Soviets Reported Leading in Submarine Design

LONDON —  The Soviet Union has taken a dramatic lead over the United States in the crucial field of submarine design, the 90th edition of Jane’s Fighting Ships says.

The Soviets already have at sea four classes of submarines superior to the most modern U.S. nuclear sub, said retired British navy Capt. John Moore, who for 15 years has edited Jane’s, the basic reference book on the world’s navies.

Since the first U.S. Los Angeles-class nuclear submarine was commissioned in 1976, “the Soviet navy has introduced four classes of nuclear attack submarines, all with higher speeds than the Los Angeles, at least three with an increased diving depth, all with a far higher power density and a much superior armament,” Moore said.

“There has been little basic change in American attack submarine affairs during the last 15 years,” he said. “Because of conformism, conservatism and complacency, the U.S. Navy will not have a radically new design of submarine at sea until 1994.”

Before then--and perhaps already--the Soviets may have radically new submarines in service, powered by super-conducting motors and using a revolutionary “ripple” method of propulsion, Moore said.

“It is willful self-deception to ignore the possibility that there is today at sea a submarine of tremendous power, of considerable silence and propelled not by a propeller but by skate-like ripple of water,” he said.

Moore, who retires as Jane’s editor with this volume, uses his 22,000-word foreword to summarize naval developments in the 15 years of his editorship. He is encouraging to the West only in terms of surface ships, and then only toward certain countries--one of which is the United States.

But he bitterly attacked the “hidebound and autocratic reaction which has delayed advance in the submarines of the U.S. Navy.”

In his 15 years, the United States “has become dependent on only two submarine building yards” in place of seven. That compares poorly with the five Soviet yards, he said.

Also, he said, Soviet shipyards are turning out superior fighting submarines--which are capable of speeds of 45 to 50 knots, able to dive and fight to depths of 3,000-plus feet and are quieter and harder to detect than American subs.