The Role of Russian Submarines in Russian Maritime Strategy

Abstract

This thesis evaluates the recent improvement of Russia's submarine program in light of the overall modernization of Russia's undersea capabilities. It is based on a combination of qualitative assessments from unclassified official publications from Russian maritime defense institutions, historical articles on Soviet submarine development, along with their use during the Soviet era, and contemporary studies of Russian submarines. It concludes that the Russian Navy is well on its way to replacing an aged Soviet submarine force with a smaller but more technologically advanced nuclear submarine fleet. Improved Russian submarines are employed in a variety of roles to blunt American strategic innovation. Russia's Deep-Water Special Operating Submarines (DWSOS) and its Oceanographic Research Vessels (ORV), in particular, are employed to reinforce a policy that aims to advance Russia's influence abroad. Russia's navy will undoubtedly attempt to counteract any improvements realized by the U.S. Navy to the extent it can. In that sense, Russian naval strategy will remain reactive to that of the United States and its European neighbors for the foreseeable future.

Open PDF

Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Mar 01, 2021
Accession Number
AD1150448

Entities

People

  • Nicholas A. Compton

Organizations

  • Naval Postgraduate School

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Air Platforms
  • Ground and Sea Platforms
  • Space
  • Weapons Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Attack Submarines
  • Ballistic Missile Submarines
  • Boats
  • Fighter Aircraft
  • Geography
  • Naval Operations
  • Navy
  • Nuclear Powered Submarines
  • Seabed
  • Sonar
  • Submarine Warfare
  • Topography
  • United States
  • Unmanned Underwater Vehicles
  • Unmanned Vehicles
  • War Colleges
  • Warfare

Readers

  • Marine Hydrodynamics
  • Strategic Security Studies