52. The US Navy and the CIA commissioned
Howard Hughes to build the Glomar Explorer,
a 63,000 ton ship designed for just one mission, to
raise a sunken Soviet sub with its three SS-N-5 missiles from the bottom
of the Pacific. The price tag was said to be $550,000,000,
but the project was to no avail: the stern section
containing the missiles reportedly broke off and slid fell down to the bottom. In 1989 the U.S.
came by a Soviet missile for free when Gorbachev donated an
SS-20 to the National Air and Space Museum in Washington.
The latter stands beside a Pershing II,
and in accordance with the INF Treaty, the
coordinates of the museum are registered with both governments.
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