Which is really odd, as Titanium is not that rare.

Are we sure that story about the Titanium coming from the USSR is accurate?

I think it's mostly anecdotal (I have heard it too, but I can't think of where)

Not a metallurgist, but if I had to guess it was hard to find in large enough quantities at the time. I also understand that it's a lot harder to work with than say aluminum or steel

Speaking of which, King Louis served his guests with aluminum silverware, since at the time it was more valuable than gold due to the difficulty of extracting it at the time, despite its abundance.

"Skunk Works" by Ben Rich is a first hand account by the (eventual) lead of that Lockheed division, and he describes this in his book.

https://www.amazon.com/Skunk-Works-Personal-Memoir-Lockheed/...

Why deplete your own supplies when you can use your opponents?

It's a fairly well known and documented story, do you have anything similar in evidence rather than just conjecture?

"no u" isn't exactly a response engendering a constructive conversation.

Titanium is not at all rare in the Earth's crust. But turning titanium minerals into pure, ductile titanium metal is more energy intensive and complex than making most other metals:

https://chem.libretexts.org/Bookshelves/Inorganic_Chemistry/...

At the time, the USSR had already invested significant effort into making titanium for submarines. Buying titanium under false pretenses was easier than increasing the domestic industrial capacity for making titanium, particularly when the plane was not going to be produced in large numbers.

Related:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Losos-class_submarine

The Alfa submarine would seem to be more relevant.

I don't disagree but the Piranha is damn cool. Crew of 9!

Also the Papa-class (only one built), which preceded the Alfa and remains the fastest submarine ever built. And the Sierra-class submarines which followed the Alfa class.

There was a government arranged meeting betweeen Boeing and Soviet engineers to discuss working with titanium for the SST: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/air-space-magazine/the-titani...

In the alpine climbing world Soviet climbers used titanium gear that was considered very good and light. Some of it was from scraps and spare material, but they had access to titanium.