Project Azorian (Jenifer) the Secret US mission to steal a Russian submarine

It's written like a Cold war Thriller A daring mission, Using Impossible technologies to Steal Soviet secrets.



Lets start with the Objective K129 was a Russian Project 629A GolfII diesel submarine. She is a Missile sub armed with as many as three nuclear missiles. She sank loosing all hands in 1968 March 8, The Russians launched rescue operations but lost all hope when they discovered she was lost in about three miles of ocean. the USN quietly located the K129 as well it recorded and observed everything and then sent in it's first secret weapon USS Halibut has a rather mundane name, she began her life as the SSGN 587 by that point in her history however She was SSN 587 the Regulus missiles that once made up the heart of her armament long ago having been retired. the Ship was renovated into one of the First of the USN's "Special mission boats" . Her hull featured a special missile shelter that was dubbed "The Bat Cave" with the missiles gone it was reconfigured to house a early form of Towed Unmanned camera system photos of the hull and data were gathered. But though this action a bit of politics took place. The Navy had taken the photo's the CIA was not pleased as they wanted to up the game. they had a plan... much like the CIA it's self this plan was bold. Ambitious and dubious.



At the heart of this was a Barge a massive semi submersible it would be carried in a Ship lacking a keel built around a massive Moon pool the size would have to be titanic in order to fit the full length of the K129, 30,000 tones of piping to extend a capture arm to grasp the boat. Such a size meant that it was not going possible to hide it from prying eyes.

The answer? Howard Hughes the for whom "Go big or Go home" was written.

An entire industry was created, Under sea mining. Collage campus's around the world set to teaching courses on the subject.

but it was far from leak proof at least three times during the history of the program anonymous letters arrived to the Russian Embassy and News organizations.

most were ignored eventually on 1974 June 20 she put to sea. On July4th she arrived on site for over a month Her crew worked assembling form 60 foot steel rods a three mile long extension lowering a massive Claw to the Sea floor.
During operation however one of the arms of the Claw was damaged and the Submarine already compromised form damage of it's sinking rolled over and broke. only a 38 foot section representing the forward Torpedo room with two nuclear torpedoes and the remains of a number of Russian Sailors.



A small memorial was held and video taped. A copy of this tape was later handed over to the Russian Government.

the Mission might haave maintained it's cover except the LA times published the story in 1975, Followed by a second more in depth by the NY times. in the after math the Explorer and it's barge were both mothballed

The Glomar Explorer was leased and modified finding a second life living up to her Cover story. Today She is in operation in Bengal Bay as the GSF Explorer.

The Barge dubbed Hughes mining barge one (HMB-1)


HMB-1 found a second life the structure with a retractable roof was used as a Dry dock for another Cold war secret. The USS SEA SHADOW



Today HMB-1 is owned by a Private boat builder who uses the unique platform as a Drydock





Project Azorian is not considered a failure due to the recovery of part of the Ship and the torpedoes, but there is no know attempt at ever using the technologies to repeat the mission and the K129 wreck was likely destroyed in the attempt. there are those that believe the mission was a success due to recovery of Code books, and technologies form the Sub. But by the time the mission was launched Gulf II class had retired, The Code books would have been close to a decade old. If anything the only way one could have tried to salvage the mission would have been to use it as a proof of concept mission to show that should another sub be lost the US could rapidly secure it however the fact that the mission was ousted less then a year after the first mission would have and likely did end any such worth.

This project might have spurred USN paranoia about Soviet Union salvaging lost USN equipment. Hence when the first f-14 was lost at sea, USN went through great expense to salvage it least the Russians get their hands on it.

When Soviet Union started to built her first titanium sub, US had its suspicions because the soviet shipyard would store modules of pressure hull out doors as they wait for space to become available on the covered in door slip way where the submarine would be built. US spy satellites noticed the pressure hull modules were usually shiny and did not appear to rust as they sat out doors under sun and rain.

To confirm, the CIA instructed some agents to follow the trucks carrying waste products out of the ship yard, and pick up any thing that fell off the trucks as they hit bumps on the road. Some of what they picked up were titanium shavings. This confirmed to the USN that soviet titanium fabrication technology was much more advanced than that in the west, and large components made from titanium were undergoing precision machining in the soviet ship yard.

Putting the two together, the USN figured out the soviets were building titanium submarines.

I am not so sure about that Chuck Remember the F14 was only ever used by two national services. The USN and IIAF. after the Us shut down exports to Iran following the Revolution. The Iranians would have had to seek a source of parts and logistics to maintain them. It's suspected that two Iranian F14's found there way into Soviet hands. one though offer the other defection.

TerraN_EmpirE said:

I am not so sure about that Chuck Remember the F14 was only ever used by two national services. The USN and IIAF. after the Us shut down exports to Iran following the Revolution. The Iranians would have had to seek a source of parts and logistics to maintain them. It's suspected that two Iranian F14's found there way into Soviet hands. one though offer the other defection.

Click to expand...

The first f-14 lost at sea and then salvaged by USN to prevent USSR from salvaging it occurred before the Iranian revolution.

when was the cat lost chuck. Project Azorian took place in 1974, was outted in 75 first Tomcat hit the fleet in 72 revolution was in 78-79 thats a small window.

The first lost f-14 to be salvaged was lost off of the JFK in late 1976. Its loss was observed by a shadowing soviet trawler, so decision was made immediately to salvage it at any cost at the earliest practicable moment. Another was lost in South China Sea in 1978 and salvaged in 1979. Both were recovered to keep AWG-9 and Phoenix out of soviet hands, although the method of salvage totally destroyed both airframes.

Not quite sure it is really paranoia then Chuck. The Russian and American military's both have in the past recovered crashed advisory craft for the potential of reverse engineering. Case in point the Russian Atoll missile was copied from a captured American sidewinder. That event took place in the Korean war.

I started this thread as I was bored on a Sunday I think at a later date I might try and cover how the sidewinder was copied by the Russians.