Here's What You Need To Remember: cTheHalibutand other submarines began regular courier runs to install new tapes on the tap while bringing back the old tapes for analysis by the NSA in what was called Operation Ivy Bells.
Since 2015, there have been reports of Russian submarines and spy ships trawling the waters near the ocean-spanning underwater fiber-optic cables vital to trans-oceanic Internet access. In fact, reported activity by spy ship Yartar off the U.S. nuclear-armed submarine base in Kings Bay, Georgia is likely in search of secret military cables used exclusively by the Pentagon.
The Russians might be interested in hacking into those cables because the U.S. Navy pulled of such an exploit forty-six years earlier using a specially-modified spy submarine, a nuclear-powered wiretap, and some helium-swilling aquanauts.
TheHalibut, Missile-Sub Turned Spy Submarine
Commissioned in 1960, the USSHalibutwas a one-of-a-kind nuclear-powered submarine designed to launch Regulus II nuclear-tipped cruise missiles. The 5,000-ton submarine housed two 17.5-meter-long Regulus II missiles in a grotesquely bulged hangar on her foredeck. The missiles were launched while surfaced from a hydraulically extended ramp to strike targets up to 1,150 miles away.
However, by the time theHalibutentered service, the Navy had developed the Polaris, the U.S.s first Submarine-Launched Ballistic Missile, which could be fired from underwater into space to strike a target nearly 3,000 miles away. The obsolete Regulus II was canceled a year before theHalibutwas commissioned in 1960, and the submarine spent four years lugging five older Regulus I missiles on deterrence patrols before these too were retired.
Still, the Navy saw useful potential in theHalibutsunconventional layout, and in 1968 she received a unique overhaul. The bulged missile hangar was converted into the Bat Cave (inspired by comic book characters lair) stuffed full of spy equipment, including a rare 60s-era 24bit UNIVAC computer, a retractable seafloor-scanning sonar, and a photo-developing lab. A well underneath the Bat Cave could deploy two 2-ton Fishremotely operated underwater spy vehicles.Halibutslower hull had special thrusters and anchoring winches to maintain its position on the seafloor and later received four skids allowing it to safely land there.
An apparent mini-submarine was prominently strapped onto theHalibutsrear deck, which the Navy publicly boasted was a Deep Submergence Rescue Vehicle (DSRV) simulator. This was a deception: the pod actually housed a special pressurized chamber for use by saturation divers, with an integrated diving lock.
Deep-sea divers risk decompression sickness (the bends) caused by gas bubbles forming within the body when reacclimatizing to regular air pressure. Based on technology pioneered in the SEALAB underwater habitats, the pressure chamber was designed to give divers a long-term pressure-stable habitat so they would only need to depressurize once at the end of their mission. The divers used oxygen mixed with helium rather than heavier nitrogen to aid acclimatization. You can see an amazing diagram by HI Sutton of theHalibutand its gadgetshere.
TheHalibutsfirst mission was to locate the Soviet ballistic missile submarine K-129, which on March 8, 1968, sank nearly 5,000 meters to the bottom of the Pacific Ocean under mysterious circumstances. The Soviet Navy searched for K-129 for months, but it was theHalibutthat finally found her with her Fish that August, after having the search radius narrowed to only 1,200 square miles using data from the Navys SOSUS hydrophone network.
In 1972, Captain James Bradley of the Office of Naval Intelligence thought of a new use for theHalibut. The Soviet Navy maintained a major nuclear-missile armed submarine base at Petropavlovsk on the remote Kamchatka Peninsula. Bradley felt it was likely that the base maintained an undersea communication cable to transmit messages directly across the Sea of Okhotsk.
However, the cables presence was not even confirmed, so how was it to be located? Bradly was inspired one day by recollecting the signs he had seen on the side of the Mississippi River warning ships not to lay anchor in areas near underwater cables. (Anchors remain a frequent cause of damaged cables.)
Recommended:Imagine a U.S. Air Force That Never Built the B-52 Bomber
Recommended:Russia's Next Big Military Sale - To Mexico?
Recommended:Would China Really Invade Taiwan?
Reasoning the Soviets would use similar signs, he dispatched theHalibutoff the coast of Kamchatka to search for them. TheHalibutwas not particularly quiet by the standards of modern submarines, and she risked being attacked if she was discovered penetrating the perimeter formed by Soviet naval bases on the Kuril Islandsseized from Japanat the end of World War II. In fact, theHalibuthad was a self-destructive device to ensure she and her crew could not be captured.
After a week of snooping, theHalibutscrew finally spotted beach signs in Cyrillic warning ships not to lay anchor. Discretely, the technicians in the Bat Cave began scanning the seafloor with her Fish, and in a matter of hours spotted the cable 120-meters below the sea via a grainy video feed. The 5,000-ton submarine carefully settled close to the seafloor, deploying her special anchors. The elite saturation divers in the pod swam out to the cable and wrapped a three-foot-long magnetic induction device around the cable. Rather than risking damage and detection by piercing inside cables, the tap recorded the activity passing through the cable.
The operation was considered so secret that most of theHalibutscrew were told their mission was to recover fragments from a P-500 Sandbox missile test for analysis. The supersonic anti-ship missile was rumored to use an advanced infrared seeker. To reinforce the cover, after recording several hours of conversation, theHalibutsailed to the site of the test and her dovers did recover two million tiny P-500 missile fragment, which were reassembled jigsaw-like until it was discovered that Sandbox used only radar guidance!
The brief tape was brought back to Pearl Harbor and found to be highly promising. The Navy rapidly commissioned a new six-ton wiretap device from Bell Laboratories called the Beast (photohere) which used a nuclear power source and a massive tape recorder to records of weeks of conversation across multiple lines at the same time.
TheHalibutreturned and installed this new device, and the subs crew were soon listening in on Soviet telephone conversations, celebrating their success by feasting on a spider crab scooped up from the sea floor.
Thenceforth, theHalibutand other submarines began regular courier runs to install new tapes on the tap while bringing back the old tapes for analysis by the NSA in what was called Operation Ivy Bells. TheHalibutherself was decommissioned in 1975, and the courier runs taken over by the USS Parche, Sea Wolf and Richard B. Russell.
The tapped cables provided a treasure trove of intelligence for the NSA: mixed in between personal calls to family and sweethearts were private conversations on sensitive political topics and detailed information on Soviet submarine operations. Much of the Soviet traffic was unencrypted because cables were considered a highly secure form of communication.
This candid, unfiltered portrait of the Soviet Navys state of mind vis--vis the United States reportedly influenced U.S. military leaders to deescalate activities which were threatening to panic Moscow, and also apparently informed the Washingtons negotiating posture for the SALT II treaty which limited the size of strategic nuclear weapons forces.
Cheap Betrayal
The cable-tap operation did have its risks. In Sherry Sontags bookBlind Mans Bluff, he describes how on a later tape-recovery mission, a sea storm bucked theHalibutto and fro until her anchors snapped, causing her to begin rising uncontrollably with divers trapped outside. TheHalibutrisked exposure in Soviet territorial waters, and her tethered divers risked death from rapid decompression. Captain John McNish decided to flood theHalibutuntil it smashed onto the seafloor and brought the divers back into their pressure habitat. But now theHalibutwas dangerously mired.
After completing the planned data collection, theHalibuttried a dangerous emergency blow to free herself from seabed sediment, followed by an immediate dive to avoid breaching the surface. The submarine had only enough compressed air to try the maneuver onceand luckily, it worked.
In 1980 mishap also befell the USSSea Wolf, which was uniquely equipped with a liquid metal-cooled nuclear reactor. On one tape-recovery mission, a storm caused her to crash into the seafloor and become stuck, with mud and mollusks gumming up her insides. Her captain considered scuttling the vessel before he managed to wriggle it free to surface in a noisy emergency blow out. After this incident, Soviet ships were observed heading towards the site of the cable tap.
However, it was human frailty, not sea storms or Soviet sonars, which brought an end to the intelligence bonanza. When theParchewent to pick up the latest tape, the tap was missing.
In July 1985 Soviet KGB defector Vitaly Yurchenko revealed that Ronald Pelton, a heavily indebted former analyst for the NSA, had walked into the Soviet embassy on January 14, 1980, and sold the secret of Ivy Bells for $5,000with an additional $30,000 paid for later consultation. This led to the taps removal by Soviet divers, though its possible that the Soviets might have planted misleading information in the cable traffic before doing so.
Read more:
Captain James Bradley and the USS Halibut: A Story Like No Other - The National Interest
- NSA fears quantum computing surprise: 'If this black swan event happens, then we're really screwed' - Washington Times - March 27th, 2024 [March 27th, 2024]
- The NSA Warns That US Adversaries Free to Mine Private Data May Have an AI Edge - WIRED - March 27th, 2024 [March 27th, 2024]
- Five ways to implement zero-trust based on NSA's latest guidance - SC Media - March 27th, 2024 [March 27th, 2024]
- Intel analyst shared classified information on Discord, investigators say - The Washington Post - March 27th, 2024 [March 27th, 2024]
- Water Systems Vulnerable To Cyber Attacks, NSA And EPA Warn Governors - Forbes - March 27th, 2024 [March 27th, 2024]
- Amritpal Singhs mother, kin of other NSA detainees go on hunger strike, want them to be shifted to Punjab jail - The Tribune India - February 24th, 2024 [February 24th, 2024]
- Rob Joyce leaving NSA at the end of March - CyberScoop - February 24th, 2024 [February 24th, 2024]
- NSA cyber director to step down after 34 years of service - Nextgov/FCW - February 24th, 2024 [February 24th, 2024]
- Behind Khattar govts U-turn on NSA against farm leaders, fear of rural blowback, Congress gain - The Indian Express - February 24th, 2024 [February 24th, 2024]
- Payday dispute prompts maintenance worker walkout at NSA Naples - Stars and Stripes - February 24th, 2024 [February 24th, 2024]
- CISA, NSA, and FBI Warn of Chinese Cyber Hacking Army The Presidential Prayer Team - The Presidential Prayer Team - February 24th, 2024 [February 24th, 2024]
- Cyber Security Headlines: Microsoft takes another hit, Energy giant hit by ransomware, the NSA is secretly buying your ... - CISO Series - January 30th, 2024 [January 30th, 2024]
- India now cooperating with Nijjar probe: Canada's NSA - IndiaTimes - January 30th, 2024 [January 30th, 2024]
- Google, WhiteSnake, Outlook, NSA, Juniper, Jason Wood, and More SWN #358 - SC Media - January 30th, 2024 [January 30th, 2024]
- Readout of NSA Jake Sullivan's Meetings with PM Srettha and DPM/FM Parnpree - US Embassy in Thailand - USEmbassy.gov - January 30th, 2024 [January 30th, 2024]
- NSA Admits Secretly Buying Your Internet Browsing Data without Warrants - The Hacker News - January 30th, 2024 [January 30th, 2024]
- Readout of NSA Jake Sullivan's Meeting with CCP Politburo Member, Director of the Office of the Foreign Affairs ... - US Embassy & Consulates in... - January 30th, 2024 [January 30th, 2024]
- Former NSA Saint has a chance to become repeat Super Bowl champion - The Suffolk News-Herald - Suffolk News-Herald - January 30th, 2024 [January 30th, 2024]
- NSA is buying Americans internet browsing records without a warrant - TechCrunch - January 30th, 2024 [January 30th, 2024]
- As NSA buys up Americans' browser records, Uncle Sam is asked to simply knock it off - The Register - January 30th, 2024 [January 30th, 2024]
- NSA buys sensitive data on Americans without any court order - KJZZ - January 30th, 2024 [January 30th, 2024]
- NSA Veteran Teresa Shea Joins Board of Directors of Two Six Technologies - ExecutiveBiz - January 30th, 2024 [January 30th, 2024]
- How the FBI, NSA are preparing for deepfakes and misinformation issue ahead of 2024 elections - CNBC - January 14th, 2024 [January 14th, 2024]
- AI is helping US spies catch stealthy Chinese hacking ops, NSA official says - CyberScoop - January 14th, 2024 [January 14th, 2024]
- AI aids nation-state hackers but also helps US spies to find them, says NSA cyber director - TechCrunch - January 14th, 2024 [January 14th, 2024]
- NSA Director Paul Nakasone to Step Down in Early February - Bloomberg - January 14th, 2024 [January 14th, 2024]
- NSA says cybersecurity will gain many benefits with generative AI - ReadWrite - January 14th, 2024 [January 14th, 2024]
- FBI and NSA directors discuss their concerns about AI - WCBE 90.5 FM - January 14th, 2024 [January 14th, 2024]
- Looking back at 2023 with the NSA's Rob Joyce and Morgan Adamski - CyberScoop - January 14th, 2024 [January 14th, 2024]
- NSA: Benefits of generative AI in cyber security will outweigh the bad - ITPro - January 14th, 2024 [January 14th, 2024]
- AI Identified as Emerging Threat in Cyber Crime by NSA Director - CoinGape - January 14th, 2024 [January 14th, 2024]
- AI is helping China-backed hackers but it's also helping to hunt them down, NSA says - TechRadar - January 14th, 2024 [January 14th, 2024]
- Top 10 misconfigurations: An NSA checklist for CISOs - The Stack - October 20th, 2023 [October 20th, 2023]
- CISA and NSA Issues New Identity and Access Management Guidance for Vendors - TechRepublic - October 20th, 2023 [October 20th, 2023]
- How to Protect Against Evolving Phishing Attacks - National Security Agency - October 20th, 2023 [October 20th, 2023]
- NSA Shares Recommendations to Advance Device Security Within ... - National Security Agency - October 20th, 2023 [October 20th, 2023]
- Nansemond-Suffolk tennis falls to Norfolk Academy Thursday - The ... - Suffolk News-Herald - October 20th, 2023 [October 20th, 2023]
- NSA calls for a 'root and branch' review of Red Tractor - Farmers Guardian - October 20th, 2023 [October 20th, 2023]
- Israel's NSA warns of US intervention as Gaza conflict escalates - IndiaTimes - October 20th, 2023 [October 20th, 2023]
- The U.S. government is still in its Tumblr era. - Slate - October 20th, 2023 [October 20th, 2023]
- Biden's Cyber Command and NSA nominee seen as a pick for continuity - The Record from Recorded Future News - July 17th, 2023 [July 17th, 2023]
- 5 Reasons to Work for the NSA - ClearanceJobs - ClearanceJobs - July 17th, 2023 [July 17th, 2023]
- I will do my best as NSA: Ribadu promises - FRCN HQ - Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria - July 17th, 2023 [July 17th, 2023]
- Plateau killings: Reps ask NSA to declare national emergency - TheCable - July 17th, 2023 [July 17th, 2023]
- 7th Deputy NSA Meeting of Colombo Security Conclave held in ... - ANI News - July 17th, 2023 [July 17th, 2023]
- Young shepherd from region wins NSA North Sheep trophy ... - Darlington and Stockton Times - July 17th, 2023 [July 17th, 2023]
- HBO film based on NSA leaker Reality Winner slated for May 29 ... - Military Times - May 18th, 2023 [May 18th, 2023]
- Tina Satter on why her NSA whistleblower film Reality is stranger than fiction - Financial Times - May 18th, 2023 [May 18th, 2023]
- Gen. Paul Nakasone Plans to Step Down as NSA Director ... - Executive Gov - May 18th, 2023 [May 18th, 2023]
- Readout of NSA Jake Sullivan's Meeting with CCP Politburo ... - US Embassy & Consulates in China - May 18th, 2023 [May 18th, 2023]
- Young sheep farmers to be given genetic boost by new NSA giveaway - The Scottish Farmer - May 18th, 2023 [May 18th, 2023]
- Sydney Sweeney wanted to be challenged by Reality: Its a different muscle playing someone who is real [Exclusive Video Interview] - Yahoo... - May 18th, 2023 [May 18th, 2023]
- Intercepted: The Biggest Whodunnit of the Century - The Intercept - May 18th, 2023 [May 18th, 2023]
- Personal injury + the No Surprises Act - Chiropractic Economics - May 18th, 2023 [May 18th, 2023]
- PM Narendra Modi e-inaugurating new office complexes of CBI at Shilong, Pune and Nagpur, commemorating the CBI diamond jubilee on Monday. Also seen... - April 4th, 2023 [April 4th, 2023]
- Special Collection Service - Wikipedia - March 31st, 2023 [March 31st, 2023]
- What is the NSA and how does it work? - SearchSecurity - February 5th, 2023 [February 5th, 2023]
- Watch: NSA Ajit Doval is Ambitious, Very Good at Sniffing Power and Being on the Right Side of itAS Dulat - The Wire - December 21st, 2022 [December 21st, 2022]
- Shockwaves win another championship, this time at the NSA Fresno Pilgrimfest - Lompoc Record - December 12th, 2022 [December 12th, 2022]
- EFCC secures forfeiture of N755m, luxury assets from ex-AGF, former aide to NSA The Nation Newspaper - The Nation Newspaper - November 23rd, 2022 [November 23rd, 2022]
- What is the National Security Agency? - Norwich University - October 25th, 2022 [October 25th, 2022]
- Cyber Security Today, Oct. 19, 2022 A warning from the NSA about nation-state attacks, and more - IT World Canada - October 21st, 2022 [October 21st, 2022]
- In the Alphabet Soup of Regulations, the NSA, GFE and AEOB Have Yet to Coalesce - RACmonitor - October 6th, 2022 [October 6th, 2022]
- Do not ignore any communication shared by NSCS, NSA: PM Modi to ministers - The Hindu - October 6th, 2022 [October 6th, 2022]
- NSA Announces Date of the National Cryptologic Museum Grand Opening - National Security Agency - October 2nd, 2022 [October 2nd, 2022]
- NSA and ACLU may face off in the Supreme Court over Wikipedia - Grid - October 2nd, 2022 [October 2nd, 2022]
- The NSA is Here to Help | Decipher - Duo Security - September 27th, 2022 [September 27th, 2022]
- Hollen, Raskin Join with NSA Bethesda Fire Fighters, IAFF Leaders to Highlight Progress on Efforts to Improve Base Conditions, Build New Facility |... - September 27th, 2022 [September 27th, 2022]
- CISA, FBI, NSA, Treasury, Cyber Command, and International Partners Release Advisory on Malicious Cyber Actors Affiliated with Iranian Government... - September 20th, 2022 [September 20th, 2022]
- NATFORCE: Buhari Finally Disbands Security Outfit After Senate Ignored NSA To Recognize Body The Whistler Newspaper - The Whistler Nigeria - September 20th, 2022 [September 20th, 2022]
- China Accuses NSA of Hacking Its Military Research University - VICE - September 9th, 2022 [September 9th, 2022]
- Behind the Toque: An Interview with NSA Noodle Bar Executive Chef Brooke Apfelbaum - greenpointers.com - September 9th, 2022 [September 9th, 2022]
- In the Garden: Tour gives Omahans a chance to see how a 'Bloom Box' works - Omaha World-Herald - September 9th, 2022 [September 9th, 2022]
- Three area teams pickup wins to start football season - The Suffolk News-Herald - Suffolk News-Herald - September 9th, 2022 [September 9th, 2022]
- NSA to reveal identities of big men behind oil theft in Nigeria Presidency - Daily Post Nigeria - August 22nd, 2022 [August 22nd, 2022]
- Former US Cyber Command and NSA chief makes the case for a cyber competition strategy | The Strategist - The Strategist - August 22nd, 2022 [August 22nd, 2022]
- Inaugural India-Central Asia NSA meeting to be held in December - WION - August 22nd, 2022 [August 22nd, 2022]
- Home | Open Source @ NSA - August 8th, 2022 [August 8th, 2022]
- Kennesaw State named top institution for cybersecurity outreach - Kennesaw State University - August 8th, 2022 [August 8th, 2022]
- US city of Boston to mark 75th anniversary of India's Independence with two-day extravaganza - NewsDrum - August 8th, 2022 [August 8th, 2022]