military science

This is an excellent book! Full of detailed references it is the first book on early to modern submarines that gives us a look behind the scene. It explains very well the important role the submarines played during the cold war. We learn how design decisions were made in the U.S. as well as the Soviet Union, how such decisions were implemented, and we learn that rather few personalities played a very decisive role on both sides of the iron curtain. Near the end of the cold war, both, the U.S. and the Soviet Union were struggling with the problem of having to design a new generation of submarines which however started to be excessively expensive to build. Only the very knowledgeable reader may be missing here and there a more detailed account concerning "the design and construction" issues. It is clear that the authors have collected more information on these questions than what they were able to put in a single volume of reasonable size. But then this was probably also not their main goal, and the title of the book is exactly right: this is information about the cold war, on the people who fought this war, their political views and the way these views influenced the construction of the submarines they built to fight this war. Truly interesting.

This is an excellent book! Full of detailed references it is the first book on early to modern submarines that gives us a look behind the scene. It explains very well the important role the submarines played during the cold war. We learn how design decisions were made in the U.S. as well as the Soviet Union, how such decisions were implemented, and we learn that rather few personalities played a very decisive role on both sides of the iron curtain. Near the end of the cold war, both, the U.S. and the Soviet Union were struggling with the problem of having to design a new generation of submarines which however started to be excessively expensive to build. Only the very knowledgeable reader may be missing here and there a more detailed account concerning "the design and construction" issues. It is clear that the authors have collected more information on these questions than what they were able to put in a single volume of reasonable size. But then this was probably also not their main goal and the title of the book is exactly right: this is information about the cold war, on the people who fought this war, their political views and the way these views influenced the construction of the submarines they built to fight this war. Truly interesting.

I just received my copy of the long-awaited book "Cold War Submarines: US & Soviet Design & Construction" by Norman Polmar and Kenneth Moore. I found I could not put it down, and it was well worth the wait. The authors spent years interviewing key figures and reading material from both sides of the Cold War. It starts just after the Second World War, and looks at each side's diesel and exotic propulsion plants and designs. Early submarine cruise missile and ballistic missile programs on both sides are detailed. In the section on submerged speed, the US Albacore and Skipjack class are highlighted, as is the early Soviet Papa class and the Alfa class. The book examines each generation of nuclear submarines, both attack and missile firing, on the two sides (US & Soviet). The design decisions and compromises made with each class are detailed. The text is complemented with some excellent photographs. Several but not all of the very good photos are familiar to those of us who have massive sub book collections, but will probably be new to most with "casual" submarine interests. There are newly drawn, superb line drawings of both US and Soviet submarines throughout the book, complete with some (non-classified) details of internal layouts. These drawings include some "might have been" designs. Such long sought after details as the 1960's CONFORM submarine, a truly remarkable design concept are covered, and there is a picture of a model of the submarine (now I can die in peace). This is the innovative Concept Formulation submarine that Rickover had killed in favor of the 688 class. In the process of killing the program, he ordered almost all details and documents on CONFORM destroyed. The book also delves into other fascinating topics on both sides, such mini-subs, special purpose submarines, and an amazing section on aircraft carrier submarines (with some unique line drawings!).

The two "gold standard" books in submarine design history are Friedman's two volume account of US Submarines ("US Submarines through 1945" and "US Submarines since 1945") and Polmar's one volume "Submarines of the Russian and Soviet Navies 1718-1990". This book easily belongs with these other volumes. The overall production is extremely good, printed on glossy paper. On a scale of 1-10, I gave it a 15! (and I'm a harsh grader!)