Posted on 12/18/2005 6:56:53 PM PST by Tailgunner Joe
I know this question is old but yes there was a special on Discovery Channel last year, but I’m not sure if it had been on before. Yes the Glomar Explorer was made for this exact purpose. Interestingly, on another program I watched last year about the Cold War, I found out my father was onthe US sub that sank it!! It ttotally changed my opinion about him and the way he was with our family, when he WAS home!!
The article link is dead, but that sub has a long Wikipedia entry.
Not likely. The Japanese and Germans both had nuclear projects, but neither was close to anything resembling a bomb.
WOW, Where’d you did up this relic of a thread?
I had forgotten about that.
Note: this topic is from 12/18/2005. Thanks Tailgunner Joe.
Interesting, old topic. Got thinking about it because of a new topic about the Argentine sub gone missing. K-129, the Soviet sub in this article, may have been heading to Pearl Harbor in order to defect; this fits their failure to make daily reports of their location.
After the fall of the Soviet Union the US Gov. arranged a viewing of Soviet crewman’s funerals aboard the Glomar Explorer for Boris Yeltsen and other Russian government officials.
I remember the cover story when the Glomar Explorer was launched. It’s purpose was reported to be to mine manganese nodules on the sea floor.
Uh...no...
You don't get anymore than that.
Hi.
“American spy satellites in March 1968? “
On the surface we followed them out of port. It wasn’t till much later we could follow them submerged.
5.56mm
I read this years ago. Fantastic book. Excellent.
Read the book...highly recommend it...
We were this > < close to nuclear war...
There is a movie out with Ed Harris and David Duchovny about this very topic.
It was based on this story, and the sinking may have occurred due to mutiny. It is possible, and given what we now know about the structure and hierarchy of the Soviet Navy back then, that a group aboard had essentially jacked the sub and locked up the crew. The crew got loose and they ended up battling each other for control of the sub.
As for our ability to see it from space, after the Cuban Missile Crisis, the NRO was given an essentially unlimited budget. Who knows when the first KeyHole-caliber tech was deployed?
K-129 probably wasn’t equipped any kind of Sub Emergency Comms Transmitter (SECT) buoys, which are EIRP-like devices located outside the pressure hull in two or more locations. Needs to be a hell of an explosion to disable them. The Soviets likely didn’t want the world to know they had a SUBSUNK.
The first P-3A was delivered to the fleet in 1962. The first P-3C was in 1969. We flew the P-3B and after active duty, we in the Reserves flew the SP-2E and SP-2H until 1975.
The Cuban Missile Crisis was when Fidel Castro and Che Guevara wanted to take control of the missiles and warheads and launch them. Khrushchev reportedly crapped his pants when he got wind of that.
The Glomar Explorer was later used for mining the seabed. Kind of ironic since that was the original cover story. I believe it was also a deepsea drilling platform under another name.
There’s a wiki on it. It was finally scrapped by wreak breakers in China, 2015.
that's just silly. We all know what really sunk K-129.
"P-3s circling overhead.."
Yeah, it would be over a year before we could put a man on the Moon!
Nonsense!
That would defund CNN and ESPN!
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