The man's side of it!

I hope Alec Baldwin knows about this!

Red October to be sold for scrap
From correspondents in Moscow
January 19, 2005

RED October, the Soviet submarine featured in a Tom Clancy book and subsequent movie, is to be decommissioned for good.

Akula
Typhoon ... Akukla (Shark) is a sister ship to Red October.
The world's largest - and one of the most celebrated - submarine was the star of 1990s fans of Cold War thrillers as it disappeared – in The Hunt for Red October novel and movie – off the US coast on a secret mission that nearly sparked nuclear war.

In fact, the craft with 20 intercontinental ballistic missiles has been quietly resting in a Barents Sea port, waiting to meet its maker, the Izvestia newspaper quoted navy officials as saying.

Ironically, the US would pay the decommissioning costs because Russia's post-Soviet military is too poor to foot the bill, Izvestia said.

Japan is paying Russia to turn into metal shreds the nuclear subs stationed near its shores in the Pacific.

Despite its massive size and power, Red October was not well liked by sailors – who derisively called it a "water carrier" – because it was too bulky, expensive and difficult to maintain, Izvestia reported.

Red October's demise will leave Russia with only three submarines of its type, known as Typhoon.

Only one of the submarines – the Severstall – is still equipped with intercontinental ballistic missiles.

"Right now, our navy needs new, smaller vessels," Izvestia quoted former naval commander Gennady Suchkov as saying.