What is the giant ship "Glormar Explorer" who took over the CIA's secret mission to raise the Soviet Union's sunken ballistic missile submarine?

It was once unfolded by the US and the Soviet UnionCold warAn accident happened that the Soviet ballistic missile submarine "K - 129" sank in the Pacific Ocean. In order to obtain confidential information of the Soviet Union, the United States decided to raise the sunken K - 129 secretly. In order to carry out a secret mission while going through the eyes of the Soviet surveillance, a huge salvage ship "Hughes Glomar Explorer (Hughes Glamor Explorer)"Was developed.

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http://www.pri.org/stories/2015-09-07/ship-built-cias-most-audacious-cold-war-mission-now-headed-scrapyard

In March 1968, the Soviet UnionGolf type submarine"K - 129" caused an explosion accident off Hawaii in the Pacific Ocean. The American Sea Spider Sonar network instantly detected this explosion. Follow-up survey was conducted on the sinking accident of K - 129, such as exploring the situation of the accident by satellite or Marine Corps research ship.


The reason the US gained a strong interest in K - 129 is that K - 129 is a submarine equipped with ballistic missiles, so we expect to obtain the military technology and encryption technology of the Soviet Union, the partner country of the cold war from the sinking ship Since the. The Soviet Union knows that the US wants to obtain information on K - 129 as well as the Soviet Union dispatched a navy to explore the K - 129, but could not find a submarine submerged. However, with the failure of the Soviet Union, the nuclear submarine of the US NavyHari Bat(SSN - 587) succeeded in finding K - 129 sinking in the ocean floor at the depth of 5 kilometers in the Pacific Ocean.

Central Information Office (CIA)In order to obtain confidential information of the Soviet Union secretly decided to carry out Salvage of K - 129 secretly, a secret mission called "Project Azorian (Azores island project)" started. However, in order to climb the eyes of the Soviet surveillance, the table can not raise the sunken submarine. Therefore, the CIA was a successor as a businessman, such as establishing manufacturing contracts on weapons and aircraft with the US Navy at the time, a millionaire who was called "a man with half of wealth on earth"Howard · Robert · Hughes · Jr.Collaborated with the company and used the fictitious manganese drilling business for hiding.


CIA has requested construction of a huge salvage ship that can raise K - 129 to Hughes' Tool Company Company operated by Hughes. In November 1972, with drainage volume 63,000 tons, height 189 meters, including all incidental equipmentPanama CanalConstruction of the "Hughes glamor explorer" which has the full length that it does not fit in also started.


The glowmark explorer carries a huge mechanical claw claw to lift the sinking ship with the soil on the bottom of the ocean. The claws are said to be responsible for development by Lockheed. A huge facility "Hughes Mining Barge" was also built, which stores the K - 129 pulled up by claws so that it can not be detected by the Soviet satellites.


The completed glowmark explorer was given a face looking like a manganese nodule drilling ship, was placed at the recovery point in July 1974, and started an intelligence operation for about a month. Furthermore, in order to divert the eyes of the Soviet surveillance, it seems that the ocean mining business has been extensively announced until the press release that the billionaire Hughes threw a lot of money into the manganese mining project.

Gromer Explorer pulled K - 129 a couple of weeks after the start of salvage, but the aircraft split at a depth of about 2.7 kilometers. As a result, only the front part of the submarine was recovered. The body of six crew members was discovered from the K - 129 which was successfully raised, and a funeral service is held quietly by the US military.

In addition, a secret movie that recorded the burial of the crew of the K-129 crew has been released.

M / V Hughes Glomar Explorer / Project Azorian - Burial At Sea - YouTube


Thus, in the Azorian project we successfully raised the K - 129 aircraft half, but it is said that no military technology or cryptographic technology was found. However, there is also a theory that it obtained useful intelligence information such as nuclear torpedo and encryption table, and Cryid W. Bruxon published in 1997 "The Jennifer Project"The conspiracy theory that the CIA conceals the fact that America was acquiring useful information, such as being stated as false information that only the half of the aircraft could be recovered in the first place is also persistent remain.

In the Cold War era, Gloromer Explorer, which succeeded in the Azorian project counted as one of the most intrusive and secret backed intelligence operations in the Cold War era, was awarded by the American Society of Mechanical Engineers in 2006 "History of Successfully Following an Unprecedented Challenge Although it was certified as a "monumental building"Public Radio InternationalAccording to the report, it is taken out to the scrap site and it seems to be deconstructed at last.