Project Azorian

In March 1968 the Soviet ballistic missile submarine K-129 sank with all hands in the Pacific, roughly 2,900 kilometers northwest of Hawaii. The U.S. Navy located the wreck about 5,000 meters down, and the CIA set out to lift it and recover its nuclear missiles, torpedoes and code materials. The agency hired billionaire Howard Hughes's companies to build the Hughes Glomar Explorer, a huge ship with a central well and a giant mechanical claw, presented to the public as a vessel for mining manganese nodules from the seabed. In July and August 1974 the ship lowered the claw on miles of pipe and began raising the submarine, but part of it broke away during the lift.¹²³

The CIA recovered a section of the bow, including the remains of six Soviet sailors, who were buried at sea with military honors, a ceremony filmed and later given to Russia in 1992. What else was recovered remains classified. In early 1975 the Los Angeles Times and columnist Jack Anderson revealed the story. When a journalist sued for records, the CIA replied that it could neither confirm nor deny their existence, a stance courts accepted and that is still called the Glomar response.¹²³⁴