0:00:02 > 0:00:03contains strong language
0:00:03 > 0:00:06Throughout the 1970s and '80s,
0:00:06 > 0:00:10the nuclear balance between East and West was constantly shifting...
0:00:10 > 0:00:16and the front line of the Cold war was now hidden beneath the ocean.
0:00:16 > 0:00:17Oh, my God!
0:00:18 > 0:00:20All hell broke loose.
0:00:20 > 0:00:27They were having a major antisubmarine warfare exercise and we were the target!
0:00:30 > 0:00:33This was a war of espionage and intimidation,
0:00:33 > 0:00:38a constant struggle to gain technological advantage.
0:00:53 > 0:00:58Submariners from three navies, American, Soviet and British,
0:00:58 > 0:01:01played a deadly game of hide-and-seek.
0:01:02 > 0:01:04He was always known in the trade as the Prince of Darkness,
0:01:04 > 0:01:07because he was so difficult to detect.
0:01:19 > 0:01:22Soviet submarines were now more sophisticated than ever...
0:01:23 > 0:01:27..bigger... faster and more luxurious.
0:01:31 > 0:01:35The Soviets were also developing the ability to launch nuclear missiles
0:01:35 > 0:01:38from the most hostile environment in the world.
0:01:39 > 0:01:42When you get to the ice, it's terrible.
0:01:42 > 0:01:45The cracking, the screeching, it sounds like you are in an insane asylum sometimes.
0:01:47 > 0:01:54The details of this tense Cold War stand-off have been a closely guarded secret for over 40 years.
0:01:55 > 0:01:59President Reagan wanted me to poke the Soviets right in the eye
0:01:59 > 0:02:03and tell them, "We're up here to show you that we're going to be able to kick your ass!"
0:02:05 > 0:02:09Now, submariners are able to talk more openly than ever before
0:02:09 > 0:02:13about this silent war beneath the sea.
0:02:33 > 0:02:40In early 1973, an American nuclear-powered submarine, the Flying Fish,
0:02:40 > 0:02:43left her home port of Norfolk, Virginia.
0:02:45 > 0:02:52Equipped with the latest sonar, she sailed 4,500 miles to the Barents Sea.
0:02:53 > 0:02:58Her mission, to spy on Soviet ships and submarines.
0:03:01 > 0:03:06Commander JD Williams had orders to track down one very special target.
0:03:09 > 0:03:14What I knew was that they had built a new Soviet class submarine
0:03:14 > 0:03:15called the Delta,
0:03:15 > 0:03:19which no-one had ever seen, and that was about it.
0:03:19 > 0:03:22No-one knew where it was, where it operated,
0:03:22 > 0:03:30so based on my experience in the Barents, I would go and monitor traffic going in and out.
0:03:34 > 0:03:36The US Navy had intelligence
0:03:36 > 0:03:41suggesting that the Delta was armed with new long-range nuclear missiles,
0:03:41 > 0:03:46capable of targeting American cities from the safety of Soviet waters.
0:03:47 > 0:03:53If true, this could tip the nuclear balance in favour of the Soviet Union.
0:03:54 > 0:03:59Frank Turban was a senior communications technician on the Flying Fish.
0:04:01 > 0:04:04The captain was on there, "We've got to find the Delta.
0:04:04 > 0:04:06"We've got to find the Delta!"
0:04:06 > 0:04:10And he was one of the best skippers I've ever been under,
0:04:10 > 0:04:16because, as far as we were concerned, we wanted to be in where the action was,
0:04:16 > 0:04:20and Captain Williams was a hard charger, as we called them.
0:04:23 > 0:04:28Within days the Flying Fish detected unusual submarine signals.
0:04:29 > 0:04:32We were picking up sound characteristics
0:04:32 > 0:04:35different than any submarine I had ever trailed before.
0:04:35 > 0:04:38So right away I said, "Oh, this could very well be the Delta!"
0:04:41 > 0:04:47We trailed the submarine for a number of hours, maybe even days, before he surfaced.
0:04:48 > 0:04:53And this enabled the captain to get pictures from an exterior point of view,
0:04:53 > 0:04:59and he wanted to get really close.
0:05:00 > 0:05:03I mean, really close.
0:05:04 > 0:05:09So, I remember explicitly when he, in the periscope, went,
0:05:09 > 0:05:14"Oh, this is the Delta! This is... we've got him, we've got him.
0:05:14 > 0:05:15"This is it!"
0:05:18 > 0:05:23Until now the most powerful Soviet submarine had been the Yankee class,
0:05:23 > 0:05:27capable of firing missiles over a range of about 1,000 miles.
0:05:27 > 0:05:30But this submarine was different.
0:05:33 > 0:05:38I could see that the missile tubes were longer and bigger than the Yankee,
0:05:38 > 0:05:42which would indicate to me that the missiles had a longer range, which they did, of course.
0:05:44 > 0:05:47Everybody was pretty excited because we knew it was a...
0:05:47 > 0:05:50as soon as I looked at it, I knew it was the Delta.
0:05:53 > 0:05:58This discovery of a new Soviet submarine came at a critical time.
0:05:59 > 0:06:02In 1973, America was in crisis.
0:06:03 > 0:06:06The Vietnam War was going badly.
0:06:06 > 0:06:09What I have stated has been the truth...
0:06:09 > 0:06:13Back home, Richard Nixon was embroiled in Watergate,
0:06:13 > 0:06:17a political scandal that would end his Presidency.
0:06:17 > 0:06:21MUSIC: "No More Mr. Nice Guy" by Alice Cooper
0:06:24 > 0:06:28But the Soviet Union, under the leadership of Leonid Brezhnev,
0:06:28 > 0:06:31was enjoying an era of powerful economic growth.
0:06:33 > 0:06:36They were pouring vast amounts of money into the military.
0:06:36 > 0:06:39The submarine service was a priority.
0:06:42 > 0:06:46In the Barents Sea, JD Williams was about to come face to face
0:06:46 > 0:06:50with the Soviet Navy's latest top-secret development.
0:06:52 > 0:06:56My guess is we were within 1,000 yards.
0:06:57 > 0:06:59Captain Williams was at the periscope,
0:06:59 > 0:07:03and periscopes stick up about six feet,
0:07:03 > 0:07:08and he could see the officer on the bridge, on the conn,
0:07:08 > 0:07:14pointing right at us and then yelling down below,
0:07:14 > 0:07:19and then again somebody else came up and he pointed right at us.
0:07:19 > 0:07:26When I saw the watch on the bridge pointing right at me in the scope,
0:07:26 > 0:07:29I said, "Uh-oh, I've been had!"
0:07:29 > 0:07:32And so then I lowered the scope...
0:07:32 > 0:07:34..And he slowly submerged.
0:07:36 > 0:07:38And in that slowly submerged,
0:07:38 > 0:07:46he didn't want to make a ripple to tell this submarine which way we were going to go.
0:07:56 > 0:07:58Oh, my God!
0:07:59 > 0:08:00All hell broke loose.
0:08:04 > 0:08:12They had helicopters in the air, they had TU95 surveillance bombers in the air,
0:08:12 > 0:08:16they had brought out more ships to look for us,
0:08:16 > 0:08:24they were having a major antisubmarine warfare exercise, and we were the target!
0:08:26 > 0:08:32So the captain decides, "They're not going to look for me to go closer to them,
0:08:32 > 0:08:35"they're going to look for me to escape and get out of here!
0:08:35 > 0:08:40"So what I'm going to do is I'm going...I'm going to get closer."
0:08:44 > 0:08:51So we just stayed there and we watched the entire whole exercise.
0:08:51 > 0:08:58We got exactly how they would prosecute an enemy submarine completely.
0:08:59 > 0:09:05The analysts said the information we brought back was one of the best they had ever seen.
0:09:09 > 0:09:14I went to Washington to brief the head of the Submarine Force, the Chief of the Naval Operations,
0:09:14 > 0:09:20the Secretary of the Navy, the CIA Director...it was fairly a big deal.
0:09:20 > 0:09:22The Secretary of the Navy happened to say,
0:09:22 > 0:09:27"Commander, you're the most important person in the Navy right now," like this,
0:09:27 > 0:09:30and here's the Admirals sitting all around. So...it was well received.
0:09:31 > 0:09:38It was the Soviets' newest class missile-carrying submarine,
0:09:38 > 0:09:45and it was going to carry the latest version of their intercontinental ballistic missiles,
0:09:45 > 0:09:48the latest and greatest of what they had.
0:09:48 > 0:09:52And it wasn't even operational yet, and we knew everything about it!
0:09:53 > 0:10:00I don't have the superlative words in my vocabulary to be able to describe how big that is.
0:10:03 > 0:10:08Before the launch of the Delta, Soviet submarines with shorter-range missiles
0:10:08 > 0:10:17had to sail through the Barents Sea, curve around Norway and drop down between Greenland and the UK
0:10:17 > 0:10:21to get within striking distance of the United States.
0:10:22 > 0:10:27British and American hunter-killer submarines secretly trailed them,
0:10:27 > 0:10:30primed to destroy them immediately in the event of war.
0:10:32 > 0:10:35The Delta threatened to change the game.
0:11:14 > 0:11:19The Barents Sea became a fortress for a growing fleet of Deltas
0:11:19 > 0:11:24armed with enough ballistic missiles to destroy every city in North America.
0:11:25 > 0:11:32It was teeming with hundreds of Soviet attack submarines, surface ships and aircraft.
0:11:35 > 0:11:41To maintain the nuclear balance, British and American submarines would now have to enter the Barents,
0:11:41 > 0:11:48to hunt down and shadow every Russian missile submarine while remaining undetected themselves.
0:11:53 > 0:11:56Submarines could detect each other in two main ways...
0:11:58 > 0:12:03..active sonar, pinging and analysing the sound reflected back.
0:12:03 > 0:12:07But by making noise, you also reveal your own presence.
0:12:08 > 0:12:09Or passive sonar...
0:12:09 > 0:12:16silently listening for sounds made by the engines, pumps or propellers of enemy submarines.
0:12:19 > 0:12:25But the newest Soviet submarines, like the Delta, were getting much harder to detect.
0:13:09 > 0:13:15We were having a more difficult time of detecting Soviet submarines because they had become quieter.
0:13:15 > 0:13:21That means we had to change our strategy and tactics in order to detect the Soviet submarines.
0:13:23 > 0:13:28JD Williams was the first to use revolutionary new listening technology
0:13:28 > 0:13:31that enabled him to hunt down the Delta.
0:13:32 > 0:13:38Behind his submarine he towed a mile-long array of ultra-sensitive hydrophones.
0:13:38 > 0:13:42It was called the passive towed array sonar.
0:13:44 > 0:13:52These hydrophones were so sensitive they could detect low-frequency sounds, inaudible to the human ear.
0:13:53 > 0:13:55And towing them up to a mile behind
0:13:55 > 0:14:00meant there was less interference from the noise generated by their own submarine.
0:14:02 > 0:14:08Paul Williamson was one of the first sonar operators to use it in the Royal Navy.
0:14:09 > 0:14:11The towed array advantage was huge.
0:14:11 > 0:14:16It gave us a long-range detection for miles and miles and miles.
0:14:17 > 0:14:20Then you'd go out and there were contacts all over the place,
0:14:20 > 0:14:23you would just...you know, you'd want to switch it off,
0:14:23 > 0:14:27because the level of work in the sound room went up two-, three-fold.
0:14:29 > 0:14:30Towed array came in
0:14:30 > 0:14:36and it was really as though you are walking down a dark street...
0:14:38 > 0:14:40..in some town somewhere,
0:14:40 > 0:14:43wondering what's actually happening and then somebody turns the lights on.
0:14:43 > 0:14:45It was like that.
0:14:47 > 0:14:52When I joined the Navy, I would talk to sonar operators that had been in the Navy for 17 years,
0:14:52 > 0:14:55"What's it like detecting a Soviet submarine at sea?"
0:14:55 > 0:14:58and they'd say "I've never done it, I've never detected one."
0:14:59 > 0:15:00Yep.
0:15:00 > 0:15:05So now when you put the towed array on, that's a totally different ball game.
0:15:05 > 0:15:07The game had changed big time.
0:15:11 > 0:15:15MUSIC: "Speed Of Life" by David Bowie
0:15:19 > 0:15:26The 1970s was the era of detente, when relations between the superpowers seemed to thaw.
0:15:28 > 0:15:35American Presidents Nixon, Ford and Carter negotiated with Russian leader Leonid Brezhnev
0:15:35 > 0:15:38to agree limits to the number of nuclear missiles.
0:15:38 > 0:15:45But at the same time, the Soviets were pouring vast sums of money into their submarine fleet.
0:15:46 > 0:15:51By 1977, the American Navy had been halved,
0:15:51 > 0:15:57and the Soviets now had more ballistic-missile submarines than Britain and America combined.
0:16:04 > 0:16:10The Soviet Union was developing cruise missiles to attack American aircraft carriers.
0:16:10 > 0:16:17Skimming feet above the ocean, they were guided to their targets with extraordinary pinpoint accuracy.
0:16:22 > 0:16:28Spying on Soviet Navy weapons-testing was now more important than ever.
0:16:29 > 0:16:32You could see the missile...
0:16:32 > 0:16:33did it have radars?
0:16:33 > 0:16:36If it did, you wanted to track those so that counter-measures
0:16:36 > 0:16:36could be developed.
0:16:38 > 0:16:39Did it hit?
0:16:39 > 0:16:41Did it miss?
0:16:42 > 0:16:44So it was... it was up close and personal.
0:16:47 > 0:16:53This information on cruise missile shooting was very important in developing countermeasures
0:16:53 > 0:16:58for our surface ships primarily so that they could block the radars.
0:16:58 > 0:17:01So it was very important in that regard.
0:17:16 > 0:17:21In 1982, Al Konetzni was sent on his first mission
0:17:21 > 0:17:26as commander of the USS Grayling, a hunter-killer submarine.
0:17:28 > 0:17:31The Grayling would be submerged for up to eight weeks.
0:17:33 > 0:17:39There's no psychological and no physical privacy on a submarine.
0:17:39 > 0:17:42Everyone knows one another.
0:17:42 > 0:17:44I mean, I will tell you,
0:17:44 > 0:17:46in a submarine if you have a problem at home,
0:17:46 > 0:17:51whether it be, you know, your financials are bad or your wife, whatever it might be,
0:17:51 > 0:17:56the children are acting up, there is not a soul in that sewer pipe who doesn't know that.
0:17:56 > 0:18:00I don't care if you are the commanding officer or the most junior seamen or fireman on board,
0:18:00 > 0:18:03and that appealed to me because it was real.
0:18:05 > 0:18:10After a month and a half spying on Soviet military exercises,
0:18:10 > 0:18:15Al Konetzni reported a dramatic change in Soviet tactics.
0:18:15 > 0:18:20A Delta submarine was leaving the Barents Sea and heading north.
0:18:21 > 0:18:26He edged his way way into the Greenland Sea, north of Bear Island,
0:18:26 > 0:18:30up outside of my area so I had to let the National Command Authority know.
0:18:30 > 0:18:34We got the word back, "Straight on, go out of your area, keep trailing."
0:18:35 > 0:18:37And that's when my problems really occurred.
0:18:37 > 0:18:40But here we are, we're trudging up the coast of Greenland.
0:18:40 > 0:18:46This guy's going north and I didn't have any charts, I didn't have those charts.
0:18:46 > 0:18:49Honestly, we were using an atlas up there.
0:18:49 > 0:18:54And we followed this guy, and our guy, our contact, would go up and we'd go up.
0:18:58 > 0:19:02The Delta led the USS Grayling further and further north.
0:19:05 > 0:19:08Then it did something even more unexpected.
0:19:11 > 0:19:14It disappeared beneath the polar ice.
0:19:16 > 0:19:22Soviet submarines had far more experience of these Arctic conditions.
0:20:02 > 0:20:04When you get to the ice, it's really difficult.
0:20:04 > 0:20:09It almost sounds like you are driving an automobile through a couple of concrete walls
0:20:09 > 0:20:12with all of the noise that you're making. It's very loud.
0:20:13 > 0:20:18There's bubbling and fizzing as ice breaks. It's terrible.
0:20:18 > 0:20:22The cracking, the screeching, it sounds like you're in an insane asylum sometimes.
0:20:31 > 0:20:34Beyond the reach of surface ships and aircraft,
0:20:34 > 0:20:41this was the perfect environment for Soviet submarines to hide with their arsenal of nuclear missiles.
0:20:42 > 0:20:45They could loiter under the ice in a static way
0:20:45 > 0:20:51by just anchoring themselves happily to a bit under the ice...
0:20:51 > 0:20:54And I would liken that to rustlers who'd rustled some cattle
0:20:54 > 0:20:56and they've put them in the canyon in the cowboy film,
0:20:56 > 0:21:00and before John Wayne can come and rescue them they've got to reveal their presence.
0:21:03 > 0:21:05So to find this needle in the haystack,
0:21:05 > 0:21:13really difficult, because how do you get your weapon to find him if he is hidden in this canyon,
0:21:13 > 0:21:19upside-down canyon, if you like, where there are peaks coming down deep into the sea?
0:21:19 > 0:21:21A really difficult problem.
0:21:31 > 0:21:39Undetected, Konetzni observed the Delta's every move and discovered that it had new capabilities.
0:21:41 > 0:21:43We'd been under the ice for a couple of weeks with this guy,
0:21:43 > 0:21:50and we didn't realise until then that this Delta had a hovering system
0:21:50 > 0:21:55that allows you to go completely still in the water and neutrally buoyant
0:21:55 > 0:21:56and hover up under the ice.
0:21:56 > 0:22:00You need that kind of a system if you are going to break through ice.
0:22:00 > 0:22:04So that's when I started putting together that this is important stuff.
0:22:42 > 0:22:47Soviet deployment beneath the Arctic ice was a terrifying new challenge to NATO.
0:22:47 > 0:22:53Missiles fired over the North Pole could reach their targets within 20 minutes,
0:22:53 > 0:22:56giving the West little time to retaliate.
0:23:08 > 0:23:10Very scary to the Americans,
0:23:10 > 0:23:13because with a submarine sitting still within the ice
0:23:13 > 0:23:15and she's on the surface
0:23:15 > 0:23:17and she could launch her missiles...
0:23:17 > 0:23:20Ooh! That really kind of changes the balance.
0:23:29 > 0:23:34After 33 days, the Delta finally turned back towards base.
0:23:35 > 0:23:39Al Konetzni's orders were to follow it all the way.
0:23:40 > 0:23:43But as they approached the Barents Sea,
0:23:43 > 0:23:47they were counter-detected by a Soviet submarine, a hunter-killer.
0:23:49 > 0:23:51We didn't even know he was in the area.
0:23:51 > 0:23:55He went active to make sure nobody was behind the Delta, his friend.
0:23:55 > 0:24:00The Delta went by and he started ringing out with what the NATO would call blocks-of-wood sonar,
0:24:00 > 0:24:02and it's a very strong sonar.
0:24:04 > 0:24:08It sounds like the rhyme, Three Blind Mice, that's what it sounds like.
0:24:08 > 0:24:15# Three blind mice, three blind mice, doh doh doh, doh doh doh. #
0:24:15 > 0:24:17And I heard it through the hull.
0:24:18 > 0:24:25When they are using blocks of wood, their submarine is in an aggressive mode.
0:24:25 > 0:24:31You switch to blocks of wood for a specific reason, i.e. "My weapon's coming next!"
0:24:31 > 0:24:39So if you heard blocks of wood, they are accurately locating your bearing and they're there to sink you.
0:24:42 > 0:24:44I was very concerned. I said "This is not good."
0:24:45 > 0:24:53So we basically did what I'm trained to do, we went down to test depth and ran away.
0:24:57 > 0:25:05The Grayling successfully evaded the Soviet hunter-killer, but supplies onboard were now critically low.
0:25:07 > 0:25:13So this baby had gone on a long time. I mean, we were 85 days.
0:25:13 > 0:25:15It was the longest time I've ever been submerged.
0:25:15 > 0:25:21We ran out of one of the critical chemicals that you use to make pure water, we were out of butter,
0:25:21 > 0:25:24we were out of anything, and when you're out of coffee...
0:25:24 > 0:25:26And in those days many more of the guys smoked,
0:25:26 > 0:25:29and when you're out of smokes, you're close to having a mutiny.
0:25:29 > 0:25:31The boys were getting ready to go home.
0:25:31 > 0:25:33So that's how it worked out.
0:25:39 > 0:25:45These intense surveillance missions placed an emotional strain on both the sailors and their families.
0:25:47 > 0:25:51You love to be home, you hate to leave the kids, you hate to leave the wife,
0:25:51 > 0:25:54but it's also part of the job.
0:25:54 > 0:25:57You can't make a special op unless you leave the family.
0:25:57 > 0:26:01There was no communications with Dorrie as long as I was at sea,
0:26:01 > 0:26:03I'd be at sea, like, 60 days at a time submerged.
0:26:07 > 0:26:13There were times, especially just before they went to sea,
0:26:13 > 0:26:15and the wives would get together at something,
0:26:15 > 0:26:19and it was obvious that all the guys were excited
0:26:19 > 0:26:25about what they were about to do, and that provoked a feeling of jealousy, really,
0:26:25 > 0:26:31because they were off, you know, doing their thing and it was exciting and rewarding,
0:26:31 > 0:26:36and we were left, you know, to clean the toilets.
0:27:38 > 0:27:40I'm on my third marriage.
0:27:40 > 0:27:43And wives 1 and 2
0:27:43 > 0:27:47was during my career in the Navy.
0:27:47 > 0:27:52Because when I got back, instead of wanting to be with the family,
0:27:52 > 0:27:59all the time I wanted to be out with the guys raising hell.
0:27:59 > 0:28:07And I was an adrenaline junkie, where if you're working on the edge
0:28:07 > 0:28:16and living in something that is a life-and-death situation at times,
0:28:16 > 0:28:18it took a toll.
0:28:19 > 0:28:2460% of all submariners are divorced at least once...
0:28:26 > 0:28:30..and officers, it's even higher.
0:28:42 > 0:28:48The Soviet Navy confirmed its mastery of the Arctic seas when it unveiled a new submarine
0:28:48 > 0:28:53specially designed to smash its way through the thickest of Arctic ice.
0:28:53 > 0:28:58This was the biggest submarine ever built, the Typhoon.
0:29:16 > 0:29:20The Typhoon could stay submerged for up to six months.
0:29:22 > 0:29:27And it afforded its crew a level of luxury never seen in a submarine before.
0:30:58 > 0:31:05The Typhoon was armed with 20 nuclear missiles, each with 10 self-guided warheads.
0:31:05 > 0:31:08It was able to hit twice as many targets as the Delta.
0:31:08 > 0:31:16In the event of nuclear war, the Typhoon could destroy every major US city within 20 minutes.
0:31:16 > 0:31:18TRADITIONAL RUSSIAN MUSIC
0:31:34 > 0:31:40There seemed to be no end to Soviet investment and technological innovation.
0:31:40 > 0:31:46In the early '80s, a new generation of Soviet hunter-killer submarines was launched,
0:31:46 > 0:31:48the Victor Three.
0:31:49 > 0:31:53In the event of war, these new attack submarines
0:31:53 > 0:31:58were primed to destroy all British and American submarines armed with nuclear missiles.
0:31:59 > 0:32:01The Victor Three was the big thing,
0:32:01 > 0:32:04the Victor Three was a very capable unit.
0:32:04 > 0:32:08You really had to be on the top of your game to get the upper hand.
0:32:09 > 0:32:15We saw a real step change in performance with the Victor Threes,
0:32:15 > 0:32:16and they were extremely quiet,
0:32:16 > 0:32:20approaching parity with ourselves and the Americans.
0:32:21 > 0:32:27This was costing them huge amounts of money, but their declared aim was they were going to get as good as us.
0:32:29 > 0:32:32NATO was struggling to maintain the nuclear balance.
0:32:32 > 0:32:38And the speed of the Soviet technological advances in the underwater war
0:32:38 > 0:32:42was both alarming and puzzling to the West.
0:32:43 > 0:32:44We want Reagan!
0:32:44 > 0:32:46We want Reagan!
0:32:46 > 0:32:49This is Chris Wallace at the Century Plaza Hotel.
0:32:49 > 0:32:53There you see the new First Family of the United States.
0:32:55 > 0:33:00Into this climate of fear came President Ronald Reagan.
0:33:00 > 0:33:07Taking office in January 1981, he reversed his predecessors' military budget cuts.
0:33:08 > 0:33:13In his first press conference, he dismissed the policy of arms control.
0:33:14 > 0:33:16Detente's been a one-way street
0:33:16 > 0:33:19that the Soviet Union has used to pursue its own aims...
0:33:19 > 0:33:26the promotion of world revolution and a one-world socialist or communist state...
0:33:30 > 0:33:33Reagan's intent was to be in their face.
0:33:37 > 0:33:40Immediately after his inauguration,
0:33:40 > 0:33:46he approved the most aggressive naval exercises really since World War II.
0:33:48 > 0:33:51And what we did was to go all the way up to the North Cape
0:33:51 > 0:33:56and practise running attacks into the Soviet Union.
0:34:00 > 0:34:05I held a press conference and poked the Soviets right in the eye
0:34:05 > 0:34:08and told them exactly what it was all about.
0:34:08 > 0:34:11We're up here to show you that we're going to be able to kick your ass.
0:34:13 > 0:34:21And the purpose was to scare the... scare the bullpucky out of the Soviets
0:34:21 > 0:34:24by showing them that they couldn't stop us.
0:34:32 > 0:34:34In the event of war,
0:34:34 > 0:34:39the US Navy now planned to storm the Soviet Navy in the Barents Sea.
0:34:41 > 0:34:47This new strategy was designed to force the Soviet Navy to keep its attack submarines close to home
0:34:47 > 0:34:51to defend its nuclear-missile carrying Deltas and Typhoons.
0:34:54 > 0:35:02In 1983, Ronald Reagan unveiled America's own massive new investment in Cold War technology.
0:35:02 > 0:35:05Let me share with you a vision of the future which offers hope...
0:35:05 > 0:35:09The Pentagon is looking hard at something called the X-ray laser.
0:35:10 > 0:35:13Tensions between East and West were close to breaking point.
0:35:15 > 0:35:19Not since the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962
0:35:19 > 0:35:24had the world come so close to the brink of nuclear Armageddon.
0:35:25 > 0:35:30When you hear the attack warning, you and your family must take cover at once.
0:35:30 > 0:35:32Do not stay out of doors.
0:35:32 > 0:35:36If you are caught in the open, lie down.
0:35:39 > 0:35:44I urge you to beware the temptation to ignore the facts of history and the aggressive impulses
0:35:44 > 0:35:48of an evil empire, to simply call the arms race a giant misunderstanding,
0:35:48 > 0:35:54and thereby remove yourself from the struggle between right and wrong, and good and evil.
0:36:31 > 0:36:38In 1985, a new Soviet leader came to power with a radical modernising agenda.
0:36:47 > 0:36:50Mikhail Gorbachev introduced "perestroika",
0:36:50 > 0:36:55a complete restructuring of the Soviet political and economic system.
0:36:56 > 0:37:00He also reopened negotiations on arms control with America.
0:37:05 > 0:37:11In the same year, it suddenly became clear that the Soviet Union's huge investment
0:37:11 > 0:37:17was not the only reason behind their rapid advances in submarine technology.
0:37:18 > 0:37:23One of the most devastating military spy rings since the war has just been smashed in the United States.
0:37:23 > 0:37:25The damage is enormous.
0:37:26 > 0:37:33On the 19th of May, John Walker, a retired submariner and naval communications specialist,
0:37:33 > 0:37:38was revealed by his estranged wife to be at the centre of a spy ring.
0:37:39 > 0:37:42He'd recruited members of his family,
0:37:42 > 0:37:47including his son, a sailor serving onboard a US aircraft carrier.
0:37:49 > 0:37:55For 20 years, John Walker had been selling the US Navy's secrets to the Soviet Union.
0:37:55 > 0:38:01It was the biggest intelligence leak in the history of the US Navy.
0:38:01 > 0:38:07The Walker spy ring compromised so much of our operational intelligence,
0:38:07 > 0:38:11it's hard to overstate how damaging it was.
0:38:11 > 0:38:18They provided some of the critical technical secrets for silencing submarines,
0:38:18 > 0:38:24and so we saw very rapidly the Soviets incorporate this in their new classes of submarines
0:38:24 > 0:38:27and it just got much harder to deal with.
0:38:28 > 0:38:30I blame that spy team
0:38:30 > 0:38:35for giving the former Soviet Union a great jump up on us
0:38:35 > 0:38:39because those sorts of leaks back in those days really, really hurt us.
0:38:42 > 0:38:46The Victor Three had incorporated so much Western technology,
0:38:46 > 0:38:49including towed array sonar,
0:38:49 > 0:38:54that US sailors dubbed it The Walker Class after the American spy.
0:38:57 > 0:39:03And in March 1987, while Reagan and Gorbachev prepared for arms talks in Iceland,
0:39:03 > 0:39:06the Victor Threes and their stolen technology
0:39:06 > 0:39:12were turned against the NATO forces in a Soviet operation called Atrina.
0:39:14 > 0:39:18Vladimir Chernavin was Commander-in-Chief of the Soviet Navy.
0:39:45 > 0:39:47In the spring of 1987,
0:39:47 > 0:39:52we saw an unexpected deployment of Soviet frontline Victor Threes,
0:39:52 > 0:39:54in the North Norwegian Sea.
0:39:55 > 0:40:01The Victor Three was the most capable anti-submarine operator in the Soviet order of battle
0:40:01 > 0:40:08and had most chance of upsetting our submarine operations and in particular the national deterrent.
0:40:12 > 0:40:19The Victor Threes had been detected by NATO's underwater Sound Surveillance System, SOSUS,
0:40:19 > 0:40:21as they moved into the Atlantic.
0:40:23 > 0:40:26I was in the Ministry of Defence at the time,
0:40:26 > 0:40:30and it was the political and strategic concern
0:40:30 > 0:40:33as to why the Soviets had decided
0:40:33 > 0:40:35to send what was their A-Team
0:40:35 > 0:40:38of nuclear-powered submarines out,
0:40:38 > 0:40:42in strength. Why would you do that?
0:40:46 > 0:40:49It rapidly became clear that they intended to continue south.
0:40:49 > 0:40:55Within a couple of days, we had a good handle on four of the five submarines.
0:40:55 > 0:40:57008.
0:40:57 > 0:40:58Good firm contact.
0:40:59 > 0:41:04The fifth one, although of the same class, was obviously very much quieter than the others.
0:41:04 > 0:41:09Now it maybe that he was a particularly well-maintained, well-managed submarine.
0:41:10 > 0:41:15He was always known in the trade as the Prince of Darkness because he was so difficult to detect.
0:41:17 > 0:41:22One of the commanders of the Victor Threes was Vladimir Alikov.
0:41:47 > 0:41:53They swept through the water just off the continental shelf west of the United Kingdom, slowly,
0:41:53 > 0:41:58in a well-organised, well-structured, previously thought-out plan.
0:44:43 > 0:44:46The Soviets were turning the tables on the West,
0:44:46 > 0:44:50hunting down and monitoring American missile submarines.
0:45:24 > 0:45:27I knew what was going on, and the fact that they wanted to show,
0:45:27 > 0:45:31"We can cruise into your waters any time we want..." Fine!
0:45:33 > 0:45:39And so to have real, the latest, quietest things to exercise against
0:45:39 > 0:45:43was, well, I'm sure the Navy... I wasn't in charge at the time,
0:45:43 > 0:45:49but had I been I would have sent 100% of available assets out
0:45:49 > 0:45:54to get the experience of operating against these real targets.
0:46:26 > 0:46:29I think it had two objectives.
0:46:29 > 0:46:36Firstly it was to prove to their own senior management and their own political management
0:46:36 > 0:46:41that the Soviet Navy's new submarines were capable of doing a job.
0:46:41 > 0:46:46Also, of course, it sent a message to the West that despite all the talks that were then going on
0:46:46 > 0:46:50about arms reductions and so on, that they weren't going to be pushed around.
0:46:59 > 0:47:05The Soviet Union was developing some of the most sophisticated submarines in the world.
0:47:05 > 0:47:12But they weren't typical of the Soviet Navy, which still relied on a fleet of much older submarines.
0:47:13 > 0:47:16The K219 was one of them,
0:47:16 > 0:47:20and it was armed with 16 nuclear missiles.
0:47:24 > 0:47:30Gennady Kapitulsky led the engineering team responsible for the submarine's nuclear reactor.
0:47:49 > 0:47:52ALARMS SOUND
0:48:04 > 0:48:06BOOM!
0:48:30 > 0:48:33Two sailors were killed during the explosion.
0:48:35 > 0:48:39Seawater had leaked into the missile tube and mixed with the liquid fuel,
0:48:39 > 0:48:42producing a highly toxic and very flammable gas.
0:48:43 > 0:48:48A third sailor died when the toxic gas seeped through the stricken submarine.
0:48:48 > 0:48:53The K219 was now rapidly filling up with tons of seawater.
0:50:04 > 0:50:09Within minutes of the accident, every compartment in the submarine had been sealed.
0:50:09 > 0:50:13This prevented the whole ship from flooding.
0:50:15 > 0:50:20But 25 submariners were trapped in the damaged section.
0:51:19 > 0:51:23For nearly 14 hours, the crew fought to save the submarine.
0:51:23 > 0:51:31They knew it was vital to shut down its nuclear reactor to prevent a catastrophic meltdown.
0:51:31 > 0:51:35But the automatic system designed to do so had been disabled.
0:51:37 > 0:51:43Conscripted sailor Sergei Preminin volunteered to go into the reactor chamber.
0:51:43 > 0:51:49Wearing an oxygen mask, he remained in constant radio contact with Kapitulsky
0:51:49 > 0:51:52as he attempted to shut the reactor down.
0:53:22 > 0:53:28Preminin had prevented a nuclear disaster and saved his fellow submariners,
0:53:28 > 0:53:32and now the survivors were rescued by another ship.
0:53:32 > 0:53:39Three minutes after the last man had left, the K219 submerged for the last time.
0:53:40 > 0:53:4716 missiles, 48 nuclear warheads and the body of Sergei Preminin
0:53:47 > 0:53:52went down with her 2½ miles to the bottom of the sea.
0:53:57 > 0:54:02The sinking of the K219 was a human tragedy.
0:54:03 > 0:54:10It was also a symbol of the unreliable condition of the Soviet Navy and the whole Soviet economy
0:54:10 > 0:54:13in the last days of the Cold War.
0:54:46 > 0:54:52In 1991, the Soviet Union and its empire in Eastern Europe disintegrated.
0:54:54 > 0:55:00The Soviet Union's extraordinary investment in the arms race finally broke them.
0:55:06 > 0:55:10I always say, though I am a little biased as a submariner,
0:55:10 > 0:55:16that the submarine force helped drive the Soviet Union to the poorhouse,
0:55:16 > 0:55:21because they tried to gain undersea superiority from us.
0:55:21 > 0:55:27And they tried every which way, and so they spent a lot of money and they ended up in the poorhouse,
0:55:27 > 0:55:30and I think the submariners can take credit for some of that.
0:55:35 > 0:55:40They spent all this money, they sacrificed so much of their standard of living and everything
0:55:40 > 0:55:44to deploy this huge navy, air force and army,
0:55:44 > 0:55:48because here they had been spending 48% of their GDP,
0:55:48 > 0:55:55and here's the United States and NATO spending 6½% of GDP,
0:55:55 > 0:55:58not even huffing or puffing,
0:55:58 > 0:56:04and that was a huge factor in bringing about the end of the Cold War.
0:57:09 > 0:57:13Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd