February 11, 2006: The Russian navy is designing a new nuclear attack submarine. Russian research in this area slowed to a crawl in the early 1990s, after the Soviet Union collapsed. At the time, Russia was making progress in developing submarine technology that was close to the capabilities of U.S. Los Angeles attack subs. Less than a dozen of these new, high tech, subs could be built, because of post Cold War money shortages. Now the U.S. is building Virginia class subs, setting a new standard the Russians are going to try and match. The new class of Russians SSNs will displace about 6,000 tons. The U.S. Virginias are closer to 8,000 tons, and the older Los Angeles class boats were about 7,000 tons. The Russians are looking to come up with a smaller, more automated and quieter sub.

While the U.S. and Russia are on pretty good terms (and have never actually fought a war with each other, unlike most of America's other allies), there is concern that new Russian submarine technology could end up helping China build better subs. Russian production technology, which was always a major weakness during the Soviet years, has now improved a lot. The Russians not only have the scientists and engineers for developing advanced submarine technology, but the production facilities to make it in large quantities. The Chinese want that kind of capability as well, although the Russians have been a little less enthusiastic about parting with it. China has been having lots of problems in producing decent submarine technology.