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Soviet Union [USSR] Naval Forces
Before 1962 the Soviet Naval Forces were primarily a coastal
defense force. The Cuban missile crisis and United States
quarantine of Cuba in 1962, however, made the importance of oceangoing naval forces clear to the Soviet Union. In 1989 the Soviet
Naval Forces had nearly 500,000 servicemen organized into five
combat arms and gave the Soviet Union a capability of projecting
power beyond Europe and Asia.
Submarine Forces
Submarines were the most important forces in the Soviet Naval
Forces. In 1989 the Soviet Union had the largest number of
ballistic missile submarines in the world. Most of the sixty-two
ballistic missile submarines could launch their nuclear-armed
missiles against intercontinental targets from Soviet home waters.
The deployment of mobile land-based ICBMs in the late 1980s,
however, could reduce the importance of ballistic missile
submarines as the Soviet Union's most survivable strategic force.
Soviet attack submarines have had an antisubmarine warfare
(ASW) mission. In wartime the attack submarine force--203 boats in
1989--would attempt to destroy the enemy's ballistic missile and
attack submarines. Since 1973 the Soviet Union has deployed ten
different attack submarine classes, including five new types since
1980. In 1989 the Soviet Union also had sixty-six guided missile
submarines for striking the enemy's land targets, surface combatant
groups, and supply convoys.
Data as of May 1989
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