Espionage History of the Submarine Force - Taken from the accounts from -
Blind Mans Bluff By: Sherry Sontag and Christopher Drew
The evil nature of men who would use [submarines] as a means of destruction at the bottom of the sea ~Leonardo Da Vinci
Michael A. Trudeau History of Espionage
HIST 1389 01 Summer 1 | 2012
Prof. Burds
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The history of espionage regarding submarines has had multiple stages and has employed
several broad tactics to arrive at the resilient intelligence gatherer and warfighter that is being
employed by an increasing number of countries. Originally submarines were used as a stealth
warfighter to destroy enemy ships undetected and retreat with out being noticed. Initially
gathering intelligence was a secondary or even tertiary responsibility of submarines deployed
throughout the globe. This changed after World War Two due to the increasing tensions and
culture of doubt between the United States and the Soviet Union. Advances in technology made
submarines the perfect platform to collect Signal Intelligence (SIGINT) and later even greater
advances in technology gave submarines the capability to constantly monitor enemy shipping
and naval activity.
This paper attempts to discuss the concatenation of the use of American Submarines in
the gathering of intelligence by conducting espionage. The primary source for this paper will be
my personal knowledge of the topic and the novel Blind Mans Bluff by Sherry Sontag and
Christopher Drew. I am a former Sonar Technician who served in the U.S. Navy on the USS
Columbus (SSN-762) from 2004 2009. Our discussion will talk about the first attempts to
collect SIGINT by the USS Cochino, will then move to how advances in technology had
provided means for deception using Special Projects submarines, and conclude with how
submarines took a historically backwards path and moved from SIGINT to monitoring enemy
forces movement.
Valiant Beginnings During World War two the primary workhorse of the submarine force was the Gato class
submarine. A 311-foot long, diesel propelled, submarine that could stay submerged for about 48
hours. These subs were primarily used in the Pacific theater to disrupt Japanese merchant
shipping and have been credited to being one of the major contributors to the American victory
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(Potter 331). After the War while most of these submarines were being decommissioned and cut
up for scrap metal, the USS Cochino (SS-345) was stationed in Portsmouth, United Kingdom
testing Nazi technologies that were plundered after the war.
In July 1949 tensions between the Americans and Soviets were escalating and the United
States, as well as other NATO nations whose treaty had been signed a mere 3 months prior -
wanted to monitor Soviet fleet movements and radio transmissions. Because soviet short-range
radio transmissions were outside the scope of United States and NATO listening stations the
need arose to place a covert listening post close to Soviet territory. Placing a regular warship off
the coast of Russian territory would cause the Soviets to limit their radio chatter, let alone
broadcast secret material. And sending clandestine services in to the Soviet Union to record
radio traffic would be time consuming and ran the risk of capture. How could the allies get close
enough intercept radio transmissions without being noticed? The submarines natural stealth
provided the ideal platform to get close to a shoreline and conduct missions that the NATO
alliance needed. However, there were no submarines equipped with the collection capabilities
necessary to carry out these vital missions.
Cochino had been outfitted with a new snorkel system that had been devised by the
Germans during the war, to keep the ship submerged longer than other submarines in her class.
This made her ideal to test the new strategy for gathering SIGINT, however, she still needed a
few upgrades. Under orders from the Chief of Naval Operations a young radioman and linguist
by the name of Harris M. Austin was to make the necessary modifications to the Cochino which
involved mounting Antenna to he sail (conning tower) and drilling holes thru her pressure hull.
Needles to say the Captain of the ship, Cmd. Rafael C. Benitez, was not keen on poking holes in
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the steel plating that protected Cochinos crew from the pressures of the ocean. But as the Navy
ordered, the work was completed.
The strategy was to sail passed the Arctic Circle and sit on station1 off the coast of
Murmansk (Map 1) with hopes to intercept radio chatter coming from the soviets. Cochino
would do this by periodically sticking her sail just above the water line long enough so that the
new listening devices could be used to tune into to soviet broadcasts and hopefully intercept
pertinent intelligence. Murmansk was home of the Soviet Northern fleet at Severomorsk Naval
Base and had been the headquarters for Submarines and Icebreakers in the region. This made it a
valuable target for the Americans to eavesdrop and gain some vital intelligence.
In particular it was believed that the Soviets were testing a new long-range rocket that
had the potential to reach cities in Western Europe. Part of the new listening equipment that was
onboard the Cochino could detect Soviet missile telemetry in the eventuality of a launch.
However, on this mission, being the first of its kind, the Cochino was not so lucky. Later
missions would be able to detect missile launches and even evidence of nuclear blasts within the
Soviet Union, but on this endeavor the Cochino suffered a battery fire and was sunk off the coast
of Norway. The fate of the Cochino was indicative of the risk that submariners take to gather
intelligence vital to national security. While the Cochino was not able to collect that key piece of
data that gave the NATO alliance the edge over the soviets, the potential for collecting multiple
pieces of information to contribute to the overall picture was there and the decision was made to
make intelligence gathering a primary function of submarines.
Better Technology The major drawback to this scheme was the longevity of how long these submarines
could stay on station undetected. Until this point submarines while submerged ran on electrical
1 On Station is lingo for an area where submarines lurk to gather intelligence
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battery that had to be recharged every two days by a diesel engine. And to do so, required a
submarine to leave station as to not be detected by soviet Sonarmen listening passively on
patrolling destroyers. After all, sound travels thru water on average four times faster, and
therefore it sounds four times as crisp, than in air. A submarine running its diesel engines to
recharge its battery while on station would be a clear indictor of their presence and all
intelligence-gathering activities would cease.
The Americans needed a way to be able to stay on station longer and solutions were not
all that apparent. An obvious solution for the submarine force would be just to build a bigger
submarine with a larger battery-well to store more energy and therefore stay on station longer.
However, in light of the Cochino incident and given the high propensity for batterys to catch
fire, this seemed like it was not a feasible option. How could the Navy solve this problem?
Rear Admiral Hyman Rickover was known as a micromanager and a stalwart to the
maximum degree. He demanded excellence wherever he went and if he did not get it he would
replace or fix the deficiency, even if it meant going to congress over his chain of command to get
it. He was imaginative and expected perfection from those underneath him - a real genius - and
he thought he had a solution for the Submarine forces longevity problem. With the completion
of the Manhattan Project the power of the atom had been unlocked and it was now possible for
an engine to produce steam without the need of air like a diesel engine needs. Rickover
theorized that a submarine with a nuclear reactor could stay submerged indefinitely, have enough
power to filter and produce its own air, and only surface to resupply the food stores. This
solution was just what the Navy was looking for and approved funding for Rickover to develop
and construct the Nautilus.
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Rickover immediately began his work and assembled the best and the brightest he could
find in order to engineer one of the most technical machines ever built by man. Rickovers
indomitable will made the selection process for these naval officers somewhat of a legend. He
was known for making people wait for him in his lobby for hours or even days to test their will,
and when they got into the interview he would ask pick a topic, any topic, and teach me about
it. The interviewee would quickly find out that even though he had chosen the topic, he had no
real knowledge of it compared to the genius Rickover who would humiliate the interviewee
and banish them to Siberia (a broom closet) for a number of hours. Once Rickover selected an
interviewee, he was part o