Soviet Foxtrots: Cuban Missile Crisis
Loaded with nuke-tipped torpedos
Foxtrot loading and leadership
The Soviets designated the four Foxtrots as B-4, B-36, B-59, and B-130, with B-59 serving as the flagship. I will use this naming convention moving forward.
The Foxtrots were covertly deployed on October 1, 1962, from their home base in Polyarny to Sayda Bay on the Kola Peninsula to hide their activities. The Soviets designated this unit as the 20th Operational Squadron, Rear Admiral Leonid Rybalko in command. They were the last of the Soviet forces to be sent to Cuba.
This deployment allowed the loading of special nuclear-tipped torpedoes. No Soviet submarine had previously carried this type of torpedo, nor did any of the captains know how to operate them. These were T-5, 533 mm torpedoes marked with a purple nose to differentiate them from conventional torpedoes. Additionally, a single weapons security officer, who was not a submariner, was assigned to oversee these nuclear torpedoes. He spent most of the transit forward with his torpedo, even sleeping beside it. They were 3.5-kiloton torpedoes, though some say five kilotons. The torpedo was powerful enough to destroy a carrier group due to its wide blast kill zone.
The USN employed two aircraft carriers during the Cuban crisis, the USS Enterprise and the USS Independence.
In its "After Action Report," the Soviet Northern Fleet Headquarters stated that each submarine carried 21 conventional torpedoes. Furthermore, one torpedo "with nuclear load (was placed) onto each of the (four) submarines." Their "Special Assignment" was "to cross the ocean in secret and to arrive at a new basing point in one of the fraternal countries." Each captain received an envelope containing top-secret instructions that they were not to open until they departed from Kola Bay. They would be permitted to brief their crews once they reached the Atlantic Ocean.
This photo features the four Soviet captains of the Foxtrots, all of whom held the rank of Captain Second Rank, which is roughly equivalent to a USN commander. From left to right in the photo, they are:
- Captain Aleksei Dubivko, B-36;
- Captain Nikolai Shumkov, B-130;
- Captain Vitali Savitsky, B-59;
- Captain Ryurik Ketov, B-4.
Jan Drent, writing "Confrontation in the Sargasso Sea: Soviet Submarines During the Cuban Missile Crisis," described the four captains as "tenacious and seasoned submariners.” One (Dubivko), for example, had nine years of command experience behind him.
Elroy M. Nelson, writing “Cuban Missile Crisis Comes to the Front, Soviet Union Top Secret Plans released,” wrote:
“On September 30th, 1962 all four submarine commanding officers were directed to attend a midnight meeting with their squadron commander (Rear Admiral Leonid Rybalko) in the small wooden shed at the foot of the piers. In this meeting, the four commanding officers were informed that they were to deploy at 4:00 A.M. (October 1). The details of their mission had been delivered to their ships in sealed packets, and they were directed to read them carefully to their officers after submerging. They were also told they possess the capability of inflicting lethal damage to the American forces, but were urged to use discretion. It was considered highly unlikely that the American ASW (anti-submarine warfare) force would be at more than their usual state of alert, considered not much of a threat.”
