Cuba today is a shadow of its former military self, without the aid dolled out by the Communist regime in Russia throughout the whole of the Cold War, the Cuban military has all but withered and died on the vine. Between 1960 and 1963 alone Cuba received $265 million worth of Russian arms. Military subsidies and Soviet economic aid were cut by about 50 percent following the collapse of the Soviet Block in 1989 and today the Cuban Revolutionary Armed Forces (FAR) are severely starved of the necessary equipment, stores and personnel that would ensure a complete armed services.
Cannibalization of Military Hardware
Cannibalization of stored equipment is rife and there are even reports that FAR must also now spend a great deal of its time growing its own food and to raise money to pay for its own expenses. It is all a far cry from the heady days after the Revolution that installed Fidel Castro into power. The Soviets keen to gain a foothold in the Caribbean offered Castro all that he could want in aid to support his beleaguered and impoverished country.
History of the Cuban Naval Forces is Dominated by America
The history of the Cuban Navy is almost entirely dependent or dominated by America. Cuba’s large and powerful neighbor to the north provided almost all of the ships and resources of the pre revolution navy on the Caribbean Island. In 1947 the small Cuban fleet was comprised of just three vessels, two sloops Cuba and Patria and a gunboat Baire, the youngest of these vessels was built in 1911 and the oldest 1906. This small force was backed up by an equally small coast guard. In 1959 the entire fleet was comprised of American built shipping. Under Juan Batista the officer corps of the military was purged periodically and led to a lack of professionalism and poor leadership. This led directly to a number of outbursts of civil unrest and a number of attempted coups. In one the old sloop Baire acquired from Honduras in 1956 was sunk on 17 April 1961 at her dock at Isle de Pines. She was later raised and scrapped.
The Cuban Navy in the Cuban Missile Crisis
The following year was the year of the Cuban Missile Crisis. The Russian’s tried to counter American ballistic missiles in Turkey with a similar scheme for Russian missiles in Cuba. The ensuing blockade of the island by American forces prevented the Russians from establishing the sites, but almost brought the world to a nuclear war. Leading up to the crisis Russia poured military aid and hardware into Cuba. Six Krondstadt class large patrol craft were towed to Cuba by merchant ships as well twelve smaller P6 class fast attack craft. These were followed by a further twelve Komar class fast attack craft.
Submarines in the Cuban Navy
The next three decades saw a steady supply of new naval equipment to the Cuban's including the supply of three potent Foxtrot diesel electric submarines as well as Koni class frigates and numerous fast attack craft and missile hydrofoils. 1977 also saw large scale re-construction work at the naval base at Cienfuegos to provide facilities for nuclear powered submarines of the Russian fleet and the new submarine pier was completed two years later.
The third and final Foxtrot submarine sailed to Cuba in 1984 and joined her sister ships in presenting the US Navy with a real and potentially potent threat. Today the Cuban Navy or Marina de Guerra Revoucionaraia (MG) is a shadow of its former self; it has no operational submarines and perhaps only a handful of its dozen or so surface units are combat capable. There is a small but weak anti surface capability with fast attack craft armed with the Styx surface to surface missile system. Today the main surface combatants are four Osa II missile armed fast attack craft with a Pauk II fast patrol craft armed with a 76mm and anti submarine weapons. These five vessels are supported by six mine countermeasures vessel, 2 Soviet Sonya coastal sweepers and 2 Soviet Yevgenya inshore minesweepers. Finally the Cubans continue to operate a single intelligence collection ship.
Notes
Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1947-1995
