--- title: "That time the Kitty Hawk rammed a Soviet sub" date: "2020-04-29" modified: "2020-10-30" authors: - name: "Blake Stilwell" job_title: "Editor-In-Chief, Air Force Veteran" link: "https://www.wearethemighty.com/authors/blake/" url: "https://www.wearethemighty.com/mighty-history/uss-kitty-hawk/" categories: - "Cold War" - "History" - "Navy" - "War History" --- # That time the Kitty Hawk rammed a Soviet sub ![]() Sinking an American nuclear-powered aircraft carrier would be quite a feat for any vessel or aggressor. Not only because they each carry an air force greater than the air forces of most countries, and pack a punch with more power than anything most countries could ever hope to bring to bear, but also because they're really, really hard to sink. American carriers are the biggest warships ever built and move fast enough to outrun submarines. But that didn't stop one Soviet sub from trying. --- In March 1984, the USS *Kitty Hawk* was part of Team Spirit 1984, a massive naval exercise in the Sea of Japan, along with the navy of South Korea. The carrier's 80 aircraft and eight escorts were so engaged in the exercise that they didn't detect a Soviet Submarine chase the *Kitty Hawk* into the area. The submarine, K-314, was noticed by the carrier much later than it should have been. The *Kitty Hawk* turned on its engines to outrun and outmaneuver the Soviets. It was the height of the Cold War, and both ships were carrying an arsenal of nuclear weapons. Games like this could have ended with a spark that ignited World War III. Instead, it ended in one of the most unforgettable naval engagements of the entire Cold War. ![]() The 5,200-ton Soviet *Victor I-*class attack submarine chased the American carrier for a week or so until the Yellow Sea began experiencing some pretty foul weather. K-314 would eventually lose sight and all contact with the *Kitty Hawk* and the other American ships. The skipper of the sub, Captain Vladimir Evseenko, decided to rise up to periscope depth and assess the situation from 10 meters below the surface. What he saw surprised him – the American carrier strike group was only four or five kilometers from his boat. And the submarine and the *Kitty Hawk* were approaching one another very, very fast. At those speeds, it would be very difficult for any two ships to avoid a collision. Capt. Evseenko ordered an emergency dive as fast as he could, but it was all for naught. The 80,000-ton *Kitty Hawk* hit the sub at full speed. ![]() "The first thought was that the conning tower had been destroyed and the submarine's body was cut to pieces," [recalled]() Evseenko. "We checked the periscope and antennas - they were in order. No leaks were reported, and the mechanisms were ok. Then suddenly another strike! In the starboard side! We checked again - everything was in order.... We were trying to figure out what happened. It became clear that an aircraft carrier had rammed us. The second strike hit the propeller. The first one, most likely, bent the stabilator." "I was on the bridge at the time of the incident, monitoring one of the two radars," [Capt. David N. Rogers told reporters]() aboard the carrier. "We felt a sudden shudder, a fairly violent shudder. We immediately launched two helicopters to see if we could render any assistance to them but the Soviet sub appeared to have suffered no extensive damage." ![]() The carrier ran over the submarine's stern, a point in the *Victor I*-class where the submarine's sonar is blind due to the sounds of its own engines. The submarine, it turns out, failed to turn on its navigation lights. The *Kitty Hawk* suffered no damage when running over the sub. The Soviet Union had no response. Navy officials were quick to point out that in a wartime setting, a Soviet submarine would never have gotten so close to a carrier strike group. In peacetime, losing a Soviet submarine's location was fairly common. Ramming an adversary, during war or peace, has never been all that common. ## Author Blake Stilwell is We Are The Mighty's Editor-in-Chief, covering military news, entertainment, and history, along with veteran education, employment and entrepreneurship. He is a former U.S. Air Force combat cameraman with degrees in Graphic Design, Television and Film, International Relations, Public Relations, Business Management and Middle Eastern Affairs. After leaving the military, he began working in film and television production in New York and Los Angeles, work that included ABC News, NBC Olympics, and HBO Sports. He then spent two years in Washington with White House Communications, before joining the Near East Foundation. At NEF he served as an International Development Fellow, then Communications Officer, and finally, Media Officer for the Middle East and Africa. Based in the Palestinian Territory, he coordinated strategic communications between eight country offices, international media, and government and NGO partners. He began a career focused on writing and editing in 2015 with We Are The Mighty. He left in 2019 for Military.com, but returned as Editor-in-Chief in 2025. Blake’s work has been seen on CBS News, Fox News, CBC, The Chicago Tribune, Task & Purpose, Military Times, Recoil, Skillset, American History, and was shockingly even used in a Supreme Court argument. He is an avid traveler and small business owner in Ohio, where he spends most of his energy fixing up a very old house. ### Author social links [Facebook]() [Twitter]() [Instagram]() [LinkedIn]()