Cold War Boats: Revell’s Spy Trawler is for reals! Or, who told the Soviets about Exercise Teamwork?

A Soviet fishing trawler alongside its ‘mother ship’, U.S. Coast Guard photo, August 1963.

In 1964, NATO navies conducted Exercise Teamwork. This is interesting because non-military interweb sites (like the wiki-web-sites) claim NATO’s biennial (every other year) Exercise Teamwork didn’t begin until 1982! The proof that Exercise Teamwork actually started in 1964 comes from the declassification of a once secret NATO document. That document was a letter of concern regarding how the Soviet Union found out about the wargame, and sent several ‘spy’ fishing trawlers to shadow the NATO navies.

The NATO letter blames it on the main stream U.S. news media, specifically Time magazine, for publishing statements made during a U.S. trial of a spy. But then, there was a journalist working for Time, who was onboard the aircraft carrier USS Independence (CVA-62) during the wargames, who claimed that somebody in NATO tipped-off the Soviets!

Apparently, NATO’s first Exercise Teamwork, off the coast of NATO Norway, was a diversion from an established NATO wargame called FALLEX (Fall [as in Autumn] Exercise). A once secret NATO letter discussing FALLEX 62 suggested making changes for the upcoming FALLEX 64. Apparently, FALLEX 64 became Exercise Teamwork 64, possibly because of what was publicized about the trial of a spy in the United States.

U.S. Navy film, dated 1964 and titled Exercise Teamwork, showing ‘Russian Spy Fishing Trawler’. The smoke stack on this ship is different than the Revell kit’s stack:

But 1969 is the year the U.S. Navy really took an interest in all the Soviet fishing trawlers hanging around NATO navies, and even off the coast of the United States.

USN film, February 1969, showing Soviet ‘spy’ fishing trawlers operating off the coast of the U.S. state of Virginia, at least three different ships according to the USN info:

On 09APR1969, the USN spied on Soviet Mediterranean fleet operations, near the Rock of Gibraltar, and interestingly among all those big Soviet warships was a lone Soviet fishing trawler (you can see it as the camera pans from warship to warship), I edited for just the trawler scenes:

A May 1969 USN film documenting what was believed to be various Soviet surveillance ships, showing a similar ‘spy trawler’, with a different stack, location not indicated:

Now you know where the tech term phishing originated, Cold War era spy fishing boats, fishing for your country’s military info.

In 1970, model kit company Revell issued its Russian Spy Fishing Trawler Volga. Revell’s spy ship kit seems to combine attributes of all the trawlers seen in the USN films.