Declassification

Secret CIA Docs Reveal What Worried US Intel Most About Soviet Navy Capabilities

The Central Intelligence Agency has released some 2,000 pages of formerly classified materials on the Soviet Navy during the Cold War. Military observer Andrei Kotz takes a look at some of the most fascinating conclusions Western intelligence analysts reached about the Soviet Navy's presumed strengths and weaknesses.

The trove of documents, encompassing 82 reports spanning three decades, from the 1960s to the 1980s, includes everything from translations of materials from 'Military Thought', a Soviet military journal, to high-level US national intelligence estimates of Soviet naval power, to agency reports focused on subs, carriers, cruise missiles, and more.

The documents confirm that the US military leadership saw the Soviet Navy as a serious threat to US naval hegemony, and that they allocated generous funding to intelligence studies on the subject. The materials touched on practically all aspects of Soviet naval military thought, from the characteristics of its ship-based anti-aircraft missile systems, to the tactical configuration of submarine strike groups.