As discussed in detail by the linked article, one man (Herb Lord), an ONI photo interpreter, fought a nine year battle with most of the Navy over the composition of highly reflective pressure-hull sections going into the ALFA SSN construction hall in Leningrad’s old Sudomekh Submarine Shipyard.

Lord's conclusion that these hull sections were not steel was based on the observation that they did not discolor (rust) even after long exposure to severe weather. Lord's further conclusion that they were titanium was officially dismissed.
The linked article discusses this “battle” in detail.

As previously discussed, the ONI estimate of the maximum speed capability of the ALFA was reduced from 32 knots to 28 knots in March 1979 based on the assumption that enough horepower to achieve 32 knots could not be “shoe-horned” into the small ALFA pressure-hull. That was very bad timing because, three weeks later, the “technical assets” the author of the linked article refers to in his POSTSCRIPT confirmed a 40-knot ALFA capability.

Several days after this 40-knot assessment was briefed throughout the pentagon, it appeared on the front page of the THE WASHINGTON POST.

In an extremely rare exception, a Soviet naval source responded to the POST article, saying, in effect, that no one should question the technical capabilities of the Soviet Navy.

It is a testimony to the technical expertise of those who produced the ONI 40-knot assessment that it was not challenged by any Navy activity. This writer was not involved in the analysis effort.

COMMENTS:

As a technology demonstrator, the ALFA was a brilliant success; as an operational submarine, it was a failure never achieving the reliability required for long-duration, open-ocean deployments.

Soviet open sources acknowledge that one of the intended missions of the ALFA - riding “shotgun” (protective escort) for Soviet SSBNs - was not feasible because the acoustic detectability of the ALFA would give away the position of the quieter SSBN.

I remember when the word was put out to us... it was a stunner! Still, the high speed tactical advantage was more of a shock to our submarine riding counterparts. More and more we heard "you can't shoot what you can't see." There was always a nervous laugh after the statement. Thanks for the post Bruce... fascinating!

Bruce,

That made for a very interesting read. Thank you for posting the link.

Rick

Fascinating article which brought back a lot of memories and speculations about the Alfa as it was being developed. Bruce's last comment about Alfa's acoustic vulnerability precluding it from escorting SSBN's proved quite true over time. Alfa was fun....