Red October (submarine)
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This book-related article or section describes an aspect of the book in a primarily in-universe style. Please rewrite this article or section to explain the fiction more clearly and provide non-fictional perspective. |
 A Typhoon-class ballistic missile submarine. The fictional submarine Red October would have looked similar in most respects to the sub pictured here. |
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| Career (USSR) |  |
|---|---|
| Ordered: | Unknown from Novel |
| Commissioned: | December 3, 1984 (after retrofitting of caterpillar drive) |
| Decommissioned: | Approx 18 months after the events of the novel. |
| Homeport: | Nerpichya, Zapadnaya Litsa |
| Fate: | Destroyed by United States Navy after being stripped of its technology. |
| General characteristics | |
| Displacement: | 32,000 tonnes submerged |
| Length: | 198 m |
| Beam: | 26 m |
| Draft: | 12 m* |
| Propulsion: | 2 pressurized-water nuclear reactors Backup diesel engines 2 brass propellers Magnetohydrodynamic drive (movie) Hydrojet drive (book) |
| Speed: |
Surfaced: 12 knots* |
| Range: | Effectively unlimited as long as the reactor core holds out. |
| Endurance: | Many months, though Soviet doctrine required missile Subs to be docked most of the time. |
| Test depth: | 400 m* |
| Complement: | 163 men/officers* |
| Armament: | 4 × 630 mm torpedo tubes 2 × 533 mm torpedo tubes 26 × RSM-52 ballistic missiles |
| Aircraft carried: | None |
Red October (Russian: Красный Октябрь, "Krasniy Oktyabr" ) is a fictitious Typhoon class submarine in the Tom Clancy novel The Hunt for Red October and the film which followed. She was built with a revolutionary stealth propulsion system called a "caterpillar drive", which is described as a hydrojet system in the book. In the film however, it is shown as being a magnetohydrodynamic drive.
The drama of the story partially centers around the dual capabilities of this submarine. As a submarine of the Typhoon class, it carries many ballistic missiles armed with nuclear warheads. With a stealthy propulsion unit, it can no longer be detected by NATO naval vessels. As described in both the book and the film, these capabilities combine to create a horrific weapon, whereby the submarine could easily surface near a city, like Washington DC, fire its missiles, and destroy key targets before any government or military leaders could order a counterattack. One interpretation, as offered in the film and book, is that this submarine's existence is for one purpose: not as a deterrent to an American attack on the Soviet Union, but solely as a weapon of first strike. It thus becomes critical for the U.S. government to see this submarine either destroyed or captured.
Captain First Rank Marko Aleksandrovich Ramius was the first and last commanding officer of Red October.
According to the story The Hunt for Red October (Tom Clancy), in late 1984 Ramius and his command crew took the Red October out on exercises. Once at sea Ramius murdered the political officer and then turned the ship towards the United States. Despite efforts by the Soviet Navy, Red October was able to reach USS Dallas and the United States was able to engage in a complicated rescue plan. Along for the ride on the Dallas, and later on the Red October, is a part-time CIA analyst named Jack Ryan, who read Ramius' intent and suggested setting up the rendezvous. The rescue plan resulted in the Russian Navy believing the ship had been destroyed. Though her survival was discovered by a Soviet attack submarine the Red October was able to destroy that submarine before it could report back that the Red October's sinking had been staged.
Most of the officers defected with Ramius but the commander of the Dallas concealed the defection from the rest of the crew, who were repatriated in due course. The sub was gutted by the U.S. Navy to discern its secrets. Sometime between a year and eighteen months later the remains of the ship were sunk in a deep ocean trench. The technology then seems to disappear, although there are later references in some other books, including The Sum of All Fears.
In reality, a variant of the magnetohydrodynamic drive stated in the film has been tested, but proved too inefficient and cumbersome to be used as an effective means of a propulsion system on a ship. This type of propulsion system also would not be enclosed in a duct/pipe (as depicted in the film) in the "real world". A pump jet would be more efficient, but not enough for a submarine of that size.
In the series of books to come by Tom Clancy, the Red October adventure proved useful to Ryan's career. In later books, Ryan is able to use his heroics in obtaining the submarine as a lever with which to force a threatening KGB Secretary to defect to the US against his will (in the novel The Cardinal of the Kremlin), ending the possibility of a Kremlin coup against a politically centrist Soviet government.
Years later the truth of these events came to light when political opponents of then President John Ryan, revealed his part in the affair. By this time the Soviet Union had collapsed and the prevailing opinion in Moscow seems to have been "Well Done", though they put the Russian hierarchy in a political bind vis-a-vis cooperation with the United States at a critical point.
In the story, Red October is the seventh Typhoon class hull built for the Soviet Navy; the real seventh boat, hull number TK-210, was laid down in the late 1980s, canceled before it could have been commissioned and scrapped in 1990. None of the real Typhoon class submarines had 26 missile tubes or were considerably larger than the other Typhoon class SSBN's in the Russian Navy. Most Typhoon class subs were only about 175 meters long with about a 23 meter beam. The Red October would also have been about 5 tons heavier than the normal Typhoon class sub. No Soviet submarines were officially named Red October. There are no submarines in existence that have used a form of magnetohydrodynamic propulsion.
As an inside joke on its name, Red October was added as a member of Red Squadron, with Redd Foxx and Red Buttons in Family Guy's Star Wars parody, "Blue Harvest".
