Red October (fictional submarine) Red October (fictional submarine) Red October (, , "Krasniy Oktyabr") is a modified "Typhoon" class submarine in Tom Clancy's novel "The Hunt for Red October" and the film of the same name. It was built with a revolutionary stealth propulsion system called a "caterpillar drive", which is described as a pump-jet system in the book. In the film however, it is shown as being a magnetohydrodynamic drive. The drama of the story partially centers around the dual capabilities of this submarine. As a submarine of the Typhoon class, it carries many ballistic missiles armed with nuclear warheads. With a stealthy
The Hunt for Red October novel as "the most satisfactory novel of a sea chase since C.S. Forester perfected the form". Due to an extensive marketing campaign by the Naval Institute Press for their first published work of fiction, which was initially aimed on the military, the book sold 45,000 copies by March 1985. Clancy said in a 1991 interview: “I thought we’d sell maybe five thousand or ten thousand hardcovers and that would be the end of it. I never really thought about making money.” After Reagan's endorsement, "The Hunt for Red October" topped the national bestseller lists, particularly "The New York Times". It