Hunt for Red October by Tom Clancy

The Hunt for Red October is about a Russian submarine that goes out on its first mission, supposed to see if a revolutionary new propulsion system can be detected by other submarines. The captain has other plans, though. He and his officers want to defect to the United States to get away from the Russian government. They each have had enough of the difficulties encountered in Russia. A new CIA analyst, Jack Ryan, comes to CIA headquarters from London, England to find out some design issues Britain sees in some satellite photos of the submarine. The man the photos are taken to decides it is a new silent propulsion system the Russians have manufactured. The system works real well and it winds up in this new submarine. The problem is figuring out what the captain is up to, and helping him defect, if that really is his intention. An American submarine sonar technician stumbles across the propulsion system noise and alerts his captain to it, messages are sent off, telling the big wigs about this find. To make this as simple as possible, the sub is contacted and told to go to a certain area, where the enlisted men can leave the boat and return to their native land. The boat is then taken to an American naval port where the officers get off and CIA officers find out all they can about the Russian government.