Soviet Naval Developments

by Norman Polmar

Book by Polmar,Norman

138 pages, Hardcover

Published January 1, 1984

About the author

Norman Polmar is an author specializing in the naval, aviation, and intelligence areas.
He has led major projects for the United States Department of Defense and the United States Navy, and foreign governments. His professional expertise has served three Secretaries of the U.S. Navy and two Chiefs of Naval Operations. He is credited with 50 published books, including nine previous editions of Ships and Aircraft of the U.S. Fleet and four editions of Guide to the Soviet Navy. Polmar writes a column for Proceedings and was editor of the United States and several other sections of the annual publications of Janes Fighting Ships.
In 2019, the Naval Historical Foundation awarded Polmar the Commodore Dudley W. Knox Naval History Lifetime Achievement Award.

Reviews

[Sean Chick · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pretty good synopsis of the state of the Soviet navy in the early 1980s. This is from the American point of view, and numerous assumptions (reasons Soviets went into Afghanistan, Groshkov's likely successor, Alfa class production) turned out to be wrong. The book was crafted in part as a kind of "wake up call" to the USA, at a time when many thought the Soviet navy was on a trajectory to greatness. Gorbachev threw Polmar and his crowd one hell of a curve-ball. Or maybe they knew the Soviet's were second-rate and just wanted an excuse for more funding.