Where Is The "Glomar Explorer" These days?

[ralph124c]

The Glomar Explorer was the $500 million ship, designed by the late Howard Hughes for the express purpose of plucking a sunken Russian submarine off the sea floor. I just saw a great documentary on this affair-fascinating! It included footage of the CIA spooks cutting up the remanants of the sub…and the bizarre burial at sea of the russian remains found inside. Is it true that we still don’t know who broke in to the offices of Hughes Aircraft in 1975, and spilled the beans on the whole affair?
Anyway, what is the ship used for now? have we raised any other russian subs?
And, how was the whole thing paid for? $500 million is a lot to hide in the CIA’s budget!

[astro]

Hughes Glomar Explorer

After the recovery, Hughes Glomar Explorer was transferred to the Navy on 3 Sept 1976 and designated AG 193. The vessel is not officially assigned a name, but is commonly referred to Glomar Explorer. She was transferred to the Maritime Administration on 17 Jan 1977 and laid up at Suisun Bay, CA. The Navy attempted to sell the ship, but failed. In June, 1978 she was leased to Global Marine Development Inc. for commercial use. That lease was terminated in 1980. In 1979 it was proposed that the ship be transferred to the National Science Foundation for use as a deep-sea drilling ship, but that effort was not funded. The ship was returned to Navy custody on 25 April 1980 and transferred to the Maritime Administration on the same day for continued layup at Suisun Bay. She remained in layup for the next 16 years. During August, 1996 it was announced that Global Marine had leased Glomar Explorer from the Navy for 30 years. The ship left the mothball fleet 5 November 1996 to be totally reconditioned and converted to a drill ship. She now operates in the Gulf of Mexico, drilling test oil wells. During the conversion some 11,000 tons of steel, including virtually all equipment and facilities related to her salvage role, were removed.

[Antonius_Block]

The Glomar Explorer sat for several years – until the mid-90s – next to the “Mothball Fleet” in Suisun Bay in Northern California.

According to the Federation of American Scientists site:

The vessel is on a 30-year lease from the US Navy to Global Marine Drilling, and recently underwent a large conversion project to one of a kind deep sea drill ship. Conversion cost over $180 million and was completed during the first quarter of 1998. Glomar Explorer was equipped to drill in waters of 7500 feet and with some modification up to 11,500 feet, which is 2,000 feet more than any existing rig.

If you go to Global Marine’s website, click on “Fleet Information”, then “Rig Locator” then “Drillships” (it’s an annoying animated site with frames, so I don’t think I can give you a reliable static URL), you’ll eventually find that one of their ships, currently located in the Gulf of Mexico until an estimated date of December 2005, is the Explorer (warning, PDF file). The dimensions given in the PDF file are 619 x 116 x 51 ft, which, allowing for rounding to the nearest foot, exactly match the Glomar Explorer’s dimensions given at the FAS site.

So, I’m reasonably confident that this is the same ship after retfitting, and that the answer to at least one of the OP’s questions is “drilling for oil in the Gulf of Mexico”.

This site mentions that the Glomar Explorer, aka “Hughes Mining Barge 1” or HMB-1, was

extensively modified to be the storage facility for the Navy’s Steath Test ship, the Sea Shadow

.
Some interesting pictures of the HMB-1 and the Sea Shadow are here. If the latter looks familiar to fans of James Bond movies, it’s because the stealth ship in Tomorrow Never Lies was patterned after it:

@IMDB Trivia

The stealth ship is not a fictional invention. Lockheed secretly constructed and demonstrated one in the early 1980s, but the US Navy finally decided they didn’t want any. The prototype, called the Sea Shadow, was 160 feet long and the movie’s ship closely resembles it in shape.

[Antonius_Block]

On preview, I see that astro beat me to it.

Also, to correct something I wrote in the above post:

The Hughes Mining Barge 1 or HMB-1 was not the same vessel as the Glomar Explorer, but was submerged underneath it in the CIA operation. The HMB-1 contained the claw that was designed to raise the Russian submarine, and was used to store the part of the submarine that was actually recovered.

[El_Kabong]

The company I work for is actually providing services aboard the GSF Explorer. It’s currently drilling exploration wells for one of the major oil companies, in a deepwater area off the Louisiana coast. The vessel is well-known in the industry as the former “spy ship”.

[pbobo37707]

I was a first class machinist at Atlantic marine and instaled all the gear for drilling.
I worked in the Moon pool where the ruski sub was retreaved.
Thay got all the sub and nukes bbelive me. I have a bunk card I found from 1972.
HOW BOUT THAT

[spankthecrumpet]

What was it doing more recently? Legit stuff or not?

[Mr_Quatro]

Where Is The “Glomar Explorer” These days?

Still a good question today, uh? Especially with the MH 370 plane down somewhere in the Indian Ocean … she could come in handy if and when they find her.

I heard she is leased to an oil company for oil exploration for one million dollars a year.

[Ravenman]

Glomar Explorer