U.S. Declaratory Policy on Soviet SSBN Security: 1970 to 1985

Abstract

U.S. defense officials have often said that the Soviet Union expects Western antisubmarine warfare (ASW) forces to attack its ballistic missile submarines (SSBNs) and thus is prepared to defend them in war. These Soviet expectations may have been encouraged by U.S. declaratory policy on the subject--that is, the totality of official and other authoritative statements on strategic doctrine and policy, ASW capabilities and tactics, and ASW technology and programs from which Soviet observers reach conclusions about U.S. intentions. This paper reviews U.S. declaratory policy between 1970 and 1985 to determine specifically what that policy has been and then to infer what it has probably meant to the Soviets. It concludes that throughout this period official U.S. declatory policy has implied an intent to engage in strategic ASW and that the Soviets have had strong reasons to believe that their SSBNs have been and will continue to be targets of U.S. ASW forces.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
May 01, 1986
Accession Number
ADA175532

Entities

People

  • John D. Perse

Organizations

  • Center for Naval Analyses

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Ground and Sea Platforms
  • Space
  • Weapons Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Antisubmarine Warfare
  • Arms Control
  • Attack Submarines
  • Ballistic Missile Submarines
  • Ballistic Missiles
  • Doctrine
  • Fleet Ballistic Missiles
  • Geography
  • National Security
  • Naval Operations
  • Naval Warfare
  • Navy
  • Submarine Warfare
  • Submarines
  • Undersea Warfare
  • Ussr
  • Warfare

Fields of Study

  • Political science

Readers

  • Maritime and Naval Warfare Studies
  • Strategic Security Studies

Technology Areas

  • AI & ML
  • AI & ML - DoD AI Strategy