USNS Glomar Explorer (T-AG-193)
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| Missing image Glomar_Explorer_Susiun_Bay_CA.jpg Glomar Explorer mothballed in , CA - June 1993. (USGS - Terraserver) Glomar Explorer mothballed in Suisun Bay, CA - June 1993. (USGS - Terraserver) | |
| Career |
|---|---|
| Ordered: | |
| Laid down: | |
| Launched: | 1 November 1972 |
| Placed In Service: | 1 July 1973 |
| Placed Out of Service: | |
| Fate: | Leased (not SAP) |
| Stricken: | |
| General Characteristics | |
| Displacement: | 50,500 tons full, 1780 tons light |
| Length: | 188.6 m (619 ft) |
| Beam: | 35.3 m (116 ft) |
| Draft: | 14 m (46 ft) |
| Propulsion: | five Nordberg 16-cylinder diesel engines driving 4,160 V AC generators turning 6 x 2200 HPO (1.6 MW) DC shaft motors, twin shafts |
| Speed: | 10 knots |
USNS Glomar Explorer (T-AG-193) is a large ship currently being used as a deep-sea drilling platform. The vessel originated in a secret plan by the United States Central Intelligence Agency to recover a sunken Soviet submarine, K-129, as part of Project Jennifer. Because K-129 had been lost in very deep water, a massive ship would be needed for the recovery operation. Such a vessel would be easily spotted by Soviet spies, so an elaborate cover story was developed. The CIA contacted eccentric businessman Howard Hughes, who agreed to go along with the story. Hughes told the media that he was building the ship in order to extract manganese nodules from the ocean floor. The cover story became surprisingly influential, spurring many others to examine the idea. At the time, the ship was widely known as the Hughes Glomar Explorer.
The ship managed to recover a portion of the submarine when it reached the site in the summer of 1974 and attempted to raise the Soviet vessel. Unfortunately though, during the recovery a mechanical failure in the grapple caused half of the submarine to break off, falling to the ocean floor. This section is said to have held many of the most sought after items, including the code book and the nuclear missiles. Two nuclear-tipped torpedoes and some cryptographic machines were recovered, along with the bodies of six Soviet submariners who were subsequently given formal burial at sea in a filmed ceremony. It has been speculated that, contrary to this official account, the entire submarine was recovered and that the CIA released disinformation to leave the Soviets with the impression that the mission was unsuccessful.
The operation became public in February 1975 because burglars had obtained secret documents from Hughes' headquarters in June 1974. The United States government planned to continue to use the ship to do recovery operations, but a Los Angeles Times story in 1975 blew the cover of the operation. For many years, the Explorer sat in Suisun Bay, until it was refitted for drilling operations in the late 1990s, and is now operated by Global Marine Drilling.
In 2005 Japan has launched a 57,500 ton ship named Chikyu (meaning Earth in japanese) nominally tasked with drilling through the mantle of the Earth for quake research [1] (http://www.guardian.co.uk/life/news/story/0,12976,1499099,00.html). It is rumored that the true aim of the mission is to repeat the feat of the Glomar Explorer. The secret objective is to recover the wreck of the soviet Polyus battle space station prototype, which was launched unsuccessfully in 1987 and fell into 6000 meter deep waters in the southern Pacific Ocean. The advanced military technology and top secret cryptographic communications equipment seized from the hulk would provide Japan with bargaining chips to demand the return of the Kurils from Russia.
External links
- http://www.fas.org/irp/program/collect/jennifer.htm
- Terraserver photo of Glomar Explorer mothballed in Suisun Bay, CA (http://www.terraserver.microsoft.com/image.aspx?t=1&s=11&x=1443&y=10529&z=10&w=2)
- Global Drilling (http://www.glm.com/)