Project Azorian
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You are currently reading a thread in /k/ - Weapons
You are currently reading a thread in /k/ - Weapons
Saw a thread about this the other night, wanted to share for anyone who missed it.
Probably one of the best examples of how batshit crazy we were during the Cold War.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Azorian
Also, for the anons looking for the documentary about it that wasn't on Netflix, it's called 'Azorian: The Raising Of The K-129', and there may or may not be a couple extra seeders with decent upload speed on the torrent that may or may not be on a kick ass torrent site.
>>28299954
That was a great film.
Azorian is probably one of humanity's greatest single engineering feats and very few people even know about it.
The Russians were fucking pissed about it, though. Like, seriously pissed.
>>28299954
Bumping because I started the old thread. Fight the good fight, losing another piece of history to the scrap heap saddens me.
Here's the K-219 wreckage. Picture taken by the lifting rig at a depth of 16,000' (5,900m) of water.
One russian seed, and one american seed... wonder which government agency will contact me first...
>>28299984
Thanks OOP. If by fight the good fight you are referring to the documentary, you'll be happy to know it is safely on a fileserver with redundant storage and offsite backup. I hoard stuff like this.
tl;dr for you lazy anons:
>Soviets lose a sub with 3 nukes
>Deploy fuck ton of ships to look for it, can't find it
>¯\_(ツ)_/¯
>US finds it
>CIA builds ship totally not specifically designed to recover sub
>Almost recovers part of it, mechanical failure fucks operation
>¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Also, If you ever time-travel back to 1968, don't get on a sub.
>>28299970
>The Russians were fucking pissed about it, though. Like, seriously pissed.
Fuck them.....
>>28300042
>Also, If you ever time-travel back to 1968, don't get on a sub.
This.
Only official admission that the project every actually happened was the video of a sea burial for the remains of Russian crew members.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kFWMo7aHDRo
The cover story was so good that numerous mining companies actual invested in deep sea mining technology. Publications were made and so was this "educational film." Thank god for eccentric billionaires.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i5QPyuc86bI
>>28299970
>The Russians were fucking pissed about it, though. Like, seriously pissed.
It was probably the single biggest coup of the entire cold war: getting your hands on an actual enemy submarine.
>>28299954
Why is this bad? This is something the CIA should have been doing at the time.
>and secretive intelligence operations of the Cold War at a cost of about $800 million ($3.8 billion in 2015 dollars).
coulda gone to the moon for that price...
>>28300051
Ah, maybe not so much. Apparently, at a State Department dinner, a Russian attaché approached an American diplomat and told him that if we went back to the wreck, it would mean war.
We took them seriously and never went back. Possibly because of that incident and possibly because what was left had the structural integrity of cigarette ash.
>>28299954
Reminder that the CIA lied and totally got a warhead off before it broke.
>>28302289
Why were the gommies so prissy about it? I'd think that sneaking around stealing enemy war toys were everyday life for the intelligence services.
>>28300793
>It was probably the single biggest coup of the entire cold war: getting your hands on an actual enemy submarine.
a third only though. seems you cant roll a 20 on the ballsiest of moves. as for the biggest coup, its really hard to top Operation Anadyr: smuggling a couple regiments of MRBMs, and IRBMs along with a motorized rifle division, ant-iair divisions and a regiment of jets plus missile boats(tac nukes included) and only getting discovered after the main objective(BMS operational) is secured.
>>28302289
Good thing they didn't say anything about K-129. Scored some sweet commie nukes out of that wreck.
You'd think the Russians would learn that the US can and will go poke around deep sub wrecks.
>>28302636
K-219*
I'm tired and mixing up hard gommie alphanumeric names
>>28302636
>Good thing they didn't say anything about K-129. Scored some sweet commie nukes out of that wreck.
apart from potential use in false flagging, i dont see the benefit in acquiring soviet nuke warheads. you cant even play that up for propaganda so what benefit really?
Anyway, the real success of Project Azorian is in tapping Soviet undersea cables- fck the Soviets only realized they were tapped when humint found out years later.
>>28302516
> desecrating a mass tomb
> not being pissed about it
Imagine the shitfit we'd throw if the Russians went out and raised the Scorpion.
>>28302516
I imagine the presence of nuclear weapons and/or launch codes and procedures creates the possibility for upsetting the balance of nuclear arms
Same reason they bitch about ABM defenses.
>>28302683
Studying the missiles, and warhead design. There is a lot that goes into warhead design beyond payload, and missile technology tends to be a closely guarded secret. Getting mostly intact SRBMs would be huge.
Best part is, the US (presumably) got to the wreck and salvaged those missiles in a timeframe of just over a year.
>>28299970
>Greatest feat
>failed to raise the sub and had to pack up and leave
Here's your (you)
>>28302320
I doubt the CIA was even there for the nukes, primarily. They were probably trying to figure out what the sub was doing so far south with 15 extra sailors.
>>28302758
>Studying the missiles, and warhead design. There is a lot that goes into warhead design beyond payload, and missile technology tends to be a closely guarded secret. Getting mostly intact SRBMs would be huge.
Soviet nuke warheads and SLBMs were generally behind their American counterparts so i doubt they learned much.
>>28302717
Are there a line when something becomes a mass tomb? If, say, a Russian bomber went down at seas by accident, with no survivors, would it be wrong to raise it as well?
What about looting a tank containing a bunch of dead ruskies?
>>28302751
Everything upsets the balance of nuclear arms. Might as well ban the research on MIRVs or improved targeting capability.
>>28302821
>failed to raise the su
>when the US ended up in possession of the ship's bell, which was not in the bow section that the CIA claims is all they could recover
>>28302844
Yes but it might point you in the direction of the capability of the enemy missile - things like CEP, time to arm/retarget missiles, etc, which can aid you in the planning of nuclear strategy.
Plus sonar, torpedo and noise reduction capability is equally interesting to rival naval nations, let alone things like comms information.
>"The CIA considered that the project was one of the greatest intelligence coups of the Cold War"
You can really imagine the circlejerking culture they have at the CIA. Of course they do the coolest shit like engineering coups and accomplishing great engineering feats which I respect but it seems like they're staffed by some of the most egotistical men competing and trying to out-black ops one another's top secret project.
>you will never be one of them
>>28303033
I wonder if they play pranks on eachother at CIA HQ? Must be glorious.
>>28303033
Must be hard not to get a big head when you can introduce yourself with just "I'm CIA."
>>28303033
>U-2s
>A-12s
>Azorian
tell me why does everyone think the CIA are actually bad at espionage? These are only the programs we know about.
>>28303169
Apparently the CIA takes perverse pride in their Hollywood/novel driven reputation for being a bunch of useless, bungling fascists and have no interest in dispelling it for that very reason.
>>28303169
>tell me why does everyone think the CIA are actually bad at espionage?
Because unlike with actually competent intelligence agencies like Mossad and British Intelligence, you virtually never hear about any of the CIA's successes. There are two ways to look at this: one is to assume that they simply are as ineffectual as it appears, and the other is to go all "muh culture of secrecy" and claim that even their successes are being held secret... apparently indefinitely.
>>28303256
>British Intelligence
you're fucking kidding me right? go take a look at their history, the post war period was fuck up after fuck up, all caused because they had been thoroughly penetrated by the soviets since the 30s. google kim philby and go from there.
MI6が抜けてる質の上下はあるが他の国にもある
>>28303595
Oh fuck off with your moon runes. Nukes were created because you bombed Pearl Harbor.
>>28302846
I think it's generally counted as a war grave if it's underwater or ground. IIRC there was some British TV show a few months ago were they tried to recover a buried spitfire that had crashed into a field in WW2, once they found something thought to be human remains they stopped on grounds of respect and legality.
At least the US gave the sailors they found in that sub a proper burial, the Chinese rose a HMS Poseidon (Sank in 1931, raised in 1972) and the MoD still don't know what happened to the remains of the crew that couldn't escape.
