Soviet Submarine S-363
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Soviet submarine ''S-363'' was a
Soviet Navy The Soviet Navy was the naval warfare Military, uniform service branch of the Soviet Armed Forces. Often referred to as the Red Fleet, the Soviet Navy made up a large part of the Soviet Union's strategic planning in the event of a conflict with t ...
of the
Baltic Fleet The Baltic Fleet () is the Naval fleet, fleet of the Russian Navy in the Baltic Sea. Established 18 May 1703, under Tsar Peter the Great as part of the Imperial Russian Navy, the Baltic Fleet is the oldest Russian fleet. In 1918, the fleet w ...
. Under the designation U137 it ran aground on 27 October 1981 on the south coast of
Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...
, approximately from
Karlskrona Karlskrona (, , ) is a locality and the seat of Karlskrona Municipality, Blekinge County, Sweden with a population of 66,675 in 2018. It is also the capital of Blekinge County. Karlskrona is known as Sweden's only baroque city and is host to ...
, one of the largest Swedish naval bases. U137 was the unofficial Swedish name for the vessel, as the Soviets then considered names of most of their submarines to be classified and did not disclose them. The ensuing international incident is often referred to as the Whiskey on the rocks incident.


Standoff

In October 1981, the Soviet submarine ''S-363'' accidentally hit an underwater rock about from the South Coast Naval Base at
Karlskrona Karlskrona (, , ) is a locality and the seat of Karlskrona Municipality, Blekinge County, Sweden with a population of 66,675 in 2018. It is also the capital of Blekinge County. Karlskrona is known as Sweden's only baroque city and is host to ...
and surfaced within Swedish waters.. The boat's presence coincided with a Swedish naval exercise, which was testing new equipment in the area. Swedish naval forces reacted to the breach of sovereignty by sending an unarmed naval officer aboard the boat to meet the captain and demand an explanation. The captain initially claimed that simultaneous failures of
navigational Navigation is a field of study that focuses on the process of monitoring and controlling the movement of a craft or vehicle from one place to another.Bowditch, 2003:799. The field of navigation includes four general categories: land navigation, ...
equipment had caused the boat to get lost although the boat had already somehow navigated through a treacherous series of rocks,
strait A strait is a water body connecting two seas or water basins. The surface water is, for the most part, at the same elevation on both sides and flows through the strait in both directions, even though the topography generally constricts the ...
s, and
island An island or isle is a piece of land, distinct from a continent, completely surrounded by water. There are continental islands, which were formed by being split from a continent by plate tectonics, and oceanic islands, which have never been ...
s to get so close to the naval base. The Soviet Navy would later issue a conflicting statement, claiming that the boat had been forced into Swedish waters by severe distress, but the boat had never sent a distress signal and instead attempted to escape.. The Swedes were determined to continue investigating the circumstances of the situation. The Soviet captain, after a guarantee of his immunity, was taken off the boat and interrogated in the presence of Soviet representatives. Additionally, Swedish naval officers examined the logbooks and instruments of the submarine. The
Swedish National Defence Research Institute Swedish National Defence Research Institute (, FOA) was a Swedish government agency in defense research existing from 1945 to 31 December 2000. It was amalgamated with the National Aeronautical Research Institute (FFA) into the Swedish Defence ...
also secretly measured for
radioactive Radioactive decay (also known as nuclear decay, radioactivity, radioactive disintegration, or nuclear disintegration) is the process by which an unstable atomic nucleus loses energy by radiation. A material containing unstable nuclei is conside ...
materials from outside the hull by using gamma ray spectroscopy from a specially configured
Coast Guard A coast guard or coastguard is a Maritime Security Regimes, maritime security organization of a particular country. The term embraces wide range of responsibilities in different countries, from being a heavily armed military force with cust ...
boat. They detected something that was almost certainly
uranium-238 Uranium-238 ( or U-238) is the most common isotope of uranium found in nature, with a relative abundance of 99%. Unlike uranium-235, it is non-fissile, which means it cannot sustain a chain reaction in a thermal-neutron reactor. However, it i ...
inside the submarine that was localized to the port torpedo tube. was routinely used as cladding in nuclear weapons, and the Swedes suspected that the submarine was in fact nuclear-armed. The yield of the probable weapon was estimated to be the same as the bomb dropped over
Nagasaki , officially , is the capital and the largest Cities of Japan, city of Nagasaki Prefecture on the island of Kyushu in Japan. Founded by the Portuguese, the port of Portuguese_Nagasaki, Nagasaki became the sole Nanban trade, port used for tr ...
in 1945. Although the presence of nuclear weapons on board ''S-363'' was never officially confirmed by the Soviet authorities, the vessel's political officer, Vasily Besedin, later confirmed that there were nuclear warheads on some of the torpedoes and that the crew had been ordered to destroy the boat, including the warheads, if Swedish forces tried to take control of the vessel. As the Soviet captain was being interrogated, the weather worsened, and the Soviet submarine sent out a distress call. In Swedish radar control centers, the storm interfered with their radar image. Soviet jamming could also have been a factor. As the Soviet submarine sent its distress call, two ships coming from the direction of the nearby Soviet armada were detected passing the limit headed for Karlskrona. That produced the most dangerous period of the crisis and was when Swedish Prime Minister Thorbjörn Fälldin gave his order to "Hold the border" to the Supreme Commander of the Swedish Armed Forces, General Lennart Ljung. The coastal batteries, now fully manned as well as the mobile coastal artillery guns and mine stations, went to " action stations". The Swedish Air Force scrambled strike aircraft armed with modern anti-ship missiles and reconnaissance aircraft and knew that the weather would not allow rescue helicopters to fly in the event of an engagement. After a tense 20 minutes, Ljung called Fälldin again and informed him that it was not Soviet surface ships but two
West German West Germany was the common English name for the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) from its formation on 23 May 1949 until its reunification with East Germany on 3 October 1990. It is sometimes known as the Bonn Republic after its capital c ...
merchant ships. The submarine was stuck on the rock for nearly ten days. On 5 November, it was hauled off the rocks by Swedish tugs and escorted to international waters, where it was handed over to the Soviet fleet.


Interpretations

At the time, the incident was generally seen as a proof of widespread Soviet infiltration of the Swedish coastline, and U.S. commentators encouraged Sweden to deploy incident weapons to deter future infiltration. On the basis of an investigation carried out after the incident, the Swedish government concluded that the submarine had entered Swedish waters knowingly to conduct illegal activities. In an interview in 1990, Vasily Besedin, "then the political officer aboard the submarine, said Soviet warships were waiting in international waters off the Swedish coast." In another interview in 2006 he gave a different picture. The vessel had dual navigation systems, a well-trained crew and the captain Pyotr Gushchin was amongst the best. On board was staff officer Joseph Avrukevich, who was trained in security techniques. Besedin claimed that the incident had been caused by an error in calculations by the navigation officer. Besedin was, however, a political officer with no training in submarine operations. The area in which the Soviet submarine ran aground was then a restricted military zone, in which no foreign nationals were allowed. The exact location served as one of only two routes that could be used to move large ships from the naval base in Karlskrona to open water. The incident is popularly known in the West as "Whiskey on the rocks" (the rock-grounded submarine being a ). In the Soviet Navy, the submarine came to be known as "Swedish Komsomolets", a pun on both the incident and the widespread tendency to give to submarines Komsomol-themed names.


In popular culture

* The 2024 Swedish
miniseries In the United States, a miniseries or mini-series is a television show or series that tells a story in a predetermined, limited number of episodes. Many miniseries can also be referred to, and shown, as a television film. " Limited series" is ...
'' Whiskey on the Rocks'' is a comedic retelling of the incident.


See also

* Hårsfjärden incident * Swedish submarine incidents


References


Bibliography

* * * *


Further reading

*


The Swedish Submarine Issue
by Bengt Gustafsson {{DEFAULTSORT:S-363 Whiskey-class submarines Ships built in the Soviet Union 1956 ships Cold War Cold War submarines of the Soviet Union Maritime incidents in 1981 Soviet submarine accidents International maritime incidents 1981 in Sweden 1981 in the Soviet Union 1981 in military history Maritime incidents in Sweden November 1981 in Europe Political history of Sweden Ships built at the Baltic Shipyard Soviet Union–Sweden relations