Strategic implications of the Japanese SSM-1 cruise missile

Not since World War I1 has Japan had the capability to control Russian access to the Sea of Japan. At that time Japan was the primary maritime power in the western Pacific Ocean. The Soviet Union was fearful of a possible Japanese attack on her eastern provinces. The Soviet Navy was relatively powerless even though it possessed the largest submarine fleet in the world. However, the events of World War II led to the destruction of the Japanese military machine and the unprecedented occupation of Japan by the United States. The subsequent Cold War saw the Soviet Union discard its previous inhibitions against maritime development. The growth of Soviet maritime power under the leadership of Admiral Gorshkov marked a fundamental change in the world power balance between the United States and the Soviet Union. As the size of the American naval presence decreased throughout the world during the 1970s, Soviet naval presence was increasing. Where the U.S. Navy had ruled the Sea of Japan during the Korean War as if it were an American lake, by the early 1970s it would have been a very rash American admiral who would lightly have contemplated attempting to enter the Sea of Japan in wartime in the face of Soviet submarine, air, and surface ship opposition. The new strength of Soviet naval and air forces, and their proximity to the theater of potential operations, created a situation where American air and naval strength might be at a distinct disadvantage in the event of hostilities. The significance of the development of a Japanese capability to interdict surface traffic lies in the possibility that in a war between the U.S.S.R. and the West, Japan can bottle up Soviet Pacific Fleet surface units based at Vladivostok and Sovetskaya Gavan in the Sea of Japan (SO J). That leaves only Soviet naval surface units based at Petropavlovsk, on the eastern side John E O'Connell, Captain, USN (Ret.), former Defense and Naval Attache in Japan, is currently an Associate with Burdeshaw Associates Limited of Bethesda, Maryland. His publications include "'Needed: An Innovative Joint Naval Strategy," U.S. Naval Institute Proceedings, August 1983.