Alfa: The Deep Diving and Rocket Fast Russian Submarine America Hated

What You Need to Know: Between 1968 and 1981, the Soviet Union built seven Project 705 Lira (NATO reporting name Alfa) nuclear-powered attack submarines. These cutting-edge vessels featured titanium hulls and lead-bismuth-cooled fast reactors, allowing them to achieve remarkable submerged speeds of 41 knots and dive depths of up to 350 meters—beyond the reach of NATO's anti-submarine weapons at the time.

-Highly automated, they required a small crew of just 32 officers.

-Despite their advanced design...