MMXXVI VOL21 No.893

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K-129; stealing a sunken Soviet submarine

In 1968, the USSR lost a submarine armed with nuclear missiles. The CIA immediately launched the secret Project Azorian to recover it. A real-life story in which reality surpasses fiction
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K-129; stealing a sunken Soviet submarine

This is one of those stories where fact far outweighs fiction, including any James Bond movie and Tom Clancy’s novel “The Hunt for Red October”, inspired by these events.

During the Cold War, the United States activated Operation Chrome Dome to keep at least twelve B-52 bombers loaded with thermonuclear bombs always in flight, 24 hours a day, circling the borders of the Soviet Union.

The USSR did the same with a fleet of submarines armed with nuclear ballistic missiles and occasionally sending a Bear bomber over Europe or Alaska through the Bering Strait to test NATO’s defenses.

The idea was the same; to always keep several nuclear devices close to enemy borders, so that they could be launched in preemptive strikes before the opposition did.

10 The Soviet submarine K-129

One of those Soviet submarines loaded with ballistic missiles was the K-129, Golf II class, military registration 722, delivered to the Soviet Navy in 1959.

This was not a nuclear submarine as they are understood today. Its powerplant was not a nuclear reactor, it was a diesel-electric engine, similar to those used during World War II.

k-129 Golf II
A Soviet Golf II class submarine, similar to the K-129. This image was taken on October 12, 1985. The USSR maintained operational 1959 nuclear-capable submarines, 26 years after they were chartered.

This meant that the Golf II class submarines were already outdated, so the USSR sold the technology, including ballistic missiles, to China in 1959. The Chinese built at least one Golf II in 1966, which is still active today.

Another key development was that since 1956 the Sino-Soviet rupture began to take shape. Until then the two nations were allies. Starting in 1956 their relations deteriorated, culminating in peak tension during the Zhenbao Island incident (1969).

9 The last patrol of the K-129

In February 1968, the K-129 received orders for its third combat patrol over the Pacific Ocean, departing from the Rybachiy naval base on the Kamchatka Peninsula, commanded by Captain Vladimir Kobzar with Captain Alexander Zhuravin as his second-in-command, “XO” in military jargon.

The orders came in a hurry because only three weeks had passed since their previous patrol. Too short a time to repair the ship, resupply it and let the crew rest. Launching a submarine on such short notice was unusual.

The second peculiarity of this mission was that the day they were to depart, the captain and crew, 98 men in total, found waiting on the dock a group of mysterious passengers with orders to embark.

k-129
Captain Vladimir Kobzar with part of his crew.

During the Soviet era it was common for each ship to carry one or more political commissars, fully autonomous and independent of captain and crew, who acted as informants for the naval command, monitored that the entire mission was carried out in accordance with Soviet policies and were in charge of making political decisions if the situation arose.

Carrying more passengers than usual did not bode well because it meant having to perform some kind of risky maneuver such as disembarking spies near the enemy coast or getting into covert operations.

In the last conversation Captain Kobzar had with his wife he expressed the bad omen that patrol was causing him and they said goodbye in tears.

It has been speculated that the group of sinister individuals belonged to the OSNAZ, elite special forces, fanatics of the Soviet regime.

After departing, at sea the submarine’s orders were opened, which were to approach 800 nautical miles (1481km – 920 miles) off the coast of Hawaii, armed with 3 SS-N-5 Serb nuclear missiles.

8 Submarine strategy during the Cold War

During the Cold War Soviet and Allied submarines played a kind of cat-and-mouse game. Each side tried to get ballistic missiles as close as possible to enemy shores, in this case Hawaii, in order to fire them in case war broke out.

The opposing side tried to locate enemy submarines and approach their own submarines to enemy ships to torpedo them in case of war or in case of any suspicious operation such as opening the hatches of nuclear missiles before they could be fired.

k-129
Typical situation of two enemy submarines during the Cold War in which one ended up shadowing the tail of the other in complete silence. When the one ahead was a Soviet submarine it used to perform a maneuver called by NATO “Crazy Ivan”, which consisted of an abrupt and sudden turn to “look behind”, since the sonar could not detect enemy ships located aft because of the distortion produced by the propellers.

Following this tactic it was possible for an American submarine to end up almost attached to another Soviet submarine, with both crews maintaining complete silence so that they could not detect its exact position by means of audiophones.

7 USSR loses a submarine armed with nuclear missiles

The K-129 carried both mechanical and electric engines. This meant that every 12 hours the ship had to surface for a period of time to recharge the electric batteries with the diesel engines.

This time was used to make regular radio contacts with the Kamchatka naval base in which the position of the submarine, incidents, news or new orders were reported.

On March 8, 1968, the K-129 did not make the contact scheduled for that day and from then on it did not show signs of life. The USSR had just lost a submarine armed with ballistic missiles.

The most likely possibilities were that it had suffered a breakdown in its communication systems or that it had sunk due to an accident.

k-129
Map of the situation in the Pacific Ocean. The box in the upper left is the area that K-129 was supposed to be patrolling. Below, Hawaii. Between the islands and the designated patrol area, a small boat from the University of Hawaii found a slick of fuel contaminated with radiation.

Worse, it could have been sunk after being torpedoed by the enemy, which would put the world on the brink of World War 3. Or as in Tom Clancy’s book, perhaps the captain or crew might have mutinied, choosing to act on their own either to defect or to launch a preemptive nuclear strike driven by sheer fanaticism.

In the third week of March 1968 the Soviet Union launched a massive search operation in the Pacific Ocean, putting NATO forces on high alert.

The Americans began reviewing data collected by an underwater surveillance system called “SOSUS – Sound Surveillance System”, composed of acoustic and passive sonar listening, with which they monitored the movements of Soviet ships.

The SOSUS data identified a possible event on March 8. After being analyzed they made it possible to perform a triangulation, positioning the place of origin 320 nautical miles (592km – 368 miles) northwest of the island of Oahu, Hawaii with a margin of error of 5 nautical miles (9km – 6 miles).

In the vicinity, a small oceanographic research vessel from the University of Hawaii found floating a fuel slick with radioactive contamination, practically at the same point triangulated with the SOSUS data.

The Soviets did not have a surveillance system such as SOSUS so after searching blindly for several weeks they abandoned the rescue efforts and returned their fleet to the usual alert level.

6 Project Azorian, stealing a sunken Soviet submarine

On August 20, 1968, the U.S. submarine USS Halibut located the wreck of the K-129 sunk at 4900 meters (16,076 feet) depth in the triangulated area. Towing a submerged bathyscaphe, 20,000 detailed photographs of the wreck were taken.

The K-129 rested on the seabed tilted on its port side, badly damaged, almost split in half, deformed by the pressure of the sea, with one of the launch hatches open and half a SS-N-5 Serb nuclear missile sticking out.

k-129
Real images of the sunken K-129 taken by the USS Halibut and arranged as a collage. In this composition you can see the conning tower or “sail” of the submarine and part of a ballistic missile protruding from one of its tubes.

This means that the K-129 had strayed 400 miles (644km) south of its assigned route and that at the time of the sinking it was firing a ballistic missile.

The submarine itself was of little interest because it was antiquated technology but recovering the missile and encrypted communications system, which had recently been upgraded, along with the latest secret Soviet codes, was very tempting.

k-129
Recreation of the sunken K-129. The hull was almost split in half. One of the nuclear missiles is sticking out of the tubes as if it was being fired at the moment the submarine went down. Recovering the missiles and the entire contents of the conning tower was of utmost strategic interest to the United States and NATO.

The then President Lyndon B. Johnson was informed of the situation and ordered the CIA to recover the submarine. This was a very tricky project from both, a technical and political perspective.

Surfacing a huge sunken submarine at 4900 meters (16,076 feet) is a science fiction odyssey. Being in international waters it was still Soviet property. If the USSR were to discover the operation it could trigger a new international conflict or even World War 3.

5 The CIA used Howard Hughes as a cover for the project

In order not to arouse too much suspicion, in 1972 the CIA used a private company owned by the legendary Howard Hughes as a cover. Hughes was perfect for the covert operation because if the Soviets got suspicious and tried to spy on him, they were going to run into one of the most security-obsessed, self-reclusive paranoid weirdos on the planet (ever).

Howard Hughes was an eccentric tycoon to the marrow and beyond. An aviator, he was involved in the aeronautical, film and medical industries, an investor in strategic sectors and a military contractor.

At the age of 41 Hughes had been involved in a plane crash piloting the XF-11 prototype. The after-effects left him suffering chronic pain for the rest of his life, which made him addicted to 0piates.

k-129
Iconic image of Howard Hughes at the controls of the Hughes H-4 Hercules “Spruce Goose” on November 2, 1947. Five years later he would disappear from the public scene forever.

Then, Hughes began to suffer from obsessive-compulsive disorder and misophobia (germ phobia), with his mental situation progressively degrading to self-reclusion.

Howard was last seen publicly in 1952. In 1958 he locked himself up for four months in a movie theater near his home. He then confined himself to hotels in several countries, where he lived as a hermit until his death in 1976; Beverly Hills, Boston, Las Vegas, Nassau, Freeport and Vancouver.

It was rumored that in his rooms he remained alone, completely naked, with a paper handkerchief to cover the crown jewels. It is believed that he suffered from allodynia, exaggerated perception of pain even from the mere act of dressing.

He did not receive visits in person from anyone, not even from his most direct employees who acted as personal assistants, communicating through the closed door with notes or calls.

In 1972, when he was hired by the CIA, Hughes was residing in a hotel in Lago Managua, western Nicaragua. He had not been seen since 1952 and conspiracy theories about him were already running wild.

4 The recovery vessel Glomar Explorer

To recover the K-129 the CIA came up with a James Bond movie plan. The agency designed a huge oceanographic exploration ship called the Glomar Explorer which in the public eye drilled into the seabed at great depths in search of manganese for Howard Hughes.

In reality inside the ship’s holds was a giant crane designed by Lockheed with several massive grappling claws to grab the sunken submarine at 10 points. The entire keel of the ship was opened by two huge hatches.

k-129 Glomar Explorer
The Hughes Glomar Explorer.

The crane with the claws called “Clementine” was lowered to a depth of 4900m (16,076 feet). The claws caught the submarine and once secured it was hoisted into the ship’s holds. The entire process was carried out underwater making it impossible for other ships to see the operation.

At the same time, the CIA built a second decoy ship called the “Glomar Challenger” very similar to the Glomar Explorer but with a real underwater drilling platform. This ship was set to survey near the area where the Soviets had been searching for K-129 so they would believe the Americans were trying to locate it in the same place.

The Glomar Explorer arrived at the wreck site on July 4, 1974. It lowered the crane slowly over two days to a depth of 4900m (16,076 feet) grabbed the submarine completely and began hoisting it.

3 The recovery of K-129 was leaked to the press in 1975

The documentation of the Azorian project remains classified so its exact results are unknown.

Even so the operation was huge. It had a budget of $800 million in public money, equivalent to about $5.1 billion today. The Glomar Explorer ship was gigantic. A large personnel contingent was involved which made it very difficult to prevent leaks.

In 1975 at least two investigative journalists had sniffed out the story. The CIA convinced the New York Times not to publish it but it finally appeared in the Los Angeles Times unleashing a torrent of information across all media.

k-129 Glomar Explorer
Recreation of the keel of the Hughes Glomar Explorer open, lowering the Clementine recovery structure. It took two days for the truss to reach 4900m (16,076 feet) depth.

It is believed that the leak was another CIA ploy to misinform the Soviets. At first it was said that when the submarine was raised, the structure was so damaged that it had broken in half and only the bow with six corpses of Russian sailors highly irradiated was pulled out of the water. The operation had been a failure and a waste of public funds.

Today it is believed that the entire submarine or at least the bow and the conning tower together with the SS-N-5 Serb nuclear missile were recovered which was the main objective of the mission. It is possible that the secret communications system was also retrieved.

2 Why did K-129 sink?

The hypotheses that are being considered range from an internal accident due to failure of the batteries or missile doors, a collision with a U.S. submarine and some conspiracy theories.

A classic accident of diesel-electric submarines is that the lead-acid batteries release hydrogen when recharged. If not properly vented, the hydrogen is highly flammable and could have caused the explosion.

k-129 Glomar Explorer
Recreation of the recovery structure Clementine hoisting the K-129 after catching it with her claws on the seabed.

In 1986 another, more modern Soviet submarine, the K-219, suffered an explosion because one of the tubes housing the missiles had a poorly sealed hatch. When seawater came in contact with the liquid fuel of the missile, a reaction occurred that caused the deflagration. It has been speculated that the K-129 was built with the same defect.

The Soviet Union never admitted to the public that it had lost a submarine. At the diplomatic level it maintained that the K-129 had been rammed by the submarine USS Swordfish while playing cat-and-mouse.

Soviet spies discovered that shortly after losing the K-129, the Swordfish arrived at the base in Yokosuka Japan with the conning tower slightly dented after accidentally hitting a block of ice in the sea.

1 The conspiracy theory; who were those mysterious passengers aboard the K-129?

The most fascinating theory about the accident of the doomed soviet sub, involves the sinister passengers who boarded the K-129 and may have suggested that they were an OSNAZ commando the elite Soviet special forces political fanatics of the regime.

In 1968, inside the USSR there were already those who thought that the Cold War was being lost, predicting that the Soviet Union might eventually break apart as it did in 1991, 23 years later. Much like in the Chinese “cultural” revolution there were people longing for the golden years of Maoism and calling for a red iron fist.

k-129 Glomar Explorer
When the news was leaked to the press the CIA spread the rumor that the operation may have been a failure. When the K-129 was raised the hull was so badly damaged that it broke in half and only the bow and the irradiated bodies of six sailors were pulled out of the water. True or false.

It has been speculated that the OSNAZ command may have taken control of the submarine by force in early March 1968. Once in command, they may have diverted it 400 miles (640km) in the direction of Hawaii to put it in firing range to attack Ohau Island with a nuclear missile.

The reason for doing such a thing would have been to provoke a war between China and the United States so that the two biggest enemies of the Soviet Union might self-destruct without the USSR having to fire a single shot. China had at least one Golf II class submarine and the same SS-N-5 Serb ballistic missiles technology it had acquired in 1959.

The diversion to the south of the K-129 is not believed to be as a result of an order sent by the Soviet command since when it disappeared, the USSR was searching for it 400 miles (640km) further north on the route it was originally assigned. The change of course may have been taken unilaterally within the submarine.

The hypothetical events would unfold as follows; upon placing the K-129 in firing range, the OSNAZ made the sub to surfaced and somehow coerced the captain into activating the nuclear missile firing system.

k-129
Location on the map of the K-129 when it sank. Some analysts claim that the SS-N-5 Serb ballistic missiles may not have had sufficient range to reach Hawaii from this position. Perhaps the OSNAZ thought they did.

The firing system had to be activated by entering a numerical security code divided into three parts. The captain and only the captain knew the last digits. The other two codes had to be sent by the Soviet government and naval command when issuing the launch order. It is possible that the OSNAZ embarked knowing the first two parts of the number.

An OSNAZ commando puts a pistol to the captain’s temple, ordering him to enter the last part of the firing code. They might have begun executing the entire crew one by one as a means of coercion.

Captain Kobzar has to make the hardest decision of his life, knowing he is going to die one way or another. If he does not accede to the demands, OSNAZ will shoot him on the spot or kill his entire crew. If he enters the final part of the code, he will probably trigger a nuclear war that could end up annihilating half the planet, including mother Russia, his family and his loved ones.

Then the captain enters some numbers in the mechanism. When he finishes he presses the fire button, staring with a poker face at OSNAZ, who stops pointing at him and smiles, convinced he has accomplished his mission.

k-129
Recreation of the firing system of the K-129. In order to launch the missiles a three-part code had to be entered. Once the correct number was entered, the transparent button on the upper right side would illuminate with a flashing light indicating that the system was armed and ready to fire the moment it was pressed.

After a few seconds, a loud explosion shakes the entire ship. What OSNAZ did not know is that within the mechanism the captain could enter two codes; a firing number or a security cipher that causes the missiles to self-destruct.

This safety figure existed in case a preemptive nuclear strike was already launched and moments later, ordered to be aborted, as the missiles took some time to reach their targets, minutes or even hours depending on the firing distance.

The self‑destruct procedure ensures thrust termination and controlled structural breakup so the missile loses propulsion and falls short. It is not a large explosion; the warhead remains safed, preventing dispersal of radioactive materia

After the deflagration, the captain orders to abandon ship immediately. The submarine is still on the surface. However, the K-129’s missiles were lodged in the conning tower, blocking the main exit after they self-destructed. The vessel may have gone down so quickly that there was no time for evacuation. It will never be known.

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