The Hunt for Red October vessel. It is equipped with a cutting-edge silent propulsion system, known as the caterpillar drive, that makes audio detection by passive sonar extremely difficult and enables the submarine to sneak its way into American offshore waters and launch nuclear missiles with little or no warning. As the ship leaves the shipyard at Polyarny, Ramius kills Ivan Putin, his political officer, to ensure that he will not interfere with the defection. Initially, Ramius was instructed to conduct military exercises with Soviet attack submarine "V. K. Konovalov", commanded by his former student Viktor Tupolev, for the purpose of testing the effectiveness of
The Hunt for Red October (film) morning, CIA analyst and former Marine, Jack Ryan, after consulting with Vice Admiral James Greer, briefs government officials on "Red October" and the threat it poses. The U.S. fears Ramius plans an unauthorized nuclear strike. They also learn that the bulk of the Soviet Navy has been deployed to the Atlantic to find and sink the renegade vessel. In the briefing, Ryan hypothesizes that Ramius instead plans to defect. He is ordered to rendezvous with the "Dallas" - still searching for "Red October" since their initial detection of it - to prove his theory. Meanwhile, Tupolev, though unable to track