Pepsi Briefly Had the 6th Largest Navy in the World

PepsiCo's relationship with the Soviet Union began in 1972 when it became the first American consumer product sold in the USSR, as part of a trade deal brokered during detente. The Soviets paid for Pepsi with Stolichnaya vodka.

By the late 1980s, the vodka market had softened and the arrangement needed renegotiating.

The Trade

In 1989, the Soviet Union offered Pepsi something unusual: military hardware. Specifically, 17 submarines, a cruiser, a frigate, and a destroyer. In exchange, Pepsi would supply $3 billion worth of Pepsi products to the Soviet Union.

PepsiCo accepted. For a brief, surreal moment, the Pepsi corporation possessed the 6th largest submarine fleet in the world.

The Quote

PepsiCo's CEO Donald Kendall reportedly told Brent Scowcroft, President Bush's National Security Advisor: "We're disarming the Soviet Union faster than you are."

The Aftermath

Pepsi immediately sold the vessels for scrap. They had no interest in operating a navy. The submarines were dismantled and recycled. The deal collapsed along with the Soviet Union itself, and Coca-Cola eventually captured the Russian market.

But for one glorious moment, a soft drink company had more submarines than most countries.