Imagine the task of dropping an 8-foot-wide grappling hook from the top of the Empire State Building, down to the street, capturing a small car full of gold, and winching it back to the top without any person seeing it. Such is the analogy to help explain the concept behind Project AZORIAN, a top-secret CIA operation during the Cold War, to raise a sunken Soviet submarine from the floor of the Pacific Ocean.
This operation started in 1968 when the Soviet ballistic missile submarine K-129 disappeared while on a routine patrol in the Pacific Ocean. After a long search, the Soviet Union declared it lost, but the U.S. intelligence found the K-129 resting 16,500 feet below the ocean surface, some 1,500 miles northwest of Hawaii. The intelligence value was so great that the CIA organized an ambitious recovery effort with Department of Defense assistance.
That presented CIA engineers with a staggering problem: raising a 1,750-ton, 132-foot-long wrecked submarine from an ocean abyss more than three miles deep, all under the veil of secrecy. The only approach appeared to be a big mechanical claw dangling from a surface ship. To keep the operation secret, the CIA turned to a billionaire named Howard Hughes to provide a cover story. It was named Hughes Glomar Explorer, and it was introduced to the world as a commercial deep-sea mining vessel conducting marine research in mining manganese nodules.
Constructed over four years, the Glomar Explorer had been equipped with a derrick resembling an oil-drilling rig, a pipe-transfer crane, docking legs, a massive claw-like capture vehicle, and a center docking well called the “moon pool.” The ship was designed to perform the entire recovery operation underwater, hidden from prying eyes.
Finally, in July 1974, Glomar Explorer reached the recovery site and initiated salvage operations under tight secrecy, with the Soviet ships patrolling some distance away. It was not without its problems, but at one time, the crew did bring up a part of the submarine. The section broke in the middle on the way, and a massive part fell back to the ocean floor. The recovered segment included the remains of six Soviet submariners, which were officiated as receiving an official military burial at sea. As a goodwill gesture, the CIA would later provide a film of the burial ceremony to Russian President Boris Yeltsin.
Plans for a second mission were all but in place almost immediately following the initial recovery. The series of unexpected events that unfolded soon led to the revelation of Project AZORIAN. In June 1974, a burglary occurred at the Summa Corporation offices, where secret documents relating Howard Hughes to the CIA and the Glomar Explorer were stolen. The subsequent investigation went to the media, and by February 1975, the Los Angeles Times was able to publish the story that related the burglary, Hughes, the CIA, and the recovery operation. Investigative reporter Jack Anderson exposed the story further on national television.
The Ford Administration did not confirm or deny the stories, thereby creating the “Glomar Response.” With the mission’s cover blown, the White House canceled further recovery operations. Though it did not realize all its intelligence aims, Project AZORIAN has been described as one of the greatest coups in Cold War intelligence. The operation moved deep-ocean mining and heavy-lift technology forward; it remains a legendary, if still largely unknown, feat within the intelligence community.