Convicted Cold War spy John Walker dies in federal prison

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43. Exacty EX500...

At that point in the 80s their best sub was an improved version of the victor series, which were no match in quietness or capability of our late 50s-early 60s era permit class and sturgeon classes. Having access to the message traffic gave them an almost exact position, in real time, of any of our subs, particularly the ssbn's.

Hitachi was indirectly responsible, via walkers ring, of giving the soviets the milling technology to produce non cavitating screws for their next generation subs...the akula class, which were better than the sturgeons and nearly as silent and capable as the Los Angeles class boats coming online.

Anyone who served on a sub after 1985 can tell you that trying to get the clearance involved to serve on one, even for cooks, was insane. I was a logistics guy, but I handled reactor parts and sub safe items, which involved a high clearance. Getting that top secret involved three separate interviews by the FBI and NSA(naval security admin) lasting hours each.

I'm not trying to toot my own horn here, but the clearance walker possessed to have access to all that info was light years above what I possessed. Walkers action didn't so much set us back as it set the soviets forward. We lost a huge chunk of the advantage we had held for 40 years and put 100+ boat crews lives in danger, not to mention our first strike/MAD capability.

(ON EDIT) Walkers ring led to a couple of positive changes....one, the background checks and compartmentalism with top secret clearances was greatly improved. The other being the design and capabilities of the 688I class, the Seawolf class and the new Virginia class boats. The 688I's, which are now all approaching two decades of service, are still quieter and more capable boats than anything else in the planet....the Seawolves and Virginia's are even better.