In the global competition between the two superpowers, the United States in the mid-70s put forward the geopolitical formula "Who owns the World Ocean, he owns the world." The geopolitical goal is the final undermining of the economic power of the Soviet Union as a result of overstretching of material and human resources. The displacement of the Soviet merchant fleet was not inferior to the American one, and the activities of Soviet oceanographers were highly rated.
To finally undermine the economic power of the Soviet Union, the United States proposed a race to develop the resources of the World Ocean, including ferromanganese nodules. The US intelligence services through the media began to disseminate information about the beginning of the development of the resources of the seabed of the World Ocean. The world media published materials on the construction of specialized vessels in the United States for deep-sea drilling of the ocean floor1. The Western press called the Explorer ship the ship of the twenty-first century, which was half a century ahead of Soviet technical developments. The Soviet Union was forced to respond to this challenge by developing a state program "World Ocean".
In the 1980s, the Soviet Union was assigned an area at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean, where, according to forecasts, there were significant reserves of ferromanganese nodules. Despite the large number of iron ore deposits, manganese was not enough for the domestic industry, so it was planned to start technologically complex mining in the World Ocean by 2011.
Academic institutes were established in Vladivostok and Odessa. The Odessa branch of the Institute of Economics of the Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian SSR focused on the development of economic problems of the World Ocean, taking into account ecology.
Many years later, the background of the last race of the superpowers became known.
On February 24, 1968, a diesel submarine K-129 with three ballistic missiles with nuclear warheads went on combat patrol from a basing point in Kamchatka. On March 8, the submarine sank at a depth of 5 thousand meters. But the Soviet people learned about this many years later. According to established tradition, the Soviet press did not report the death of the submarine and the crew. Ships of the Soviet Navy systematically patrolled the alleged death square of the submarine, but no official statement by the Soviet government about its death was made. And many years later, the cause of the death of the boat has not been established. Perhaps she collided with an American submarine, which recorded the coordinates of the tragedy.
The US Central Intelligence Agency, in agreement with the US President, decided to raise a Soviet submarine, which, in addition to ballistic nuclear missiles, carried the codes of the Soviet Navy. A detailed acquaintance with Soviet technological know-how could be extremely useful for American specialists in the field of defense technology. However, there was no world experience in raising a submarine from a depth of 5 thousand meters. In addition, the operation had to be top secret. Since the most correct democratic state in the world grossly violated international conventions prohibiting the lifting of a foreign warship that sank with crew members in neutral waters, and became a fraternal military burial, without appropriate permission.
A private American company was entrusted with lifting the Soviet submarine. As a result of the $ 500 million secret Jennifer project, the Glomar Explorer was built, which was identified as the second deep-sea drilling vessel after the Glomar Challenger, as recorded by Soviet reconnaissance satellites. But the satellites could not "see" the design features of the ship with the "lunar pool" - a huge secret compartment that opens from the bottom, allowing reconnaissance satellites to lift objects from the ocean floor unnoticed.
But thanks to chance, the project became the property of the American public. In June 1974, in Los Angeles, robbers broke into the office of a firm carrying out a secret order, opened a safe, where instead of dollars they found secret documentation. They began to blackmail the CIA, demanding half a million dollars to return the seized documents.
After the bargaining failed, the information was leaked to the media and the Los Angeles Times in February 1975 was the first to publish a sensational article about the secret project. CIA calls for journalists not to tease Moscow in the interests of national security went unheeded. But the Soviet leadership also reacted extremely sluggishly and was satisfied with the evasive response of the American side.
For camouflage, in the area of the rise of the Soviet submarine, there was a research vessel of the same type as the Glomar Explorer, the Glomar Challenger. And Soviet intelligence did not give this event its due importance. During the ascent, the submarine split and only the bow was in the secret "lunar pool". But the Americans were disappointed, the ciphers were not found3. But the bodies of the dead submariners were recovered, who were reburied at sea according to the Soviet ritual with the performance of the anthem of the Soviet Union. In order to maintain secrecy, the ceremony took place at night. The video recording of the ceremony was declassified after the collapse of the USSR and transferred to Boris Yeltsin (the video was posted on the Internet).
Since the Soviet Union, after the implementation of the American project for the construction of ships for deep-sea drilling, lagged behind the United States in the battle for the ocean, the stake was made on the creation of deep-sea vehicles. For oceanographic and rescue operations, a series of deep-sea vehicles "Mir" was created with a submersion depth of up to 6,000 meters. In 1987, two devices were manufactured by a Finnish company, which came under pressure from the United States to prevent the USSR from prioritizing in this area. On these vehicles in August 2007, for the first time in the world, the bottom of the Arctic Ocean at the North Pole was reached, for which the aquanauts received the title of Hero of Russia. Similar deep-diving vehicles were manufactured in the USA, France and Japan, which holds a diving record (6527 meters).
After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the Russian Federation has consistently lost the sea power of the former second superpower. So far, it ranks second in the number of nuclear submarines. The navy and merchant fleet is aging. The Soviet ocean-going fishing fleet, which was one of the largest in the world, has been largely lost, including plundered. As a result of large-scale corruption in Russia, the resources of one of the largest domestic fish stocks in the Sea of Okhotsk, one of the most highly productive regions of the World Ocean, are being exploited.
Russia has the largest continental shelf in terms of area. According to the 1982 UN Maritime Convention, the continental shelf was divided by the maritime powers. Of 30 million sq. km of the continental shelf of Russia got 7 million square meters. km, but the country does not have vessels for deep water drilling.
In the Russian Federation, the federal program "World Ocean" is being implemented with a relatively small amount of funding, which does not fully support the research fleet, which includes such large vessels as "Akademik Keldysh", "Akademik Ioffe" and "Akademik Vavilov". In the Soviet Union, up to 25 marine scientific expeditions were organized annually, and at present in the Russian Federation there are 2-3 expeditions.
At the beginning of the twenty-first century, along with the leading US navy in the World Ocean, the power of the Chinese and Indian navies is growing at the fastest pace. In the Middle Ages, the Chinese Empire possessed a powerful navy, the abandonment of which was one of the important reasons for the decline of the Middle Kingdom in the following centuries. Strengthening the economic power of modern China and dependence on imports of energy resources have set Beijing the strategic task of transforming the coastal yellow water fleet into an ocean blue water fleet 4.
In the yellow water doctrine, the main task was to ensure the security of coastal economic centers and the possible capture of Taiwan. To secure the most economically developed coastal regions in the future, where the dominant number of modern enterprises is concentrated, Beijing has relied on the blue water doctrine - the creation of a modern ocean-going fleet capable of striking the enemy in the open ocean. According to the blue water doctrine, an important task of the Chinese Navy is to ensure the safety of the merchant (tanker) fleet on strategic sea lanes. In the first place were the tasks of protecting communications for the uninterrupted supply of oil from the Persian Gulf (Iran) and Africa, ensuring oil production on the shelf, including in the disputed areas of the South China Sea.
The naval forces of the PRC are divided into three operational fleets (Northern, Eastern and Southern). The Chinese Navy has 13 nuclear submarines, including 5 ballistic missile submarine cruisers, 60 diesel submarines, and 28 destroyers. In terms of the number of nuclear submarines, China ranks third in the world after the United States and Russia, and in terms of destroyers it also ranks third after the United States and Japan. China has come out on top in the world in terms of the number of diesel submarines, frigates, missile boats and landing ships. China's naval aviation is second only to the United States. In the early 1990s, China bought the unfinished aircraft carrier Varyag in Ukraine to be converted into a floating casino for a ridiculous sum of $ 28 million. Perhaps the corruption component of this deal exceeded the cost of the ship. In the near future, the aircraft carrier will be commissioned by the Chinese Navy5. This event will symbolize the end of the collapse of the sea power of the former Soviet state.
After the geopolitical suicide of the USSR, Russia was thrown away from the World Ocean, losing a significant part of the Baltic and Black Sea ports.
