By building a submarine with a titanium hull and unique reactor – both innovations at the time – the Lira would become the fastest, deepest-diving submarine in the ocean, so fast that it could evade Western torpedoes. In order to do this, the Soviets would design the Lira-class. What Moscow needed was a submarine that could move faster and dive deeper than Western submarines. Aware of their strategic disadvantage in submarine warfare, and unable to compete in the areas of stealth and reliability, the Soviets sought to innovate. More specifically, the Soviet Union’s early nuclear submarines were known to be less stealthy and reliable than Western submarines. This experience, alongside existing technological advantages, gave the United States a strategic advantage in submarine warfare. had gained invaluable submarine and anti-submarine experience during the Pacific War and the Battle of the Atlantic. The USSR had acquired many of the most advanced German submarine types by the end of the war, but the U.S. In the decades after World War II, the United States leapt out in front of the Soviet Union in submarine technology. Indeed, the Lira is both the product and the cause of such an interaction. The Project 705 “Lira” nuclear submarine (NATO reporting name “Alfa”) is a great illustration of that dynamic. Innovations in military technology are often the byproducts of strategic interactions between world powers and their economies. However, during the days of the Cold War, Russia had submarines that were made of titanium that could dive quite deep and made Washington quite nervous: Navy clearly builds the most powerful, silent, and sophisticated submarines on the planet today. By Alex Betley, Alumnus of The Fletcher School at Tufts University
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