Jennifer project

“ Jennifer ” was the Code name of a project of the Central Intelligence Agency (the CIA) aiming at recovering a Nuclear submarine launcher of machines Soviet K-129 of class Golf , cast in the Pacific Ocean in 1968.

K-129 had been out of its sector of patrol, close to Hawaii, probably in position of firing. Under the cover of a mission of Howard Hughes, the Glomar To explore conceived especially for this operation, was to hoist the wreck since sea-beds to recover some, with the profit of the the United States of America, the data and technologies Soviet S.

The " project; Jennifer" is one of the most complex and secret operations carried out during the Cold war.

The target

The March 8th 1968, the American network of hydrophones SOSUS ( spider crab ) detected an accidental explosion on board a Soviet submarine. Observations of the explosion were also recorded by an American satellite and a ship of research. The Soviets did not manage to locate their submarine, but the WORN Halibut (SSGN-587), ship modified for research, succeeded in finding it close to Hawaii.

Henry Kissinger, then To advise with the national security, approved a clandestine plan aiming at recovering the wreck discreetly in order to study Soviet technology and to recover material of Cryptographie and nuclear warhead S.

The construction of the Glomar To explore and of its cover

Prolific business man, Howard Hughes - whose companies were already holders many contracts with the American armed - was secretly contracted by the CIA to build an enormous boat which would be used to extract the Soviet submarine since the oceanic bottom. Thus, on November 1st 1972, work started on the boat of: 63000 tons: the Glomar To explore .

To hide the true mission of the boat, a pretext was invented, according to which the Hughes Glomar Explorer was built for the Summa Corporation to prospect the polymetallic nodules.

Recovery

The Hughes Glomar Explorer was equipped with a large mechanical grip designed to reach the oceanic bottom and to draw to the top the submerged submarine with 16 500 feet. The boat was accompanied by a large barge submarine also built specifically for this mission. Named the Hughes Mining Barge or HMB-1, it was to retain the recovered wreck. The mission would be thus entirely carried out under surface thus out of sight of other boats, planes, or satellites - spies.

The Hughes Glomar To explore and the HMB-1 arrived the July 4th 1974 at the site of the shipwreck and carried out the operations of recovery during more than one month.

The déclassifiés reports/ratios indicate that during the operation, the August 12th 1974, part of the grip broke, involving the fall of the submarine already damaged at the bottom and the rupture into two of the wreck (this incident gave cold sweats to the soldiers because the submarine contained nuclear warheads which could explode in the event of shock). Only a piece of the part before Soviet submarine was recovered. These reports/ratios also conclude that the recovered section did not contain the Missile S and the books of codes which would have been of a priceless value for the Central Intelligence Agency. However, according to some sources, the fished out section included two Torpille S nuclear, of the equipment of Cryptographie and various documents of military information. The bodies of eight team members were also recovered.

The author of the book Project Jennifer Clyde W. Burleson, thinks that the whole submarine was recovered but that the CIA keeps that secret.

The theory of the plot

Kenneth Sewell and Clint Richmond, in their work entitled Red Star Rogue , appeared in France in 2006 pennies the title K-129, an atomic bomb on Pearl Harbor , offers additional information even if they remain speculations. He comments on many acts formally prohibited according to the Protocole S Soviet soldiers made during the last voyage of the K-129 submarine. This Soviet submarine would have been diverted by a special force of eleven men directed by extremists of the KGB to imitate a submarine of Chinese attack. Their goal would have been to launch a nuclear missile on Hawaii with an aim of causing a confrontation between the Popular republic of China and the the United States.

The assumption of the book is that the safety devices of the firing of the missile were badly circumvented and that it would have exploded at the time of an attempt at launching. Always according to the book, the project Jennifer would have facilitated the prevention of a change extremist of the KGB and the bringing together of Richard Nixon with China of Mao Zedong in the beginning of the Années 1970.

External bonds

the Jennifer Project and Hughes Glomar To explore
Bibliography

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