ABSTRACT
Since the Arab-Israeli War in June 1967, the eastern Mediterranean has become one of the primary arenas of US-Soviet naval competition, and it is the only area in which substantial naval forces of both sides are routinely present. The prohibition on the operational use of the straits by submarines is a considerable burden to the Soviet Union and reduces the Black Sea submarine force to little more than a handful of old training boats. The development of Soviet naval power in the Mediterranean began modestly enough with a series of port calls to several littoral nations, the first of which was a visit to Albania by a cruiser and two destroyers in 1954. The Soviets desire for political influence was obviously a driving force behind the buildup of their forces in the Mediterranean in the late 1960s and early 1970s, but the eastern Mediterranean was also important in a more elemental strategic sense.
