Inferno at Sea

For years, Western military experts have speculated that the Soviet Union was having problems with its 5,200-ton Kashin-class missile destroyers (comparable to the U.S. Navy's Forrest Sherman-class guided-missile destroyer). Last week Turkey's semiofficial Anatolian News Agency reported that in mid-September a Kashin -class vessel caught fire, exploded and turned into a burning inferno while on Red Fleet patrol in the Black Sea. Despite a frantic Soviet rescue effort, at least 225 crewmen and missile technicians aboard died in the mishap. It was the most shocking peacetime sea disaster since the U.S. nuclear submarine Thresher sank in waters off Cape Cod, Mass., in 1963 with 129 sailors aboard.

American sources believe that the Russian tragedy may have been caused by an accidental ignition of fuel used in a non-nuclear warhead; they speculate that it may have caught fire while the rocket was still on the ship's missile launcher during a test firing. Although the Raskin-class destroyers were a vital part of the Soviet Mediterranean fleet in the mid-1960s, they have gradually been replaced by newer ships because they have no facilities for helicopters and their missiles can be used only against aircraft. Western experts suspect that the warships often suffered from serious engine defects, which caused fires at sea before.

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