Calling Tom Clancy: US Nuclear Submarine Collided With Russian Titanium Submarine

Forty years ago today, Chasing Red October became a smash hit that even earned praise from Ronald Reagan. In the late 1980s, Tom Clancy became one of the most successful writers of modern military-themed fiction.

A cinematic version of Chasing Red October was released six years later, in 1990, and the book and film featured a memorable exchange between the Soviet ambassador and the American national security adviser, with the former explaining that a Soviet submarine was overdue and had disappeared .

The response: “Did you lose another submarine?”

This short joke has become a popular meme on social media, serving to highlight the ineptitude of the Russian Navy today, including the fact that its only aircraft carrier, the Admiral Kuznetsov, has been in dry dock for years and as the flagship of the Black Sea Fleet Moskva was sunk by Ukrainian forces in April 2022. Clancy sadly passed away in 2013, so he did not have time to comment on the loss of the powerful warship.

Still, it’s unlikely there was anything as pleasant as the exchange Chasing Red October to what happened in February 1991 after a U.S. Navy attack submarine collided with a Russian submarine, sparking an international incident. This is a situation that Tom Clancy’s President Jack Ryan has never had to face!

Flashback: February 11, 1992

The Cold War was over, with the Soviet Union having ceased to exist a few months earlier, but the U.S. Navy continued to track the movements and communications of the Russian Navy. The maritime service went to great lengths to even gain access to Russian communications cables as part of “Operation Holy Stone.”

Such activities may not have even been noticed, but that changed on February 11, 1992, when an incident that even Tom Clancy could not have imagined occurred.

The US Navy’s Los Angeles-class nuclear-powered attack submarine, USS Baton Rouge (SSN-689), was closely monitoring the Russian Navy’s Sierra-class B-276 (made of titanium). Kostroma near the Russian naval base on the coast of Severomorsk in the Barents Sea when the two submarines collided.

Harrison Kass, writing for The National Interest, explained how the incident unfolded:

“At 8:16 p.m. local time, in international waters about 12 miles from the shore of Kildin Island, the Baton Rouge collided with the Russian submarine B-276 Kostroma. What exactly happened is still controversial. The American press claims that the Baton Rouge was monitoring wireless traffic between Russian bases, but the Russian press claimed that the two submarines were engaged in a game of cat and mouse.

This game of cat and mouse led to a collision

It is now indisputable that contact was lost just before the collision, as can happen with fast submarines operating underwater. Russian Navy’s 9,000-ton Sierra-class boat collided with USS Baton Rouge as it prepared to surface approximately 12 miles from shore. Both boats suffered damage, but fortunately there were no casualties.

The American boat actually received only heavy scratches and torn ballast, but the situation could have been much worse, because the American submarine had only one hull. If it had ruptured, the submarine would have taken on water and this could have led to a catastrophe, possibly costing the lives of the crew. Damage to Kostroma was a little larger, and its sail was dented on the front part.

Both submarines were able to return to port under their own power.

Nautical Fender Bender turned into political disaster

The incident was essentially just a nautical skirmish – but it was nonetheless a major political disaster for the United States, as it exposed the fact that Washington was still closely monitoring Russian military activity despite the dissolution of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War.

Moreover, even though the collision occurred in international waters, Moscow also believed – and rightly so – that the US activity was carried out illegally.

Initially, the United States even tried to dispute the fact that it was tracking the Kremlin boat, but the Russian Navy countered that the two submarines had engaged in the aforementioned cat-and-mouse game. Further investigations by third-party analysts tend to support the Russian claims.

Accidents will happen – but actually admitting it?

What makes this story remarkable, even if it lacked the suspense of a Clancy page-turner, is that we know with absolute certainty that it happened. The collision was certainly an accident, and the American submarine did not intend to collide with the Russian boat. In fact, the U.S.S. Baton Rouge they even went around to see if the Russian submarine needed help.

In a surprise move, the Pentagon acknowledged that a collision had occurred, which was against official policy at the time.

The incident proved significant enough to prompt a meeting between then-US Secretary of State James Baker and Russian President Boris Yeltsin to discuss the situation. No official transcript of what was said has ever been released and it is unlikely the conversation will ever be made public. But subsequently, the US Navy stopped certain specific underwater activities near Russian naval bases – including tapping underwater cables or setting up wireless communications.

The consequences

The Russian Navy was able to repair the Kostroma in June 1992 it was returned to service, then underwent a major renovation in 2005 – although the boat is now in the reserve fleet.

On the other hand, the USS Baton Rouge returned to the United States and it was decided to scrap the boat as it was already due for refueling. She became the first Los Angeles-class submarine to be decommissioned and struck from the naval ship register. The Russian Navy apparently became aware of this when the Kostroma’s sailors painted a kill mark on its turret to commemorate the USS’s “defeat.” Baton Rouge.

Even the late, great Tom Clancy couldn’t have written a more fitting ending.

Experience and expertise of the author: Peter Suciu

Peter Suciu is a writer based in Michigan. He has contributed to more than four dozen magazines, newspapers and websites with more than 3,200 articles published during a twenty-year career in journalism. He writes regularly on military hardware, firearms history, cybersecurity, politics, and international affairs. Peter is also a Contributing writer for Forbes and Liquidation Jobs. You can follow him on Twitter: @PeterSuciu. You can send an email to the author: (email protected).

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