How the nuclear submarine K-129 was raised (21 photos)

The "Azorian Project" is the code name for a covert operation that would go on to become one of the major scandals of the Cold War. It was in those distant years that a camouflaged US warship pulled the sunken Soviet K-129 out of the ocean. On the dark bottom of the North Pacific Ocean lie the remains of the bravest submarine in world history. This wreckage testifies to the terrible tragedy that happened on March 11, 1968 with the Soviet nuclear submarine K-129, as a result of which 98 officers died. The place of the tragedy was kept secret from the USSR and only 6 years later it was made public...

The Americans found and examined the sunken submarine during the first 2 weeks. Possessing modern technology, the CIA launched a unique project to raise a part of the K-129 submarine from the seabed in August 1974.





Since K-129 sank at a very great depth, about 5000 m, the Glomar Explorer was designed and built specifically for the operation, equipped with unique equipment for ultra-deep sea operations. The operation was secretly carried out in international waters and was disguised as geological exploration on the sea shelf.



A course of trouble

… Under the cover of darkness in the early morning of February 24, 1968, the diesel-electric submarine K-129, hull number 574, left Krasheninnikov Bay and headed for the Pacific Ocean, towards the Hawaiian Islands.

Project 629-A submarine. Maximum diving depth - 300 m. Armament - 3 ballistic missiles R-21, torpedoes with nuclear warheads. Autonomy - 70 days. Crew - 90 people.



On March 8, at the turning point of the route, the submarine did not give a signal to pass the control line. The faint hope that the submarine was drifting on the surface, deprived of propulsion and radio communication, dried up after two weeks.

A really large search operation began. For 70 days, three dozen ships of the Pacific Fleet examined the entire route of K-129 from Kamchatka to Hawaii. Along the way, water samples were taken for radioactivity (there were atomic weapons on board the submarine). Alas, the boat sank into obscurity.

The crew of the sunken boat.



In the autumn of 1968, mournful notices were sent to the relatives of the missing sailors from the crew of K-129 in the cities of the Soviet Union, where in the column "cause of death" it was written: "to be recognized as dead". The fact of the disappearance of the submarine was concealed by the military and political leadership of the USSR from the whole world, quietly excluding the K-129 from the Navy.

The only one who remembered the lost boat was the US Central Intelligence Agency.

Rush

The nuclear submarine Barb (SSN-596) was on duty in the Sea of Japan when something unexpected happened. A large detachment of Soviet ships and submarines went to sea. It was surprising that the sonars of the ships of the USSR Navy, including submarines, were constantly "working" in an active mode.

It soon became clear that the Russians were not looking for an American submarine at all. Their ships moved rapidly to the east, filling the radio airwaves with numerous messages. The commander of the USS Barb reported to the command about the incident and suggested that, judging by the nature of the "event", the Russians were looking for their sunken boat.

The place of death of K-129



US Navy specialists began to listen to kilometers of tape recordings received from the bottom acoustic stations of the SOSUS system. In the cacophony of ocean sounds, they managed to find a fragment where the "clap" was recorded.

The signal came from a bottom station located on the elevation of the Emperor's Mountains (a section of the ocean floor) at a distance of more than 300 miles from the alleged site of the disaster. Given the SOSUS direction finding accuracy of 5-10°, the position of K-129 was determined as a "spot" 30 miles in size.

The Soviet submarine sank 600 miles northwest of Midway Island (Hawaiian archipelago), in the middle of an ocean trench at a depth of 5000 meters.

Decision

The official refusal of the Soviet government from the sunken K-129 led to the fact that it became "ownerless property", so any country that found the missing submarine would be considered its owner. Therefore, in early 1969, the CIA began discussions about the possibility of raising valuable equipment from a Soviet submarine from the bottom of the Pacific Ocean.

The Americans were interested in literally everything: the design of the submarine, mechanisms and tools, sonars, documents. A particular temptation was caused by the idea of penetrating the radio communications of the USSR Navy, "splitting" the ciphers of radio communication.

If it is possible to remove the radio communication equipment, it will be possible to use a computer to open the algorithms for encoding information, to understand the key laws of the development of ciphers of the USSR, i.e. to reveal the entire system of deployment and control of the Navy of the Soviet Union. No less interesting were nuclear weapons on board the submarine: the design features of the R-21 ICBM and torpedo warheads.

By July 1969, a clear plan for several years ahead was ready and the work was in full swing. Given the enormous depth at which K-129 sank, the success of the operation was estimated at 10%



Mission Halibut

First, it was necessary to establish the exact location of K-129 and assess its condition. This was done by the nuclear submarine for special operations USS "Halibut" (Halibut).

The former missile carrier was thoroughly modernized and packed to the brim with oceanological equipment: side thrusters, an anchor device with a bow and stern mushroom anchor, a diving chamber, far and near side sonars, as well as a deep-sea towed module "Fish", equipped with photo and video equipment and powerful searchlights.



When the Halibut was at the calculated point, days of hard work dragged on. Every six days, a deep-sea vehicle was lifted to reload the film in the cameras. At that time, the photo laboratory worked at a frantic pace (the camera took 24 frames per second).

And then one day a picture with a clearly outlined rudder blade of a submarine lay on the table. K-129 lay on the ocean floor, according to unofficial information, at 38°5' N and 178°57' E (according to other sources, 40°6' N and 179°57' E) at a depth of 16,500 feet.

The exact coordinates of the location of K-129 are still a US state secret. After the discovery of K-129, Halibat took another 22 thousand pictures of the Soviet submarine.

Initially, it was planned to use remotely operated underwater vehicles to open the hull of the K-129 and extract the materials needed by the American special services from the submarine without lifting the submarine itself. But during the Halibut mission, it was established that the hull of K-129 was broken into several large fragments, which made it possible to raise completely interesting compartments for reconnaissance from a depth of five kilometers.

Of particular value was the bow of the K-129 with a length of 138 feet (42 meters). The CIA and Navy turned to Congress for financial support, Congress to President Nixon, and the AZORIAN project became a reality.



History of Glomar Explorer

A fantastic project required special technical solutions.

In April 1971, at the shipyard Shipbuilding Dry Dock Co. (Pennsylvania, East Coast of the United States) the keel of the MV Hughes Glomar Explorer was laid. The giant, with a total displacement of 50,000 tons, was a single-deck vessel with a "central slot" above which a giant A-shaped tower was located, an aft engine room, a bow two-tiered and aft four-deck superstructures.







Almost a third of the vessel was occupied by the "Moon Basin" measuring 60.65 x 22.5 x 19.8 m, which served as a dock to house the deep-sea grip, and then parts of the raised submarine. Filled with water, it looked like a giant swimming pool, except for the taps on every corner. From below, the pool was closed with doors with rubber seals.



Layout on the deck of the vessel "Hughes Glomar Explorer" of the main equipment used in the installation of pipe columns (lifting pipes): 1—overhead crane; 2—main deck; 3 — "moon pool"; 4—A-frame; 5 – external suspension of the gimbal; 6 – internal suspension of the gimbal; 7 – base of the loading device; 8 — tower; 9 – pipe feed tray; 10 – pipe feed tray trolley; 11 – pipe transfer crane; 12—pipe lifter.

One of the myths about the Azorian project - K-129 broke during the ascent and most of it fell to the bottom - is refuted by the discrepancy between the size of the Moon Pool (60 meters long) and the length of the K-129 hull (DWL length - 99 meters). It was already planned from the beginning that only part of the submarine would be raised.



Along the diametrical plane, in the bow and stern from the central slot, movable columns were installed to receive the gripper from the submerged barge. They resembled in appearance retractable supports on offshore drilling rigs and, according to the authors, were supposed to mislead the observers of this strange vessel, which they managed to do at first.



For example, on May 11, 1975, a photograph of the MV Hughes Glomar Explorer was published in Parade magazine, stating that these columns were resting on the bottom. Later, the analysis of foreign publications allowed Soviet specialists to determine their true purpose.



The contract for the design of the vessel was signed by the CIA with Hughes Tool Co. The choice of this company was not accidental. It was its head, Howard Hughes, a billionaire and adventurer, who was best suited for the role of the main organizer and creator of this ambitious venture.

It was Hughes who created the first lasers, and then the first American artificial satellites. Missile guidance systems, three-dimensional radars - all this was produced by Hughes' companies. In 1965-1975, contracts with the US Department of Defense of Hughes Aircraft alone amounted to 6 billion dollars.



At the same time, at the shipyards of the National Steel Shipbuilding Corp. in San Diego (California, West Coast of the United States), the barge NMV-1 (Hughes Marine Barge) and the deep-sea capture Clementine were being built. Such dispersal of production ensured complete secrecy of the operation.

Even the engineers directly involved in the project could not individually understand the purpose of these devices (ship, gripper, and barge).

After a series of tests on the East Coast, on August 13, 1973, Glomar Explorer embarked on a 12,000-mile cruise around Cape Horn and arrived safely in Long Beach, California on September 30. There, away from prying eyes, in a quiet bay on Santa Catalina Island, the HMB-1 barge with its gripper was waiting for him.



The process of loading the Clementine on the Glomar Explorer

The barge was slowly loaded and fixed at a depth of 30 m, the Glomar Explorer stood above it; the doors of its central connector were pulled apart and two columns were lowered into the water; at this time, the roof of the barge opened, and the columns, like Chinese chopsticks when eating, moved the Clementine inside the vessel - to the Moon Pool.

As soon as the gripper got on board the ship, the massive underwater flaps were closed and the water was pumped out of the inner pool. After that, a huge work began, invisible to the prying eye, on the installation of the gripper, connection of all cables, hoses and sensors.



Clementine

The cold summer of 1974, a depression north of the island of Guam in the western Pacific Ocean. The depth is 5000 meters... Every 3 minutes, a section with a length of 18.2 m is supplied by a crane, a total of 300 such sections, each as strong as the barrel of a gun.

Lowering and lifting of the Clementine deep-sea gripper is carried out using a tube string - a lifting tube 5 kilometers long. Each section of the pipe has a conical cut, the sections are carefully screwed into each other, the grooves ensure reliable locking of the entire structure.

The actions of the Glomar Explorer were watched with interest by Soviet sailors. The very purpose of the operation is not clear to them, but the fact of deep-sea work in the middle of the Pacific Ocean aroused suspicion among the command of the USSR Navy.



As a result of technical problems during the lifting of the submarine, its hull broke and most of it sank again, finally collapsing on contact with the ground, only the bow section was raised on board the Glomar Explorer.

Although official information remains classified, researchers believe that ballistic missiles, codebooks and other equipment have remained at the bottom, so it is believed that the goals of the operation were not fully achieved.

The nearby ship of the measuring complex "Chazhma" and the rescue tug SB-10 caused the Yankees a lot of trouble. Fearing that the Russians would take the Glomar Explorer by storm, they had to fill the helipad with boxes and raise the entire crew to their feet.

Alarming data came from the "Lunar Pool" - the wreckage of the boat is radioactive, one of the nuclear charges apparently collapsed.

The Clementine with parts of the K-129 boards the vessel, the Glomar Explorer and leaves with her booty for Hawaii...



Memorial to the submariners "K-129" in the garrison of Vilyuchinsk



Source: ussrlife.blogspot.ru