MOSCOW, Jan 19 (AFP) - Red October, the Soviet sub featured in a Tom Clancy book and subsequent movie, was to meet a giant chainsaw and be decommissioned for good, the Izvestia newspaper reported Wednesday.
The world's largest and one of the most celebrated subs was the star of 1990s fans of Cold War thrillers as it disappeared -- in the "Hunt for Red October" novel and movie -- off the US coast on a secret mission that nearly sparked thermonuclear war.
In fact the craft with 20 intercontinental ballistic missiles has been quietly resting in a Barents Sea port, waiting to meet its maker, the newspaper quoted navy officials as saying.
Ironically, the United States would pay the decommissioning costs because Russia's post-Soviet military is too poor to foot the bill, Izvestia said.
Japan for its part is paying Russia to turn into metal shreds the nuclear subs stationed near its shores in the Pacific.
Despite its massive size and power, Izvestia said Red October was not well liked by sailors -- who derisively called it a "water carrier" -- because it was too bulky, expensive and difficult to keep up.
Red October's demise would leave Russia with only three submarines of its type, known as Typhoon. Only one of them -- the Severstall -- is still equipped with intercontinental ballistic missiles.
"Right now, our navy needs new, smaller vessels," Izvestia quoted former naval commander Gennady Suchkov as saying.
01/19/2005 09:29 GMT - AFP