Azorian: The Raising of the K-129

This film had a good balance of actual footage and computer generated images. The story itself is fascinating. This was excellently done.

EXCELLENT MOVIE & AFFFIMERATION FOR SOMEONE INVOLVED...

On February 25, 1968, Soviet submarine K-129, a diesel boat carrying three 755-nautical-mile-range ballistic missiles each armed with a 1-megaton thermonuclear warhead, sailed from its base on the Kamchatka Peninsula bound for its patrol station on a 60-day mission. The 324-foot, 3,610-ton submarine never made it. On March 11, the K-129 sank in the northern Pacific Ocean in 16,400 feet of water, about 1,600 nautical miles northwest of Hawai'i. All 98 men aboard perished. For months, Soviet Navy search teams looked for the wreckage, but never even came close to finding it. The U.S., on the other hand, had sophisticated undersea acoustical monitoring equipment that the Soviets lacked, and knew exactly where the K-129 went down. The CIA soon hatched an audacious plan that would give America an incalculable intelligence coup--a plan to raise the K-129 from the ocean floor.The PBS DVD "Azorian: The Raising of the K-129" tells the full, almost unbelievable story of the boldest American clandestine operation of the Cold War (at least of those the public knows about). In the summer of 1974, the operation secretly attempted to salvage the forward 136 feet of the K-129 (which had broken off from the stern section). The U.S. stood to gain enormously valuable insights into Soviet naval equipment, capabilities and operational procedures. CIA intelligence analysts drooled at the thought of the information they expected the K-129 to yield--cryptographic hardware, code manuals, communications systems, torpedoes and one or more missiles with their thermonuclear warheads. The operation would be scandalously expensive, technically challenging, unprecedentedly complex, extremely risky, probably illegal and not at all certain to succeed. But if it did..."Azorian: The Raising of the K-129" covers the operation in great detail, and a fascinating story it is. Project Azorian cost about as much as an Apollo mission to the moon, and involved equipment and hardware that to this day remain marvels of innovative marine engineering. With cost practically no object, the CIA, through a series of "front" companies including Lockheed, Hughes and Honeywell, built the huge salvage ship "Hughes Glomar Explorer," a remote-controlled "claw" to pick up the K-129 and an enormous barge to conceal parts of the operation from observation. Using interviews with surviving participants, including the ex-Soviet Navy officer who dispatched the K-129, archival photos and motion picture footage and, especially, stunning computer graphics, "Azorian" reveals the whole story in exceptional detail. CGI animations of the design and operation of the hardware are extremely well-done, and make all parts of the operation very clear to the viewer.This DVD is a must-have for anyone interested in Cold War history, ocean engineering, Howard Hughes, intelligence operations or many other subjects. Even if you have the latest book on the subject, " Project Azorian: The CIA and the Raising of K-129 ," by Norman Polmar and Michael White, you should still buy this DVD. This stunning visual record of the project complements the book perfectly. Still photos and text descriptions simply can't equal the impact of seeing the project unfold in motion picture form. I recommend "Azorian: The Raising of the K-129" most highly.

This is a documentary about arguably the boldest intelligence operation of the Cold War era. On March 1968, K-129 ,a diesel-electric powered Soviet Golf-ll class ballistic missile submarine sunk, under mysterious circumstances, in the Pacific Ocean northwest of Oahu Island. The broken submarine ended up settling on the ocean floor at a depth of about 16,500 ft (5,700 meters), a tomb for its 98 crewmen.When the Soviets lost radio communication with the K-129 they deployed a massive air, sea and submarine search for the vessel to no avail. After a few weeks, they declared the K-129 as lost and ceased all efforts.In the meantime, the US Navy had detected a suspicious acoustic signal of an explosion in the vicinity of 180th longitude and 40N latitude. The suspected probability of a submarine loss was reinforced by the Soviet naval activities within the area. This presented a rare opportunity for the US to discover any information about Soviet subs, secret cyphers and launch codes of missiles, cryptographic equipment and especially nuclear missile technology. The K-129 was purported to carry two ICBMs and two torpedoes with nuclear heads.The video documents the CIA's Project Azorian from the discovery of the wreck of K-129 by the USS Halibut and its survey and photographing by the deep submersible Trieste ll (over 20,000 photos obtained) during the first three weeks of the accident and the clandestine salvage attempt over the next 6 years. =No spoilers here=The narration, filming, photography and editing is highly professional and captivating. The documentary presents this audacious enterprise, the meticulous planning, marvel of engineering and technical construction, and implementation of a highly complex maneuver under difficult circumstances and challenging environment; and all literally accomplished under the nose of the Soviets. This was made possible by the cooperation of Howard Hughes and his Glomar Explorer company, the CIA, the US Navy, the Nixon/Ford White House and the collusion of the press to maintain secrecy.The Soviets had various explanations for the K-129 disaster including a hydrogen or missile explosion, leaking hatch seal, mechanical failure or collision with USS Swordfish; even though it has been proven that the latter was in the Sea of Japan at the time and was in Yokosuka port for repairs.Engineers, maritime mavens and history buffs are sure to enjoy this interesting film. Others may not appreciate the repetitive images, overly detailed explanations and drawn out narrative.

Hard to believe they not only got away with it, but that it remained a secret for so long. Even now there is a question of how they got the ship's bell from the part of the ship it would have been in.

Raise a Submarine, its hard? raise it in secret right under the Soviets view? How on earth? Its a impressive look at the CIA secret project that was done in near full public view.Fantastic interviews, some greet images and reconstructions of this insane project, well worth it

Unmissable. If you lived through the events of the period, this will still manage to astound you.Excellent.

brilliant

Note that this is a Region 1 DVD, so a code-free player or a temporarily altered computer is neededThe Americans may be somewhat strange when it comes to politics, religion, guns and the like, but when it comes to matters technological (and when they can devote the resources to a technological end), nobody can touch them. This video describes the outrageous attempt to raise a Russian submarine from 4Km down on the Pacific sea bed under the noses of the Russians. The US Navy had already been robbing the Russians blind by retrieving their test missiles from the Pacific ocean floor and eavesdropping on their submarine cables with the special submarine USS Halibut, but this was something else again. Many details are still secret, but much of the story (including film of the actual event) is shown here for the first time, complete with interviews with the people who designed and operated the "Glomar Challenger". The pride in the achievement shines through. A fascinating documentary on what must be the maritime technological achievement of the 20th century, up there with the Moon missions.

that film was very interesting.. i enjoyed it very much.