In October 1973 the US and the Soviet Union were on the brink of war. As Israel's counterattack pushed back Egyptian forces, the Soviets appealed to Nixon to enforce a cease fire. If the President refused, then the Soviets would enforce one unilaterally.
The CIA reported that Soviet ships were transporting nuclear weapons to Egypt. US forces went to DEFCON 3.
In the eastern Mediterranean two US carrier groups loaded live nuclear weapons onto A6 Intruders. All the while, they were stalked by Soviet warships, whose missiles were pointed at the vulnerable carriers.
In this video I go into the US carrier aviation assets deployed to the region in October 1973. I've also created two scenarios that play out how those forces might have intervened to help Israel and how they might have defended themselves against the Soviets.
It's a little bit different from my usual fare, but I hope you find it informative.
Sources:
Information about air wing composition, particularly the individual squadrons deployed to the Independence and FDR came from "USN Carrier Air Units, Volume 3" by Duane Kasulka
Details of Soviet operations comes from this amazing 2004 Naval War College report: digital-common...
TASS statement on Ilya Mechnikov, via the CIA: www.cia.gov/re...
26 сен 2024