Soviet Cruise Missile Submarines of the Cold War

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 antiship 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.

Edward Hampshire was educated at Magdalen College, Oxford and King’s College, London, where he gained a doctorate in War Studies in 2008. He is currently a Senior Lecturer at the Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst. Dr. Hampshire wrote his doctoral thesis on British naval technology of the 1960s, and he is currently researching British defense policy of the late 1970s and 1980s, in particular the 1981 Defence Review. His publications include From East of Suez to the Eastern Atlantic, British Naval Policy 1964-70, British Guided Missile Destroyers, and Soviet Cold War Guided Missile Cruisers.