Submarines - USSR: Books - History, Types and Deployment

From Julietts to Vasens: Development and Operational History of Soviet Nuclear-Powered Cruise-Missile Submarines 1958-2022

In the aftermath of the Second World War, the Soviet Union embarked upon the rebuilding of its naval forces for a new era of naval warfare; one dominated by Western nuclear-armed aircraft carriers that posed an existential threat to the USSR.
One solution to the problems facing the Soviet Navy was to develop submarines armed with large, heavy, long-range stand-off anti-ship cruise missiles.

These unique combinations of platforms and weapons systems would come to pose a threat that forced the US Navy to adapt its own naval strategy and equipment to counter them.
While never used in anger in their intended role, life aboard these submarines could be extremely hazardous for their crews, with a number of accidents - including the total loss of boats such as the Kursk - claiming many lives.

"From Julietts to Yasens" is a comprehensive history of the design of the SSG and SSGN submarines, their weapons systems, and service history from the 1950s through to the present day, and includes details of the numerous accidents and incidents.
This volume is illustrated with many black and white and colour photographs, and specially commission artworks of the submarines, the missiles they carried, and the men who crewed them.

Soviet Cold War Attack Submarines : Nuclear classes from November to Akula (Osprey)

In this highly detailed book, naval historian Edward Hampshire reveals the fascinating history of the nuclear-powered attack submarines built and operated by the Soviet Union in the Cold War, including each class of these formidable craft as they developed throughout the Cold War period.
The November class, which were the Soviet Union's first nuclear submarines, had originally been designed to fire a single enormous nuclear-tipped torpedo but were eventually completed as boats firing standard torpedoes.
The Alfa class were perhaps the most remarkable submarines of the Cold War: titanium-hulled (which was light and strong but extremely expensive and difficult to weld successfully), crewed with only thirty men due to considerable automation and 30% faster than any US submarines, they used a radical liquid lead-bismuth alloy in the reactor plant.
The Victor class formed the backbone of the Soviet nuclear submarine fleet in the 1970s and 1980s, as hunter-killer submarines began to focus on tracking and potentially destroying NATO ballistic missile submarines.
The Sierra classes were further titanium-hulled submarines and the single Mike-class submarine was an experimental type containing a number of innovations. Finally, the Akula class were being constructed as the Cold War ended, and these boats form the mainstay of the Russian nuclear attack submarine fleet today.

This book explores the design, development, and deployment of each of these classes in detail, offering an unparalleled insight into the submarines which served the Soviet Union throughout the Cold War period. The text is supported by stunning illustrations, photographs and diagrams of the submarines.

Soviet Cruise Missile Submarines of the Cold War (Osprey)

The Soviet Union's cruise missile submarines from the modified Whiskey, to the Oscar II classes were among the most formidable vessels of the Cold War. They were initially designed to carry land attack nuclear-tipped cruise missiles designed to strike targets on the eastern coast of the United States.

By the late 1960s, however, submarine-launched ballistic missiles made the nuclear land-attack mission unnecessary, so existing classes were converted to the 'carrier killer' role, armed with anti-ship cruise missiles designed to destroy US super-carriers and other important naval targets.

This fully illustrated study examines these powerful machines that were some of the largest and fastest submarines ever built. If war had broken out, they would have been at the forefront of the Soviet Navy's campaign to destroy NATO's sea power and cut America's sea link with Europe.

The Taking of K-129 - The Most Daring Covert Operation in History

In late February, 1968, a Russian submarine, holding a battery of three ballistic missiles with enough nuclear material to create an explosion 50 times greater than Hiroshima, disappeared in the Pacific Ocean.
The Soviet Navy used ships, subs and planes in an enormous search of open ocean, in stormy seas, where the depth ranged up to 18,000 feet. But they were looking in the wrong place.

The US Navy, meanwhile, had been watching. Intelligence officials knew the sub had been lost and they began a secret operation to find it first. But once they found it, they somehow needed to retrieve it from the ocean floor.
The CIA enrolled reclusive billionaire Howard Hughes and commissioned the most expensive ship ever built, a technological marvel that the public was told was to mine rare minerals from the ocean floor.
So began an incredible top-secret operation that took six years, and would become the largest and most expensive covert operation in history. Its name: Project Azorian. Its objective: the taking of submarine K-129.