Editing Golf-class submarine (section)

==Project Azorian==
{{Main|Project Azorian}}

On March 8, 1968, {{convert|1560|nmi|km}} northwest of [[Oahu]] in the [[Pacific Ocean]], the Golf II-class submarine [[Soviet submarine K-129 (1960)|''K-129'']] sank due to an explosion brought on by unknown cause, the accident being registered by the [[SOSUS]] network. The entire crew of 98 was lost and the vessel sank with three ballistic nuclear missiles as well as two nuclear torpedoes.  The United States recovered parts of the submarine in July 1974 from a depth around 5&nbsp;km, in an operation named [[Project Azorian]].<ref name="StudiesIntell85">{{cite web
|url=http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/nukevault/ebb305/doc01.pdf
|title=Project Azorian: The Story of the Hughes Glomar Explorer
|date=Fall 1985
|publisher=Studies in Intelligence, [[CIA]]
|access-date=2010-02-13
}}</ref>

Two nuclear submarines that had been facing retirement, {{USS|Halibut|SSGN-587}} and {{USS|Seawolf|SSN-575}}, were rebuilt and pressed into service as deep-sea search vehicles. After ''Halibut'' discovered a sunken Soviet submarine containing at least one intact ballistic missile complete with nuclear warhead, [[Melvin Laird]], [[United States Secretary of Defense]] under President [[Richard Nixon]], approved Azorian.  Six years later, 1560 nautical miles north of the Pearl Harbor, a mechanical claw descended {{convert|17000|ft|m|-2}} to the bottom of the Pacific, and guided by computers on board the ''[[Glomar Explorer]]'', clamped onto the mass of twisted, rusting steel and began slowly raising it to the surface. How successful the effort was is unclear, but the United States has admitted to recovering a portion of ''K-129'', which included six bodies of Soviet sailors who were buried at sea with full honors.<ref>[http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2010/02/14/decades_later_details_emerge_about_cias_hunt_for_soviet_sub?mode=PF Decades Later Details Emerge About CIA Hunt for Soviet Sub]</ref>