Spy stories. Project "Cocoon"

The beginning of the described events refers to the 70s of the last century. At that time, an underwater cable connecting Vladivostok and Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, which was encrypted (and not only) correspondence within the Soviet Union, was already conducted. At some point, it was discovered by US nuclear submarines: they began to hover over the cable and intercept the passing information. Then this information was transmitted to the appropriate structures, where it was analyzed with interest. The fact is that it was precisely in Kamchatka that various missile tests were carried out, and thus, in addition to encrypted messages, urgent open messages were also transmitted (“deviation of 3 meters”, etc).
The problem was that nuclear submarines always had other goals, and hanging in one place for several days was not the most effective use of them. Then the National Security Agency, having invested a lot of money, developed and implemented a truly unique project called “Cocoon”.
A seven-ton container was created, containing a signal receiver, a system for storing and transmitting a signal to "his" submarine. The radiation was directed upward by a narrow beam and is detectable no higher than a few meters above the container. In order to provide the device with energy, an atomic reactor was built into it. And the container was placed right on the bottom, on which lay the cable. The whole created system worked perfectly: periodically one of the submarines took off the stored signal, and in the meantime the container continued to feed on its own energy and intercept the signal.
This continued until 1980, until an unsuspecting group of fishing vessels engaged in fishing in the Cocoon area. As a result, there was a cable break (I think, most likely it was the separation of one of the sections). Immediately, a large number of different ships, submarines, and other mechanical things went to the area. Having found the place of the cliff, during the repair of the cable, suddenly one of the divers noticed a strange healthy object, which was also warm to the touch.
No one had any idea what it was, no one suspected the existence of this Cocoon. It was a real sensation. It was supplemented by the fact that, in addition to the designers of Cocoon, they decided to distinguish themselves with genius and the assemblers - on one of the walls there was a proud sign “Made in USA”.
Began to think what to do with this gift, besides also warm. After thinking like "to blow up the fuck / study in Moscow," the head of the political bureau, Andropov, decided to open and examine it in Moscow. There were clarified the purpose of the device and method of operation. The Americans all this time were unaware of any discovery of Cocoon, until two Soviet submarines met the nuclear submarine with the planned data collection voyage :)
This is how the project Cocoon was completed. In the museum of the National Security Agency stands the Cocoon model, where it is written that this is an outstanding achievement of American scientists, which made it possible to reveal a number of ciphers of the Soviet Union.
The Soviet Union did not recognize the opening of ciphers.

Source: Professor Saliy Vyacheslav Nikolaevich, Saratov State University, 2010.

PS It is good that the Americans did not envisage the destabilization of the reactor with, for example, a change in water pressure ...
')
UPD: This story is in version en.Wiki

A photo:


Link to the Russian-language article: www.dive-tek.ru/archiv/2005/6/64-67.html

UPD2. On Habré an article appeared, with a more detailed presentation, with differences from the above.