Kirov-class ships, submarine threats, and a naval arms-race counterfactual

With more Type 82s coming into service, would the Kirovs have been taken more seriously?

Their cost and priority as submarine targets receive greater emphasis, alongside the possibility that larger Western ships could stimulate further Soviet spending.

Additional British Type 82s provide the premise for a counterfactual in which larger Western ships encourage expensive Soviet attempts to exceed them. Kirovs are treated as costly concentrations of resources that Royal Navy submarines would make priority targets. Spearfish torpedoes are mentioned, with the older Mark 8 and the Conqueror-Belgrano example illustrating the same submarine threat. This assessment expresses less concern about the ships than some competing views and stresses their economic burden on the Soviet fleet.