Older Foxtrot and Tango SSKs could fill many wartime roles, yet they were less capable of sustained oceanic operations than nuclear boats. Their range and speed make them poor substitutes for Victors deep in the Atlantic. Their chief advantage appears when they stop: a diesel-electric submarine can become extremely quiet without the coolant circulation a reactor still requires. That quality makes them useful in prepared defensive areas around bastions and choke points, where NATO submarines must come to them.
Notable Point · 1:40:22-1:42:04
Older Soviet diesel boats may be more useful guarding bastions
Foxtrot- and Tango-class boats add numbers, but their range and noise make quiet defensive ambushes near Soviet bastions more plausible than distant convoy hunting.