies in playing straight...
...A pickup bout becomes an elegantly choreographed pas de deux, with the brutality conveyed solely through the sound effects—incredible grunts and groans, and the clap and crunch of fist against flesh...
...The U.S...
...defense posture...
...The ship is impressively versatile and can be used to protect a carrier task force or to carry out offensive missions on its own...
...Of course, the naval strength of our NATO allies adds significantly to ourown, while the Warsaw Pact countries have virtually no naval forces...
...In light of our large support fleet and policy of regular replenishment, the cost of nuclear ships (30-50% higher than conventional ships) does not seem justified...
...And it is Bronson, as Chaney, who is the most "stylish," and thus the most heroic: a heroism—a nobility realized through performance—which is not a moral idea, but an aesthetic ideal...
...Still, the Kiev can accommodate only VSTOL (vertical/ short takeoff and landing) aircraft...
...And with the economy in trouble, pressure in Congress for further defense cuts - is likely to increase...
...feel comfortable merely keeping up with the Soviets in numbers of combatants and those who advocate a return to extremely high pre-1968 levels both forget is that the essential goal in the United States shipbuilding program is to build an adequate number of the right kind of ships to enable our navy to accomplish its strategic mission...
...That is partly because a "Charles Bronson movie" or a "Charles Bronson role" have almost taken on independent existence of their own—a nearly inevitable consequence of the typecasting of a strong character actor...
...Nevertheless, in two categories, Soviet and American strengths are not equal...
...The new 10,000-ton Kara-class missile-cruiser is considered one of the finest warships in the world...
...Navy has declined in numbers from a force of nearly 1,000 ships in 1968 to the current level of about 490 warships and subs...
Vol. 9 • January 1976 • No. 4
