What was the GLOMAR project?

Way cool question - I've actually seen the ship several times - that is, the Glomar Explorer. Their are some great history programs on the project but in basic:

USNS Glomar Explorer (T-AG-193) is a large ship currently being used as a deep-sea drilling platform. The vessel was built for a secret operation, Project Jennifer, by the United States Central Intelligence Agency to recover a sunken Soviet submarine, K-129, which had been lost in April 1968.

More specifically, it was a CIA operation attempting to raise an intact Soviet ballistic missile submarine that had sunk in the Pacific near Hawaii.

The Soviets failed to find the wreck, whilst the CIA knew the location. An incredibly ambitious plan was devised - the Global Explorer (built by Howard Hughes) was designed to lower a gigantic claw to grab the submarine and raise it intact from a depth of nearly 20,000 ft.

Unfortunately, the claw began failing, and the Soviet ballistic missile sub began to break up. Only a fraction of the sub was successfully recovered.

The dead sailors were given full military honors and burial at sea by the Americans, videotaped and sent to the Soviets eventually.

Lots more on the project - it was really incredible.

Check the links especially jennifer...

-dh

The GLOMAR project was a ship .The Hughes Glomar Explorer [HGE] was built in 1973 by Sun Shipbuilding and Drydock Co. for an intricate CIA undertaking.

The mission of Glomar Explorer was to raise a Soviet nuclear submarine that had sunk in the Pacific, resting on the ocean floor nearly 17,000 ft. (5,200 m) down. The Soviet Golf-II Class ballistic missile submarine sank on April 11, 1968, approximately 750 miles northwest of Hawaii.

A project for the US to raise a sunken Russian submarine.

http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9037056/Gloma...

http://www.fas.org/irp/program/collect/jennifer.ht...

Here ya go.