In 1989, as part of an unusual barter deal prompted by restrictions on foreign currency in the Soviet Union, Pepsi received 17 old submarines (including diesel-powered ones), along with a cruiser, a frigate, and a destroyer, in exchange for supplying Pepsi syrup concentrate to the Soviet market.

The fleet Pepsi acquired was among the largest temporary naval forces in the world, to the extent that a Pepsi executive jokingly remarked that they were “disarming the Soviet Union faster than the U.S. government.”

The company did not keep these naval vessels; they were quickly resold to a Norwegian or Swedish firm for scrapping, and were never used for military or actual transport purposes.