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A Mechanically Marvelous Sea Saga: Plumbing the Depths of Cold War Paranoia Jack Mcguinn, Senior Editor

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A Mechanically Marvelous Sea Saga: Plumbing the Depths of Cold War Paranoia Jack Mcguinn, Senior Editor addendum A Mechanically Marvelous Sea Saga: Plumbing the Depths of Cold War Paranoia Jack McGuinn, Senior Editor In the summer of 1974, long before Argo, there was “AZORIAN” — the code name for a CIA gambit to recover cargo entombed in a sunk- en Soviet submarine — the K-129 — from the bottom of the Pacific Ocean. The challenge: exhume — intact — a 2,000-ton submarine and its suspicious cargo from 17,000 feet of water. HowardUndated Robard Hughes Jr. photo of a young Howard Hughes — The Soviet sub had met its end (no one ($3.7 billion in 2013 dollars),” but none entrepreneur, inventor, movie producer — whose claims to know how, and the Russians of it came out of Hughes’ pocket. Jimmy Stewart-like weren’t talking) in 1968, all hands lost, Designated by ASME in 2006 as “a appearance here belies some 1,560 nautical miles northwest of historical mechanical engineering land- the truly bizarre enigma he would later become. Hawaii. After a Soviet-led, unsuccessful mark,” the ship had an array of mechani- search for the K-129, the U.S. undertook cal and electromechanical systems with one of its own and, by the use of gath- heavy-duty applications requiring robust But now, the bad news: After a num- ered sophisticated acoustic data, located gear boxes; gear drives; linear motion ber of attempts, the ship’s “custom claw” the vessel. rack-and-pinion systems; and precision managed to sustain a firm grip on the What made this noteworthy was that teleprint (planetary, sun, open) gears. submarine, but at about 9,000 feet the U-boat was armed with nuclear mis- One standout was the Glomar’s roughly two-thirds of the (forward) hull siles. Nuclear arms-capable submarines advanced rack-and-pinion jacking sys- broke away when a number of the claw’s posed a new threat to the U.S. and its tem: its impressive motors and gear teeth failed. The broken hull of the sub- allies in that missiles launched from a boxes provided the massive lifting force marine returned to the bottom, and with submarine cannot be detected on radar needed for bringing the sub to the sur- it most of the intelligence that the CIA until they are already underway to their face. Other marvels cited by ASME: a was expecting to recover. The Explorer target. For the bold caper to succeed, “claw” (think old-timey arcade game) did ultimately retrieve the section of the however, a cover story, a distraction — or designed to grab and hold the submarine hull — along with the bodies of six Soviet a McGuffin, as Hitchcock enjoyed putting with mechanically articulated fingers submariners. it — was needed; more on that follows. that used surface-supplied sea water as a Spook watchers have speculated over the last 30+ years as to the intelligence that Project Azorian sought so dear- “ No one had ever tried to design an at-sea docking system for such massive ly — and expensively. The gambit’s cost bodies. To have gotten it right on the first try, without the benefit of today’s overruns have been estimated at about CAD/CAM capabilities, is simply incredible.” $500 million — in 1974 dollars. The CIA David H. Sharp, author of The CIA’s Greatest Covert Operation and would not so much as reveal the mis- CIA head of systems recovery on the Hughes Glomar Explorer sion’s name until 2010. A second mission to recover the The custom-designed, one-off ves- hydraulic fluid; a motion-compensated, K-129’s broken hull was scheduled, but sel was the Hughes Glomar Explorer. gimbaled (bearings, bearings) work plat- the mission was scrapped as the U.S. The ship’s “owner” was none other than form system for enhanced roll, pitch and government was attempting at the time storied aviator and inventor Howard heave motion control. to improve relations with the Soviets. Robard Hughes, Jr. Hughes was recruit- And that cover story that was used by In 1976, Hughes died — intro irony ed for the “job” by the CIA, and one can the CIA to explain the presence of the U.S. here — on an airplane while en route only wonder at the reaction from the ship in international waters? People paid to Methodist Hospital in Houston. The bizarrely private and legendary paranoid. to know these things (oceanographers) Glomar Explorer was eventually “de- In truth, however, Hughes had little to say that areas of the Pacific sea floor are commissioned” and in 1997 was leased do with building the Glomar Explorer; paved with manganese nodules. Seizing out for deep-water drilling. She was it was only the Hughes brand that was upon this serendipitous cover afforded stripped of her high-tech mechanical needed — as a front. Project Azorian them, the G then approached Hughes systems, her “marvel” status along with proved to be “one of the most complex, about using a deep-ocean mining project them. expensive, and secretive intelligence (the nodules) of his as a front for the clan- (Sources: cia.gov; hnsa.org; navsource. operations of the Cold War — at a cost of destine project. Hughes was all-in. org; historylearningsite.co.uk; gwu.edu; asme.org) [www.geartechnology.com] 112 GEAR TECHNOLOGY | September 2013.
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