Project Azorian - How Much Is Enough?

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1968. 

It was an unprecedented year of tragedy for the brave men who went to sea in submarines. Before the year ended, a total of four of these vessels would be plunged into the depths, never to surface again: the Israeli INS Dakar, the USS Scorpion, the French Minerve and the Soviet K-129. 

The last of these four, K-129, has become something of a legendary figure within this group of lost ships. The search for, and the attempted retrieval of K-129, continues to haunt and fascinate, to this day.

K-129
Soviet diesel-electric submarine K-129 (courtesy Mike1979 Russia)



Soviet ballistic missile sub K-129 (public domain photo via Wikipedia)

Rybachiy Nuclear Submarine Base is located nine miles across Avacha Bay from the region's capital city of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky. These days, it is home to a portion of the Russian Navy's nuclear submarine fleet. In 1968, the submarines that left the docks at Rybachiy were primarily diesel-electric boats. The K-129 was one of six Project 629A (aka Golf II class) diesel-electric submarines based at Rybachiy and she patrolled the waters monitored by the Soviet's Pacific Fleet.

The Disappearance
K-129 departed from her moorings early on the morning of February 24th, 1968 on a routine patrol schedule. Her orders included strict radio silence for the first two weeks of her patrol. 

On March 8th 1968, K-129 sank 1,560 miles northwest of Hawaii, taking with her all 98 souls aboard. After numerous failed attempts to contact her by radio, a massive search by air, surface and underwater units of the Soviet armed forces was launched, in a fruitless attempt to locate any trace of the missing submarine. After some time had passed with absolutely nothing to show for the massive search effort, K-129 was officially declared lost at sea. 

A New Search 
The loss of K-129 did not go unnoticed by U.S. intelligence services. After reviewing what was known about the situation, their overall assessment was that the sudden large-scale deployment of Soviet naval forces indicated the loss of a submarine. Upon learning of the presumed sinking, the CIA, under orders from president Richard Nixon, began to create a detailed plan to recover K-129, as they believed it held important information about Soviet naval capabilities, nuclear weapons technology and secret launch codes. 

Of course, the fact that a clandestine search was underway for the sunken K-129 was not something the U.S. wanted to openly disclose - especially to the Soviets. This meant that the operation would be kept strictly secret - a black operation. To help keep the secret, an elaborate cover story was created, one in which a very large ship with cutting-edge technology was to play a major role. 

The Hughes Glomar Explorer

The Hughes Glomar Explorer (Source: CIA on twitter)

Built at the Sun Shipbuilding and Drydock Company shipyard in 1971 and 1972, the Hughes Glomar Explorer was designed with one goal: to sail to the exact spot where K-129 had sunk, lower a massive mechanical claw to the ocean floor and raise her from the depths, approximately 16,000 feet below the surface. 

Howard Hughes on the cover of TIME magazine (public domain image via Wikipedia)

The Hughes portion of the ship's name came from Howard Hughes, the reclusive business owner, who had agreed to lend his name to the ship as part of the cover story. Glomar came from his company, Global Marine Development, which was contracted by the CIA to design, build and operate the giant oceangoing vessel. To hide the true nature of the mission, the CIA requested that Hughes tell the public the ship would be sailing the world, in search of manganese nodules, a type of rock which lay on the ocean floor in great numbers, was rich in metals such as manganese, copper, iron and cobalt and could be mined and then sold on the open market for huge profits.

Glomar Explorer (public domain photo courtesy of Wikipedia)

Project Azorian
Project Azorian, as it was officially known, would eventually become one of the most expensive CIA undertakings of all time, costing an astounding $800 million ($4 billion today). Officially, the mission was a partial success, as the giant underwater grappling device, nicknamed "Clementine", was able to lift only a portion of K-129 to the surface and into the huge holding pool in the belly of the Hughes Glomar Explorer, known as the Moon Pool. Unofficially, it is believed by some that the Hughes Glomar Explorer was successful in raising K-129 in its' entirety, a sunken treasure which included three SS-N-5 Serb missiles equipped with 1 megaton nuclear warheads, the launch codes for those missiles and a number of dead Soviet submariners. However, the truth of the success of the mission has been shrouded in secrecy ever since and we may never know the real truth.

Artist sketch of the Hughes Glomar Explorer lifting K-129 (Source: CIA on twitter)


The capture vehicle nicknamed "Clementine" (Source: CIA on twitter)

Moon Pool on the Hughes Glomar Explorer used to hold K-129 (source: CIA on twitter)

The K-129 Sinking - The Cause 
If the truth of how K-129 was destroyed and sunk is known, it's not necessarily easy to discern based upon the limted available facts. While there is an official story regarding how it came to its violent end, there are also a number of alternate theories, which may or may not prove to be the truth.

Rogue Submarine 
One of the most compelling theories about the sinking of K-129 is that she was a rogue Soviet sub which, having been hijacked, attempted - and failed - to launch a nuclear missile at Hawaii. 

The theory goes something like this: all was well aboard K-129 until a small group of unknown mutineers took control of the sub. After subduing anyone that would try and stop them, this group sailed K-129 to within approximately 1500 miles of Hawaii, and then attempted to launch a nuclear missile from the sub. This theory goes on to postulate that, due to either a malfunction or a failsafe device, the ballistic missile failed to launch and instead, detonated sometime during the launch sequence while still on board the submarine. The explosion ripped through portions of the sub, causing her to immediately take on water and sink to the ocean floor.

The Mutineers - Origin Stories
Just where this group of rogue sailors received their orders and just what those orders were remain a mystery to this day, as there is no official account to point to. Were they sent by higher ups at the KGB, part of a sinister plot to attack the United States while at the same time trying to point the finger of blame at the Chinese, who were in possession of a Project 629A submarine which they had acquired from the Soviets? We may never know.

The Recovery - A Partial Success?
The prevailing story regarding recovery of K-129 is that the Hughes Glomar Explorer, with all of its' cutting-edge, multi-million dollar technology, was only able to retrieve a portion of the Soviet sub. Apparently, while the giant claw, nicknamed Clementine, was able to successfully make the journey to the sunken sub, equipment failures rendered retrieval of the entire submarine impossible, and the crew of the Hughes Glomar Explorer was forced to celebrate only a partial victory.

However, there are others who are not so convinced that this story is the truth and they hold that the Glomar Explorer did indeed manage to bring up what was left of K-129 in its' entirety, leaving the CIA to celebrate a clandestine victory over their Soviet counterparts, with champagne and a cover story which continues to remain watertight, to this day.

Burial At Sea

"As a gesture of intent, a symbol of a new era, I carried with me the Soviet naval flag that had shrouded the coffins of the half dozen Soviet sailors whose remains the Glomar Explorer had recovered when it raised part of a Soviet ballistic-missile submarine from deep in the Pacific Ocean in the mid-1970s; I also was taking to Yeltsin a videotape of their burial at sea, complete with prayers for the dead and the Soviet national anthem – a dignified and respectful service even at the height of the Cold War."

On September 4th, 1974, the crew of the Glomar Explorer, having successfully retrieved some portion of K-129, held a videotaped ceremony, in which the bodies of six crewmembers of the doomed submarine were given a formal burial at sea, committing their remains to the depths of the ocean. In 1992, a copy of this video was presented by Robert Gates, head of the CIA, to president Boris Yeltsin of the Soviet Union. 


A video purportedly showing the burial at sea of recovered Soviet sailors from K-129
(public domain video, Wikipedia)

What Really Happened?
It's hard to know what really happened to K-129, as portions of the story remain classified. Freedom Of Information Act requests for the full record of the what happened aboard the sub, as well as what exactly was recovered by the Hughes Glomar Explorer, have been denied, with the reason being ongoing national security concerns. 

Maybe someday we will know the whole truth and nothing but the truth.

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