Singapore, Dec. 17. Pacific Fleet vessels of the Soviet Navy began steaming through the Straits of Malacca toward the Indian Ocean three days behind a United States naval task force that included the nuclear aircraft carrier Enterprise, Western military sources said today. Ship of both navies appeared to be heading for the Bay of Bengal off East Pakistan, Western military officials based here said a Soviet cruiser of the Sverdlov class passed Singapore today and entered the Straits of Malacca.

They said five more Soviet naval vessels, comprising one nuclear and two conventional submarines, with two other “major war vessels”, were in the South China Sea and were steaming towards the Singapore entrance to the straits. Earlier reports said the Russians had more than 20 naval vessels, including an estimated 10 nuclear submarines, on constant patrol in the Indian Ocean before today’s reports of an increase in naval strength.