Project Azorian

Project Azorian (also called "Jennifer" by the press after its Top Secret Security Compartment) was a U.S. <a href="/facts/Central_Intelligence_Agency/U7urmQYL">Central Intelligence Agency</a> (CIA) project to recover the sunken <a href="/facts/Soviet_submarine_K-129_(1960)/CbPlMNvl">Soviet submarine K-129</a> from the Pacific Ocean floor in 1974 using the purpose-built ship <a href="/facts/Glomar_Explorer/fCBfS13a">Hughes Glomar Explorer</a>. The 1968 sinking of K-129 occurred about 1,560 miles (2,510 km) northwest of Hawaii. Project Azorian was one of the most complex, expensive, and covert intelligence operations of the <a href="/facts/Cold_War/spJdJQ3q">Cold War</a> at a cost of about $800 million, or $5.1 billion today.
The US designed the recovery ship and its lifting cradle using concepts developed with Global Marine (see <a href="/facts/Project_Mohole/KSfslD8v">Project Mohole</a>) that used their precision stability equipment to keep the ship nearly stationary above the target while lowering nearly three miles (4.8 km) of pipe. They worked with scientists to develop methods for preserving paper that had been underwater for years in hopes of being able to recover and read the submarine's codebooks. The reasons that this project was undertaken included the recovery of an intact <a href="/facts/R-21_(missile)/zhb7ESqW">R-21</a> nuclear missile and cryptological documents and equipment.
The Soviet Union was unable to locate K-129, but the US determined its general location from data recorded by four <a href="/facts/Air_Force_Technical_Applications_Center/orHgn5AV">Air Force Technical Applications Center</a> (AFTAC) sites and the Adak <a href="/facts/SOSUS/EkvzfQj9">Sound Surveillance System</a> (SOSUS) array. The US identified an acoustic event on March 8 that likely originated from an explosion aboard the submarine, and was able to determine the location to within five nautical miles (5.8 mi; 9.3 km).[clarify]
The submarine <a href="/facts/USS_Halibut_(SSGN-587)/oImT8HUt">USS Halibut</a> located the boat using the Fish, a towed, 12-foot (3.7 m), two-short-ton (1.8 t) collection of cameras, strobe lights, and sonar that was built to withstand extreme depths. The recovery operation in international waters about six years later used mining for <a href="/facts/Manganese_nodule/e9RCgkFo">manganese nodules</a> as its <a href="/facts/Disinformation/JNY1zmLJ">cover story</a>. 
The mining company and ship were nominally owned by reclusive billionaire <a href="/facts/Howard_Hughes/8HrreyTh">Howard Hughes</a>, but secretly backed by the CIA, who paid for the construction of the <a href="/facts/Glomar_Explorer/fCBfS13a">Hughes Glomar Explorer</a>. The ship recovered a portion of K-129, but a mechanical failure in the grapple caused two-thirds of the recovered section to break off during recovery.

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Project Azorian