Would it have been conceivable

They did.

Namely in Antiship missile technology.

We developed a few different systems, narrowed it down to just two (Tomahawk and Harpoon) and then we got rid of Tomahawk.

So now all we have is Harpoon. though upgraded over the years for range and reliability... it is still at it's core a very basic antiship missile.

The Russian had a different type of missile for every occassion. and the newest member of the family while I was in... scared the living dogsh!t outta the US Navy. And that particular missile isn't even the most advanced they have today. whereas we are still stuck with just Harpoon.

It was estimate that any US ship other than Aegis Equipped vessels had no change againt it, and even Aegis had a snowball's chance.

I was an EW (Electronic Warfare Technician) and Antiship missile defense was our primary mission.

I joined the Navy to see the world, only to discover the world is 2/3 water!

I would think so. The US Navy (and other NATO navies) had very quiet submarines using existing technology. Why spend lots of money on a technology that may or may not work and even if it does work, only provides a small improvement. But the Soviets, with louder and less advanced subs, would have an incentive.

Often technological breakthrough is just stumbling onto something. MHD's aren't anything new. There's been a Japanese ship with one for ages... it's just not particularly efficient. Now, if a person... Soviet, American, Norwegian, Mongolian, whatever, somehow had a stroke of genius that makes the MHD more efficient then BINGO you've got a game changer.