Delta III production overlapped Typhoon, and Delta IV boats followed while Typhoons were still being built. Ballistic-missile submarines had a strategic role, but the additional military justification for Typhoon is challenged when Delta variants were already available. In this interpretation, Gorshkov was gambling on record-setting ships and submarines to secure political influence and national pride. A headline about the world's largest submarine communicated an achievement without requiring readers to compare its missiles with those of smaller boats. The major programs also absorbed a growing share of resources as the Soviet economy struggled under competing demands. Concentrating effort on a chosen design could be efficient, yet a command system could resist the messy competition among ideas that might reveal a better choice. Typhoon thus connects the prestige argument to the economic limits of Soviet procurement.
Notable Point · 53:09-58:45
Typhoon and Delta as status procurement
Overlapping Delta and Typhoon construction raises a procurement question: how much did the world's largest SSBN add militarily, and how much of its appeal was prestige?