In the murky depths of the Sea of Japan, under a cloak of darkness late on March 21, 1984, an unforeseen incident jolted sailors aboard the USS Kitty Hawk, an 80,000-ton US Navy aircraft carrier. Without warning, the behemoth was struck by a Soviet Victor-class submarine, the K-314, a 5,200-ton vessel that had been surreptitiously shadowing it. This unexpected collision, occurring against the backdrop of heightened Cold War tensions, marked the third such encounter between Soviet and American naval vessels within a mere five-month window.
Capt. David N. Rogers, the commanding officer of the Kitty Hawk, recounted the event with vivid clarity, describing “a sudden shudder, a fairly violent shudder,” as he stood on the bridge monitoring the radars. The immediate aftermath saw Navy helicopters dispatched to survey the aftermath, revealing a minor dent on the colossal carrier and more severe incapacitation of the Soviet submarine, which was rendered unresponsive and immobile.
At the time, the Kitty Hawk was part of Battle Group Bravo. And it was estimated that the Kitty Hawk carried several dozen nuclear weapons, while the K-314 likely carried two nuclear torpedoes. The practice of Soviet submarines tailing US warships was routine during the Cold War, as stealthy intelligence-gathering missions were commonplace, and the USSR submarine K-314 had been following the carrier for several days prior to the collision. However, the question lingered amongst US military officials as to how the Soviet submarine failed to detect the colossal aircraft carrier in time to avoid the collision. “Quite honestly, I have to question the seamanship of the Soviet captain involved,” one Navy officer remarked to The Washington Post.
The K-314’s commander, Capt. Vladimir Evseenko, initially thought the American carrier had “rammed” his vessel, striking the propeller and bending the stabilizer. In an excerpt from Nikolay Cherkashin’s 2011 book “Disturbers of the Depths,” Evseenko detailed his initial grim thoughts, fearing the conning tower was destroyed and the submarine’s body severely damaged. The aftermath of the collision led to Evseenko’s reassignment to land operations, a move he described as a “blow worse than a blow to the propellers.”
This incident represented more than just another notch in the history of Cold War naval skirmishes; it came amidst a series of risky encounters on the high seas. Despite the 1972 agreement between the Soviets and the US to mitigate such maritime perils, collisions persisted—a stark reminder of the precarious dance between the two superpowers. A particularly perilous incident nearly resulted in the sinking of American and Soviet nuclear submarines near Scotland in November 1974, as revealed by a declassified CIA memo in 2017.
Decades on, the threat of collisions at sea remains a lingering specter. In 2017, two fatal accidents involving the USS Fitzgerald and the USS John S. McCain highlighted the continued navigational risks present in naval operations. The fate of submarine K-314 after the incident remains obscure, but the USS Kitty Hawk went on to serve an additional 25 years before its 2009 decommissioning and eventual scrapping in Brownsville, Texas, in 2022.
Relevant articles:
– A Soviet attack submarine crashed into a US aircraft carrier 40 years ago during the Cold War. It was a bad day for the sub., Business Insider
– A Soviet attack submarine crashed into a US aircraft carrier 40 years ago during the Cold War. It was a bad day for the sub., yahoo.com
– 80,000-Ton US Aircraft Carrier Collides With Russian Submarine – Recalling ‘Scary Accident’ Between Two Nuclear Warships, EurAsian Times, Mar 25, 2024