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Originally Posted by Raellus
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Realistically the Soviet Navy hadn't a chance in the Atlantic against NATO in wartime. Soviet surface forces would have been rapidly wiped out by US naval airpower and NATO submarines and they knew it.
The Soviet's best naval assets were their submarines and long ranged bombers with supersonic missiles. Some might think they could have caused havoc in the Atlantic to NATO shipping between North America and Europe like the Germans did for the first few years in the Second World War. However unlike the Second World War NATO was well prepared for anti-submarine warfare and also at intercepting Soviet naval bombers. Only a fraction of the Soviet submarine force would have been present in waters south of the GIUK Gap in hostilities and few others would have breached the GIUK Gap undetected from northern waters, and none of their bombers would have realistically made it.
Most NATO navies were also well drilled and equipped for anti-submarine warfare, particularly the British, Canadians and Dutch. In the 1970's British naval doctrine switched from its previous role as a global Blue Water fleet to being an anti-submarine fleet focused on the North Atlantic. The price of this was a fairly poor showing in the Falklands against Argentine air attack due to lack of adequate carrier aircraft coverage and inadequate air defence weapons, but their submarine forces were excellent and the anti-submarine capabilities of their surface fleet was sound. The US Navy's submarine force was also formidable and better than the Soviet's.