Documents / FOIA release
This Central Intelligence Agency JPRS translation, dated 29 January 1992, reproduces an IZVESTIYA article by Marat Zubko about Soviet submarine U-137, which ran aground near the Karlskrona naval base in Sweden on 27 October 1981. It reports former commander Anatoliy Gushchin's claims that the submarine carried nuclear weapons and that he had orders to blow it up. It also quotes Swedish commander Karl Andersson likening claims of submarine incursions to flying saucers. Captain 1st Rank Vladimir Vazhov disputes the order claim and describes two Soviet minisubmarines.
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# Concatenated JPRS Reports, 1992 ## Document 3 of 12 between the numerous departments had its effect, the boats wound up too heavy and hard to control, and so construction of more of them had to be abandoned. 34. Their specifications are no secret today. The displacement of such a boat is 219 tons, it is 28 meters long, its speed is six and a half knots, and its range is 240 miles. It has a diesel-electric propulsion unit and an electric motor, and a full battery charge can support 60 miles of subsurface running. 35. There is a crew of three-a commander, a mechanic and a navigator, each of whom can control the boat alone. Its endurance, which is determined by the water and food stores, is 10 days. During trials it did not remain below the surface for more than 24 hours-it had to surface to ventilate the compartments. 36. Diving depth is up to 200 meters. Its armament consists of a device for launching containers. The latter could accommodate a television unit to explore the bottom, apparatus for search and rescue measures, or a mechanical manipulator with which to raise various objects from the bottom and to transfer articles to a submarine in distress. The submarine could also be adapted to lay mines and even accommodate a torpedo tube. 37. Together with the expenses of design and development the boats cost 180 million rubles in old prices. The boats themselves cost around 20 million. This is approximately the cost of two Tu-22 aircraft. 38. During trials they went to sea 170 times, though of course no farther than the Liepaja roadstead and 10 miles from the Paldiski coast. They never went beyond the USSR's territorial waters, such that the suggestion that they may have been in Swedish skerries is devoid of all grounds. 39. The fate of the boats will be this: We will take them up on shore, mothball them, and if we are able to correct their design shortcomings, we will put them back in service. If not, they will remain as museum pieces, as experimental models that could serve as the basis for designing other modifications. In peacetime their use is totally meaningless. 40. These are the things we want to say at the meeting with the delegation of experts from the Swedish Navy, to be held 28 January. We will be visited by Captain 1st Rank Emil Svenson, a naval advisor to the Swedish prime minister, and Captain 2d Rank Nils Uve Yanson [transliterations] from the Swedish Defense Ministry.
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FOIA release, from the cia-readingroom collection. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is above. The text was read from the page images by GLM-OCR; expect the odd misread word. 7 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.