Submarine causalities are tragedies of war that are not always directly associated with combat. Systems failures at sea are often mysterious, with evidence and remains disappearing to all but the deepest diving vehicles. This was no different in the Cold War, with non-combat losses from
the US and
the Soviet Fleets. In that era of nuclear secrets, both those of
nuclear-powered submarines and
nuclear weapons, learning about the enemy's technology was paramount.
Such an opportunity came to the US with the sinking of K-129, a
Golf Class II Soviet submarine that went down with 98 men on board. The recovery took over six year, involved the possible payback of Howard Hughes, a
videotaped formal sea burial that was eventually copied and given to then-President Boris Yeltsin, and decades of CIA secrecy.
Part of this story starts with the
USS Halibut (
SSGN-587), a sub was initially designed as a diesel-electric submarine but completed with nuclear power.
The Halibut was the first submarine designed to launch guided (Regulus) missiles, her main deck was high above the waterline to provide a dry "flight deck." After that initial duty,
John P. Craven, attached to the U.S. Navy's Special Projects office, turned the craft into the first US high-tech spy sub. With the combination of undersea cameras and the
Bayesian search theory proposed by Craven, the
USS Scorpion (SSN-589) was found. To this day,
the cause of loss is officially a mystery, though there are theories, the most prominent including torpedo malfunctions and electrical failure.
Craven's successful assistance with locating the USS Scorpion and because the USS Halibut was the most advanced spy submarine in the US fleet, the Halibut went in search of a missing Soviet submarine. First tracked by the US via their
Sound Surveillance System (
SOSUS), K-129 was first assumed to be in trouble by US forces when Soviet submarines rushed to sea, unencoded signals called for "Red Star" to respond, and no reply was heard. If K-129 was indeed lost, the US could reap much knowledge if they retrieved the sub first. Craven pinpointed a location, and the Halibut went searching. The crew thought they were looking for a Soviet missile, but when the telling set of grainy photos were developed, it was clear they had found the Soviet submarine, 16,580 feet at the ocean bottom. The crew returned with 22,000 photos, and the money poured into upgrading the Halibut were seen as money well spent. But the K-129 wasn't in hand yet. That would require more serious retrieval equipment.
The construction of the
USNS Glomar Explorer took place in in 1973 and 1974, code-named
Project Azorian, though
initial news leaks in 1975 called it
Project Jennifer. The project was funded by the government
under the guise of a Deep Ocean Mining Project,
possibly a way for Nixon to pay off Hughes for
financial debts owed. Requests for information were met with a comment that the CIA could "neither confirm nor deny" its ties to Howard Hughes' ship, in what would become known as
The Glomar Response or the "Glomarization" principle.
Of the documents and findings from Project Azorias, none are as touching as
the 14 minute video of the US sea burial ceremony for the six Soviet crew members found in 1974 as part of the retrieval of K-129. This video and a Soviet naval flag that had shrouded the coffins of the half dozen Soviet sailors was
given to President Boris Yeltsin of Russia as a symbol of a new era, when the Director of Central Intelligence, Robert Gates, visited Moscow in October 1992, less than a year into
Gates' term as Director of the CIA.
Parts of the video were featured in
the NOVA Program "Submarines, Secrets and Spies" (transcript) (
IMDB) in 2003, and the whole video was made available that same year as part of a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request. In
a 2007 ceremony,
copies of the 1974 video and copied documents on the search and recovery were given to the
Pacific Navy Museum in Vladivostok, Russia.
Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request finally released three additional documents in early 2010: "Project Azorian: The Story of the
Hughes Glomar Explorer,"
Studies in Intelligence, from Fall 1985 and two excised memorandums of conversation from 1975 following the leaked newspaper stories. Though heavily redacted, the report made many hazy or incorrectly-cited details clear, including points in the timeline for Project Azorian, but the contents of the submarine remain vague. To this day,
there are a number of theories for the initial sinking of K-129, including
an attempted rogue nuclear strike.
More interesting tidbits:
*
The Glomar Response is alive and well, upheld by the Second Circuit US Federal Appeals Court in regards to the DOJ and the NSA and details of Guantanamo Bay, with information how to possibly get more than a Glomar'ed reply.
*
The Nova spy submarine documentary, overdubbed in Russian
* Another copy of
Blind Man's Bluff on Google Books, in which you can read more on the Cold War era of spy submarines, as told by various people involved with the US actions.
*
The Mad Genius from the Bottom of the Sea - ideas an interview from John Piña Craven (
previously)
* This post started because of
an AskMe question from jjjjjjjijjjjjjj about the 1974 sea burial video
posted by desjardins at 2:19 PM on May 27, 2010