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30-611: GSF Explorer , formerly USNS Hughes Glomar Explorer (T-AG-193) , was a deep-sea drillship platform built for Project Azorian , the secret 1974 effort by the United States Central Intelligence Agency 's Special Activities Division to recover the Soviet submarine K-129 . The ship was built as Hughes Glomar Explorer in 1971 and 1972 by Sun Shipbuilding & Drydock Company for more than US$ 350 million (about $ 1.7 billion in 2023) at

60-533: A 92 million dollar contract to produce electronic consolidated automated support systems with the United States Navy. The work will take place at Lockheed Martin's Orlando-based facility with an anticipated completion date sometime in 2022 The largest technology company in Orlando employs 8,000 locals and has announced that they would like to grow their business and obtain 9,000 employees by 2023. As

90-587: A drillship does to drill, is that a marine riser is lowered from the drillship to the seabed with a blowout preventer (BOP) at the bottom that connects to the wellhead. The BOP is used to quickly disconnect the riser from the wellhead in times of emergency or in any needed situation. Underneath the derrick is a moonpool, an opening through the hull covered by the rig floor. Some of the modern drillships have larger derricks that allow dual activity operations, for example, simultaneous drilling and casing handling. There are different types of offshore drilling units such as

120-412: A first-ever anchor mooring array based on a unique turret system. The vessel was named Discoverer I . The Discoverer I had no main propulsion engines, meaning it needed to be towed out to the drill site. A drillship can be used as a platform to carry out well maintenance or completion work such as casing and tubing installation, subsea tree installations, and well capping. Drillships are often built to

150-744: A prototype deep-sea mining system in the Pacific Ocean . The consortium included subsidiaries of the Standard Oil Company of Indiana , Shell and Royal Boskalis Westminster of the Netherlands. The consortium's prime contractor was the Lockheed Missiles and Space Company . In late 1996, the ship was towed from the mothball fleet in Suisun Bay to San Francisco Bay , where much of the existing rig structure around

180-567: Is said to have held many of the most-sought items, including the codebook and nuclear missiles . The recovered section held two nuclear-tipped torpedoes and some cryptographic machines, along with the bodies of six Soviet submariners, who were given a formal, filmed burial at sea . The operation became public in February 1975 when the Los Angeles Times published a story about "Project Jennifer". Other news organizations, including

210-578: The New York Times , added details. The CIA declined to either confirm or deny the reports, a tactic that became known as the Glomar response and subsequently used to confront all manner of journalistic and public inquiry, including Freedom of Information Act requests. The actual name, Project Azorian, became public only in 2010. The publication Red Star Rogue (2005) by Kenneth Sewell claims "Project Jennifer" recovered virtually all of K-129 from

240-610: The Transocean drillship Dhirubhai Deepwater KG1 set the world water-depth record at 10,194 feet of water (3,107 meters) while working for Reliance – LWD and directional drilling done by Sperry Drilling in India. Lockheed Missiles and Space Company Headquartered in Bethesda, Maryland, Lockheed Martin is an American global aerospace company that employs more than 110,000 people worldwide. The defense powerhouse focuses on

270-627: The moon pool , including the massive gimbal was removed. Following this, she was towed north to Portland, Oregon , for drydocking, closing up much of the submarine-sized moon pool, and engine repairs, among other things. In June 1997, the ship departed Portland under its own power and sailed around South America and up to Atlantic Marine's shipyard in Mobile, Alabama , for conversion to a dynamically positioned deep sea drilling ship, capable of drilling in waters of 7,500 feet (2,300 m) and, with some modification, up to 11,500 feet (3,500 m), which

300-603: The oil platform , jackup rig , submersible drilling rig , semi-submersible platform and of course drillships. All drillships have what is called a ”moon pool”. The moon pool is an opening on the base of the hull and depending on the mission the vessel is on, drilling equipment, small submersible crafts and divers may pass through the moon pool. Since the drillship is also a vessel, it can easily relocate to any desired location. Due to their mobility, drillships are not as stable compared to semi-submersible platforms. To maintain its position, drillships may utilize their anchors or use

330-622: The Gulf of Mexico to offshore Angola, whereas a semi-submersible drilling unit must be towed and takes 70 days. Drillship construction costs are much higher than that of a semi-submersible. Although mobility comes at a high price, the drillship owners can charge higher day rates and get the benefit of lower idle times between assignments. The table below depicts the industry's way of classifying drill sites into different vintages, depending on their age and water depth. The drilling operations are very detailed and in-depth. A simple way to understand what

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360-491: The actual recovery operation. These sources indicate that only the forward 38 ft (12 m) of the submarine were recovered. While the ship had an enormous lifting capacity, there was little interest in operating the vessel because of her great cost. From March to June 1976, the General Services Administration (GSA) published advertisements inviting businesses to submit proposals for leasing

390-738: The aircraft that they design and continue to upgrade them. Some of the most famous aircraft that they design would be the C-130J Hercules, the U.S. Air Force's F-22 fleet, and the Block 70F-16 for the Royal Bahraini Air Force. Rotary and Mission Systems Rotary and Mission Systems at Lockheed Martin involve surface ship and submarines combat systems, sea and land-based missile defense systems, radar systems, and military and commercial training systems. Previously known as Mission Systems and Training, this unit of Lockheed Martin

420-443: The company's ability to secure financing. GSA had already extended the bid deadline twice to allow Lockheed to find financial backers for its project without success and the agency concluded there was no reason to believe this would change during the near future. Although the scientific community rallied to the defense of Hughes Glomar Explorer , urging the president to maintain the ship as a national asset, no agency or department of

450-871: The design specifications set by the oil production company or investors. From the first drillship CUSS I to the Deepwater Asgard , the fleet size has been growing ever since. In 2013 the worldwide fleet of drillships topped 80 ships, more than double its size in 2009. Drillships are not only growing in size but also in capability, with new technology assisting operations from academic research to ice-breaker class drilling vessels. U.S. President Barack Obama 's decision in late March 2010 to expand U.S. domestic exploratory drilling seemed likely to increase further developments of drillship technology. Drillships are just one way to perform various types of drilling. This function can also be performed by semi-submersibles , jackups, barges , or platform rigs. Drillships have

480-847: The design, development, and manufacturing of advanced technological systems. Serving the U.S. and International customers, Lockheed Martin offers products and services in many sectors such as aeronautics, Missiles and Fire Control, Rotary and Mission Systems, Communications, and more. Missiles and Fire Control The Missiles and Fire control sector provides air and missile defense equipment. MFC's major programs include The Patriot Advanced capability (PAC-3) and Terminal High altitude area defense air, The Multiple Launch Rocket System, Special Ops and more. The MFC sector has contracts with multiple U.S. government classified programs. Aeronautics The Aeronautics sector focuses on researching, developing, and manufacturing advanced military aircraft. Aeronautics produces and provides support and sustainment services for

510-449: The direction of Howard Hughes for use by his company, Global Marine Development Inc. It began operation on 20 June 1974. The ship's construction required a purpose built crane ship , Sun 800 , to lift its 630-ton gimbal into place. Hughes told the media that the ship's purpose was to extract manganese nodules from the ocean floor . This marine geology cover story became surprisingly influential, causing many others to examine

540-457: The functional ability of semi-submersible drilling rigs and also have a few unique features that separate them from all others, first being the ship-shaped design. A drillship has greater mobility and can move quickly under its own propulsion from drill site to drill site in contrast to semi-submersibles and jackup barges and platforms. Drillships have the ability to save time sailing between oilfields worldwide. A drillship takes 20 days to move from

570-730: The government wanted to assume the maintenance and operating cost. Subsequently, during September 1976, the GSA transferred Hughes Glomar Explorer to the Navy for storage , and during January 1977, after it was prepared for dry docking at a cost of more than two million dollars, the ship became part of the Navy's Suisun Bay Reserve Fleet . In September 1978, Ocean Minerals Company consortium of Mountain View, California , announced it had leased Hughes Glomar Explorer and that in November would begin testing

600-518: The idea. The Soviet diesel-electric submarine K-129 sank in the Pacific Ocean 1,560 miles (2,510 km) NW of Hawaii, on 8 March 1968. The USS Halibut identified the wreck site and the CIA crafted an elaborate and highly secret plan to recover the submarine for intelligence purposes. As K-129 had sunk in very deep water, at a depth of 16,500 feet (3 miles or 5 kilometres), a large ship

630-693: The ocean floor. Sewell states, "[D]espite an elaborate cover-up and the eventual claim that Project Jennifer had been a failure, most of K-129 and the remains of the crew were, in fact, raised from the bottom of the Pacific and brought into the Glomar Explorer ". A subsequent movie and book by Michael White and Norman Polmar ( Project Azorian: The CIA and the Raising of the K-129 ) revealed testimony from on-site crewmen as well as black and white video of

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660-460: The ship would be scrapped. The ship arrived at the ship breakers at Zhoushan , China, on 5 June 2015. Drillship A drillship is a merchant vessel designed for use in exploratory offshore drilling of new oil and gas wells or for scientific drilling purposes. In recent years the vessels have been used in deepwater and ultra-deepwater applications, equipped with the latest and most advanced dynamic positioning systems. The first drillship

690-404: The ship's computer-controlled system on board to run off its dynamic positioning . One of the world's best-known drillships is Japan's ocean-going drilling vessel Chikyū , which actually is a research vessel. The Chikyū has the remarkable ability to drill to a depth of 7.0 kilometres (23,000 ft) below the seabed, bringing that to two to four times that of any other drillship. In 2011

720-475: The ship. By the end of four months, GSA had received a total of seven bids, including a US$ 2 offer submitted by Braden Ryan, a Lincoln, Nebraska college student, and a US$ 1.98 million offer ($ 8.25 million in 2023) from a man who said he planned to seek a government contract to salvage the nuclear reactors of two United States submarines. The Lockheed Missiles and Space Company submitted a US$ 3 million ($ 12.51 million in 2023), two-year lease proposal contingent upon

750-707: The vessel as GSF Explorer . In 2010, Transocean bought the vessel for a US$ 15 million ($ 20 million in 2023) in cash. The vessel was reflagged from Houston to Port Vila, Vanuatu , in the third quarter of 2013. During her 18-year drilling career, she worked in the Gulf Of Mexico , Nigeria, the Black Sea , Angola, Indonesia and India, with various shipyards and port visits along the way, with numerous oil company clients. Crew members fondly referred to her as "The Mothership". Transocean announced in April 2015 that

780-570: Was 2,000 feet (610 m) deeper than any other existing rig at the time. The conversion cost more than $ 180 million ($ 314 million in 2023) and was completed during the first quarter of 1998. The conversion of the vessel from 1996 to 1998 was the start of a 30-year lease from the United States Navy to Global Marine Drilling at a cost of US$ 1 million per year ($ 1.7 million per year in 2023). Global Marine merged with Santa Fe International Corporation during 2001 to become GlobalSantaFe Corporation , which merged with Transocean in November 2007 and operated

810-471: Was named CUSS ( Glomar ) II , a 5,500-deadweight-ton vessel, costing around $ 4.5 million. Built by a Gulf Coast shipyard, the vessel was almost twice the size of the CUSS I , and became the world's first drillship built as a new construction which set sail in 1962. In 1962, The Offshore Company elected to build a new type of drillship, larger than that of the Glomar class. This new drillship would feature

840-462: Was renamed Rotary and Missions systems in 2016, following the acquisition of Sikorsky (an American aircraft manufacturer). The Rotary and Mission Systems unit also oversees training and logistics within the company Lockheed Martin in Orlando, Florida Lockheed Martin is one of Orlando's largest employers, contributing to the city's title "The Simulation Capital of the World." Recently, the company won

870-452: Was required for the recovery operation. Such a vessel would be detected easily by Soviet vessels, which might then interfere with the operation, so an elaborate cover story was developed. The CIA contacted Hughes, who agreed to help. In 1974, the ship recovered a portion of K-129 , but as the section was being lifted to the surface, a mechanical failure in the grapple caused two-thirds of the recovered section to break off. This lost section

900-449: Was the CUSS I , designed by Robert F. Bauer of Global Marine in 1955. The CUSS I had drilled in 400-foot-deep waters by 1957. Robert F. Bauer became the first president of Global Marine in 1958. In 1961 Global Marine started a new drillship era. They ordered several self-propelled drillships each with a rated centerline drilling of 20,000 foot-wells in water depths of 600 feet. The first

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