Operation Atrina was a 1987 Soviet Navy submarine operation, during which five Victor-III class boats - K-244, K-255, K-298, K-299 and K-524 [1] - were deployed from Zapadnaya Litsa base to the Atlantic shore of North America.
The March to May 1987 operation involved taking a longer path around Greenland instead of the usual route via GIUK gap to avoid SOSUS. [2] Developments in Soviet submarine technology - related, among other things, to spy activity [3] - further complicated the detection. [4]
Atrina remains a highly debated topic in Cold War history - while Soviet and Russian authors raise it to an almost mythical status, [1] [5] [6] [7] Western sources claim complex yet successful tracking of at least four boats. [2] [8] [9]
Multiple media in both Russia and West made connections between Atrina and 2019 Operation Grom, saying the latter was a Russian attempt to break into Atlantics under disguise of Russian Northern Fleet naval training [2]
