For decades, Western analysts assumed the Alfa-class submarine was intended as a defensive interceptor meant to guard Soviet home waters. That interpretation, based on limited information available during the Cold War, was wrong. When the project began, the objectives were far more ambitious and aggressive. In 1960, Soviet submarine-launched nuclear missiles didn’t have the range to reach the United States from home waters. To threaten the continental U.S., Soviet submarines would have to push out into the North Atlantic and Pacific. A purely defensive coastal interceptor offered little strategic value. Originally, Soviet designers pursued a radically different concept: the submarine as an underwater fighter. Rather than relying on stealth, the Alfa would use extreme speed, depth, and maneuverability to overwhelm surface fleets. At forty-plus knots, it was meant to run down carrier groups, force its way through destroyer screens, strike, and escape into the deep faster than surface s