Soviet submarine K-129

1968

Hawaii, Project Azorian, the Glomar Explorer Location: Pacific Ocean, ~1,800 nmi NW of Oahu · Coordinates: 40.10°N 179.93°E · Casualties: 98 · Survivors: 0 · Depth: 4,900 m · Cause: unknown — Vanished on 8 March 1968 in the Pacific while on patrol, carrying three R-21 nuclear ballistic missiles. Cause never officially determined; theories include a hydrogen battery explosion, a missile-fuel leak, or collision. The U.S. Navy located the wreck at 4,900 metres that summer. · Fate: partially raised 1974 · Project Azorian · Type: submarine · ballistic missile · Golf II class · Tonnage: 2,820 tons · Crew: 98 · Flag: Soviet Union · Launched: 1960 Soviet Golf II-class diesel-electric ballistic missile submarine, carrying three nuclear warheads on Pacific patrol. Vanished on 8 March 1968; cause never determined, the Soviets unable to locate her. The U.S. Navy did, however, and in 1974 the CIA raised part of the bow using Howard Hughes's purpose-built ship Hughes Glomar Explorer in Project Azorian, the most expensive covert operation ever mounted. The phrase 'we can neither confirm nor deny' entered the lexicon from the cover story. The Vessel The Soviet Navy submarine K-129 was a Golf II-class diesel-electric ballistic missile submarine of the Pacific Fleet, commissioned at the Komsomolsk-on-Amur Shipyard in 1960. She was 99 metres long, 2,820 tons submerged displacement, and carried three Soviet R-21 submarine-launched ballistic missiles in silos built vertically into her sail. Each R-21 missile carried a single 1-megaton nuclear warhead. The Golf II class was the Soviet Navy's principal 1960s diesel-electric SSB class, a successor to the earlier Golf I design. Her three R-21 missiles gave her a strategic nuclear role against American Pacific naval and coastal targets; her diesel-electric propulsion limited her operational endurance compared to the emerging Yankee-class nuclear SSBNs, but gave her the ability to conduct extended quiet patrols through the 1960s. Her commanding officer in February 1968 was Captain First Rank Vladimir Kobzar, 38, a career Soviet Navy submarine officer. Her crew was 98 officers and ratings. The Disaster The specific mechanism of K-129's loss has never been publicly determined. The Soviet Navy did not recover her and did not produce a formal cause-of-loss report. The U.S. Navy's classified assessment, based on the SOSUS acoustic record, suggests a catastrophic internal event consistent with a hydrogen explosion in her battery compartment or a propellant leak in one of her missile tubes. Both failure modes were known risks of the Golf II class and had been identified in Soviet navy internal safety assessments of the 1960s. The SOSUS acoustic event was recorded at 07:00 Moscow time on 8 March 1968. The recorded signature was consistent with a submarine hull collapsing under pressure at a depth of approximately 5,000 metres. All 98 crew aboard K-129 were lost. Her three R-21 missiles (and their nuclear warheads), her two torpedoes (of which one was nuclear-tipped), and her code books and cryptographic equipment went to the seabed with her.