Created: April 1998
Updated: May 2000
EARLY HISTORY
The history of Russian naval activities in the Pacific region can be traced
as far back as the 1600s, when Russian explorers first reached Siberia's
eastern coastline and founded the city of Okhotsk (1647). But until
the mid-1800s, China's dominance of the southern regions of eastern Siberia
restricted Russian naval activities largely to summer operations in the
Far North and to expeditionary missions to the Kuril Islands, Sakhalin,
Hawaii, and North America. After the Treaties of Aigun (1858) and
Beijing (1860), Russia finally gained access to warm water ports on the
Sea of Japan and began a concerted naval build-up.[1] While tempered by
a humiliating defeat in the Russo-Japanese War in 1903 to 1904, the Russian
Navy maintained an active presence in the region, albeit a much smaller
and mostly coastally-oriented one. The Soviet Pacific Fleet emerged from
World War II virtually unscathed, save for three weeks of fighting to seize
the Kurils from Japanese force in August 1945. Yet it remained incapable
of opposing the powerful US Navy even in waters close to its coasts, as
demonstrated repeatedly during the Korean War, when US naval forces acted
in the Sea of Japan and Yellow Sea. Only in the late 1950s did the
Soviet Pacific Fleet make its first cruises into the open ocean by sending
a squadron of surface ships to Indonesia on a friendly port visit.[2]
THE SOVIET BUILD-UP
Intensified rivalry with China after 1960 and Cold War pressures to diversify
the Soviet Union's nuclear force posture to include ballistic missile submarines
led to the dramatic growth of the Pacific Fleet in the 1960s, 1970s, and
1980s. Hotel and Golf-class diesel submarines (SSBs) carried
the Pacific Fleet's first ballistic missiles in the 1960s. By 1970, Soviet
forces had gained enough confidence to begin cruises to Hawaii, long the
unchallenged bastion of US naval forces.[2] In 1971, the Soviet
Pacific Fleet deployed its first Yankee-class nuclear submarines
(SSBNs) and began to phase out its SSB fleet.[3] The deployment of the
first Delta-class boats carrying the new 4,200-nautical-mile-range
SS-N-8 missile in the late 1970s provided the Pacific Fleet with its first
truly long-range SLBMs (as the Yankee-class missiles had a range of only
1,300 nautical miles).[4] Most of the SSBNs were stationed
near Petropavlovsk and operated in the Sea of Okhotsk, although a smaller
number were also stationed near Pacific Fleet headquarters in Vladivostok
at well to ply the Sea of Japan and more southerly waters. In 1989, the
Soviet Pacific Fleet peaked at a strength of 126 operational submarines,
including 25 SSBNs, 22 SSGNs, and 30 SSNs, a total of 77 nuclear submarines.[3]
POST-SOVIET DECLINE
The rapid decline of the Soviet economy in the late 1980s and the eventual
Soviet break-up in 1991 brought about a swift and accelerating reduction
of the Pacific Fleet from the early 1990s onward. A series of decisions
by the Yeltsin administration has brought about a tangible shrinking of
the Pacific Fleet's role in comparison to the Northern Fleet. The
decision to halt production of nuclear submarines at Amurskiy
Zavod in Komsomolsk-na-Amure and to concentrate all future production
of nuclear submarines at Sevmash in
Severodvinsk is promoting the increasing obsolescence of Pacific Fleet
submarines. By 1996, only 46 nuclear submarines remained active in
the Pacific Fleet.[5] By early 1998, this number had dropped to 26
(or less).[6, 7] As of May 2000, there were only
about 17 active nuclear submarines in the Pacific Fleet. Of these, the
only remaining active-duty SSBNs are the four Delta III submarines
stationed at Rybachiy, in Kamchatka.
The rest of the total includes six Akulas and six Oscar IIs at Rybachiy and one Victor III at
Pavlovsk Bay,
in Primorye.[9,10]
One of the major worries of the Pacific Fleet
today is the problem of nuclear submarine dismantlement. More than
67 nuclear submarines have been taken out of service and now require
defueling and eventual dismantlement.[8] Of these, only 36 had been
defueled as of 1995.[10] Currently, facilities that deal with the
liquid and solid radioactive waste and spent fuel generated by these vessels
are inadequate to the task. Considerable upgrading of capabilities
will be needed to avoid exacerbating existing radioactive pollution in
the region. The United States and Japan have provided dismantlement
and liquid waste filtration equipment to the Zvezda
facility in Bolshoy Kamen, Primorye, to speed the dismantlement of decommissioned
nuclear submarines and the processing of nuclear waste. (Please see
the Foreign Assistance Overview
and Landysh section for more information.) However, only one to two vessels a year are being
cut up, which means that the backlog of submarines continues to grow, as
the rate of submarines coming out of service exceeds the rate of dismantlement.
Nevertheless, Russia's Pacific Fleet remains operational. Its
nuclear submarines continue to demonstrate proven capabilities in test
launches of ballistic missiles and in SSN patrols of the Pacific Ocean.
Thus, while the Pacific Fleet is down, it is clearly not out of the picture
yet. However, without new funding to renovate the fleet, the coming
years will be characterized by continued decline. Whether the Russian
government will decide to remedy this situation or allow present problems
to worsen remains to be seen. While numerical reductions in the fleet are
welcomed by other regional powers, including the United States, the lack
of funds for safe decommissioning, speedy dismantlement, and safe operation
of the remaining nuclear submarines remains an issue of considerable concern.
NUCLEAR SUBMARINE BASES AND
FACILITIES OF THE RUSSIAN PACIFIC FLEET
Prepared by Dr. James Clay Moltz, CNS Assistant Director
Page last updated 2 May 2000
For more recent developments,
see the Pacific Fleet Developments file
and development sections under individual fleet facility files in the
Kamchatka Oblast, Khabarovsk
Kray or Primorskiy Kray sections.
Comments or questions? Contact Cristina Chuen at MIIS
CNS: Cristina.Chuen@miis.edu
This material is produced independently for NTI
by the Center for Nonproliferation Studies at the
Monterey Institute of International Studies and
does not necessarily reflect the opinions of and has
not been independently verified by NTI or its directors, officers,
employees, agents. Copyright © 2002 by MIIS.
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