Minute particles of nickel flake off the pipes circulating seawater to cool the reactor. Sacrificial anodes that prevent corrosion leave a trail of zinc in the water. The report also describes how submarines leave behind a cocktail of chemicals in their wake. "The Soviets had reportedly had success detecting their own nuclear submarines with such a system," the document says. Another tool was a "gamma ray spectrometer" that detects trace amounts of radioactive elements in seawater. One instrument picked up "activation radionuclides," a faint trail left by the radiation from the sub's onboard nuclear power plant. Since then, subsequent versions with codenames like Colossus, Toucan, and Bullfinch have appeared on every new generation of Soviet and Russian attack submarines, including the current Akula and forthcoming Yasen class.Īccording to these newly declassified documents, the old rumors were accurate in one way – the Soviets did not develop just one device, but several. ![]() What the West knew for sure was that SOKS gear first appeared on K-14, a November-class sub, in 1969. Rumors out of Russia about SOKS have been inconsistent and often contradictory, with some saying SOKS measured changes in water density, or detected radiation, or even used a laser sensor. ![]() The Pentagon has classified this entire area of research and scientists simply didn't talk about it. The Soviet claim of following subs without sonar sounded like typical Russian bluster, but without knowing how (or whether) SOKS worked, a realistic assessment was impossible.
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