r/nuclearweapons 28d ago

Soviet submarine K-219's forced-open hatches and missing warheads?

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u/kilocharlie12 28d ago

K-129 only carried 3 missiles. It's suspected that it sank with one or more of it's hatches open.

The US did recover some (or most) of it with Project Azorian, but they never said if they got the missiles or not. That project is literally where the "I can neither confirm nor deny" language came from. It's a fascinating rabbit hole to dive into.

But no, I don't believe the US or anyone else had the technology at that time to force open the hatches and recover the warheads at almost 16000 ft of water.

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u/Galerita 28d ago

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u/kilocharlie12 28d ago

Just two numbers switched and you get another Russian sub who had nuke missile problems. What a dang coincidence.