All language subtitles for Secrets.Declassified.with.David.Duchovny.S02E18.1080p.WEB.h264-EDITH_track3_[eng]

[dramatic music]

♪ ♪

[Duchovny] Tonight on
"Secrets Declassified,"

the top secret tech built
to outwit, outgun,

and outmaneuver the enemy,

from the nuke so small
it's nicknamed

the atomic watermelon.

- It's the smallest
nuclear bomb ever built,

and it can be fired
from a bazooka.

- To the spy plane
so extraordinary,

it seems out of this world.

[Paul]
This is actually responsible

for more than half
of all reported

UFO sightings in the 1950s.

- And the World War II
aircraft carrier

that's made of solid ice.

- This will be the largest
naval vessel ever built.

- These are the astonishing
and sometimes terrible

inventions designed
by governments

and the people
who work for them.

It's time
to bring them to light.

♪ ♪

In 1943, the world is at war,

and the U.S. is looking
for a way for their spies

to move underwater undetected.

The solution isn't born out of
a top secret government lab.

It comes from the mind
of a medical student

on summer break.

♪ ♪

[Hakeem] At the start
of World War II,

America launches a brand-new
intelligence agency,

the Office
of Strategic Services.

The OSS is the first
version of the CIA,

and its job
is to find creative ways

to gather intelligence
and sabotage Axis forces.

And one of
its biggest obsessions

is finding ways
to put spies underwater.

- If you can keep spies
undetected underwater,

you could slip
into enemy harbors,

sabotage vessels, and disrupt
entire naval operations.

[Duchovny]
There's just one problem.

At this time,
breathing underwater

is anything but stealthy.

- There's one device
called the aqualung,

but it releases air bubbles.

- This is a problem
for covert operations.

You might as well send up
a signal flare.

[Duchovny] The solution comes
from an unlikely source--

a young student at the
University of Pennsylvania.

- Christian Lambertsen
is an undergraduate student,

and he's studying physiology.

He's absolutely fascinated
about breathing underwater.

- Every summer,
Christian Lambertsen

heads down
to the New Jersey coast.

But he's not chilling
on the beach.

He's in the water
experimenting

with breathing contraptions.

[Duchovny] One day, Lambertsen
has a breakthrough.

The equipment that helps
patients breathe in hospitals

could be modified to help
divers breathe underwater

without producing bubbles.

- Anesthesia equipment
contain absorbent materials

that remove carbon dioxide
from the air

that patients breathe
while they're unconscious.

Lambertsen figures,
he can use similar materials

to remove the carbon dioxide
from the air

that a diver exhales.

That way, a diver's air
can be rebreathed,

rather than being breathed
back out into the water

and creating bubbles.

[Duchovny] After years
of trial and error,

Lambertsen perfects his idea.

- Lambertsen
builds a prototype.

He calls it the Lambertsen
Amphibious Respirator Unit,

LARU for short.

[Duchovny]
LARU funnels exhaled air

through a canister
lined with soda lime,

so oxygen can be
rebreathed over and over.

[Don] It's pretty remarkable.

It's silent,
doesn't weigh much,

and best of all, no bubbles.

[O'Keefe] So Lambertsen
shows this prototype

to his professor,
who immediately understands

the possible implications.

- He realizes this is
a potential tool for spies.

[Duchovny]
Seeing the possibilities,

Lambertsen's professor
makes some calls,

and eventually, the OSS
hear about this invention.

They ask Lambertsen down
to Washington D.C.

for a demonstration.

- He straps it on, drops into
the pool, and stays under.

No bubbles, no noise.

Just smooth movement
beneath the water's surface.

- Needless to say, the OSS
are absolutely fascinated

by what this prototype
could do,

so they hire Lambertsen.

- A dip in the pool
is one thing.

What the OSS
really wants to know

is whether this homemade
spy gadget can perform

in a real combat mission.

[Hakeem] Lambertsen is
given the job of training

the very first unit of combat
swimmers for a live test.

- The OSS want
Lambertsen and his team

to infiltrate a heavily
defended harbor

and plant dummy explosives
on a target ship

and then get out of there
undetected.

It has underwater sound
detection systems,

patrol boats,
and security nets.

This place is locked down.

It's essentially
a make-or-break

high-stakes underwater heist.

[Jack] They're trailblazers.

This hasn't been done before,
so they're having

to invent the tactics
and procedures

and the technology
at the same time

to enable this kind
of operation.

[Duchovny] The test mission
is given the name

Operation Cincinnati.

- The training
is absolutely brutal.

The divers have to learn how to
operate in freezing-cold waters

and in complete darkness.

[Duchovny] After a year
and a half's training,

Lambertsen's new team
are ready.

♪ ♪

- Under cover of night,
the divers slip into the water.

They're armed only with the
LARUs, waterproof compasses,

and dummy explosive charges.

They glide past
the patrol boats

and navigate around
the underwater nets.

- The LARU allows a diver to
stay submerged at a depth

of 50 feet
for up to 90 minutes.

- The navy's state-of-the-art
sound detection equipment

hears nothing.

♪ ♪

They reach their target,
plant the charges,

and get away without a sound

or a single ripple
on the surface.

♪ ♪

[Duchovny] The operation
is a stunning success.

- The OSS immediately deploys
a new unit of combat swimmers

equipped with the LARU
on covert missions

all around the globe.

[Duchovny] Lambertsen's device
opens the ocean to millions

of recreational divers, but
its covert military origins

and its make-or-break test
remain buried

in classified files
for another 40 years.

[Sami] In 1995,
the CIA declassifies the files

that reveal the LARU's origins
as a cutting-edge spy gadget,

and we get to learn how a
medical student on summer break

invented a device that changed
underwater espionage forever.

- The LARU was the
brainchild of a single

talented medical student.

But when the U.S. government
wants to build the world's

smallest nuclear bomb,
it enlists an army

of highly trained scientists.

The device they create is known
as the atomic watermelon.

♪ ♪

[Sami] In the late 1950s,
in Europe,

Soviet forces outnumbered
NATO forces 10 to 1,

and as a result, the
United States are terrified

of a Soviet invasion.

They especially fear
the Soviets

sending thousands
of tanks across

what is known as the Fulda Gap.

[Martin] The Fulda Gap is
a geographical feature

right along the
border in Germany--

two open-plain areas
that would make it easy

for Communist bloc nations

to stream from east
toward the west.

[Hakeem] If Russian tanks
roll through the Fulda Gap,

there won't be enough time
for America

to scramble its strategic
nuclear bombers.

[Duchovny] U.S. military
planners know,

if they wanna protect
the free world,

they need to find a way
to defend the Fulda Gap.

For that, they decide
they need a brand-new weapon.

- What the U.S. Army needs
is a tactical,

low-yield nuclear weapon.

- It needs to be scary enough
to make the Soviets think twice

about invading,
but small enough

to race along the West German
frontline at a moment's notice.

♪ ♪

[James] In 1959, Los Alamos
National Laboratory engineers

begin work
to design the smallest

ever nuclear weapon.

♪ ♪

[Hakeem]
Engineers use a new form

of highly enriched
plutonium 239.

This new, miniaturized device
has an explosive yield

equivalent to about
20 tons of TNT.

That's similar to
the largest conventional bombs

ever constructed.

And it weighs
only around 50 pounds.

That's less than 1% the weight
of the Hiroshima bomb,

and this is a device that's
less than 11 inches in width.

[Duchovny] Its size and shape
inspire a nickname:

the atomic watermelon.

Now the military needs
to see if this melon

can deliver the destruction
they're hoping for.

♪ ♪

[Martin] There's a test
detonation of the warhead

at the Nevada test site
in July 1962.

This is designed to prove
that the weapon system

is capable of functioning.

There's a bit of theater
associated with this test.

There are bleachers
that are built.

Those who are invited

to attend the test
and observe it,

they're given special goggles
so that they won't be blinded

by the blast once it occurs.

There's a VIP seating area.

Robert F. Kennedy is there.

It's being proven not just
to the American military,

but to American
political leadership.

And it's also a rollout,
if you will,

to prove we're capable of
using this on the battlefield.

♪ ♪

[Duchovny] The target is a
point in the dry desert basin

nearly 3,000 meters away.

At 10:00 a.m.,
the weapon is fired.

♪ ♪

And it works.

[Announcer] The round was set
for a low height of burst.

It detonated perfectly,

releasing its
lethal radiation.

- The launcher,
the delivery system,

the warhead
all work flawlessly,

exactly as designed.

And tests at the delivery site
show radiation levels

that confirm that
anyone within 200 meters

would have been
killed instantly.

[Duchovny] The atomic
watermelon is a success.

It's loaded into Jeeps
across West Germany,

ready to race
to the frontline.

- Over 2,000 atomic watermelons
are manufactured

and distributed across Europe
to face the Soviet threat.

Each weapon is handled
by a five-man team,

who are only to use
the weapon if they are faced

with an imminent threat
of being overrun.

[Duchovny] Shooting a nuke
from a short-range

rocket launcher comes with
one very real risk.

[Martin] That five-man team
will move forward

at high speed
using the vehicle.

They'll fire the weapon.

And then,
immediately upon releasing it,

they will move
as fast as possible

out of the fallout range
of the weapon

so that they themselves do not
become irradiation casualties.

[Duchovny] Despite the danger,
the atomic watermelon

is judged such
an effective deterrent

that it's deployed to
other vulnerable outposts,

including Korea, Guam,
and Hawaii.

- The atomic watermelon
is a key part

of American defense for the
better part of a decade,

but by the late 1960s, it still
hasn't been used in combat.

Plus, advances in
missile guidance

have essentially
rendered it obsolete,

so it's retired in 1971.

[Duchovny] The story of
the atomic watermelon

remains buried in classified
archives for decades.

remains buried in classified
archives for decades.

♪ ♪

Only after the end
of the Cold War

are the full details
revealed to the world.

♪ ♪

- When aerospace manufacturer
Lockheed Martin designs

the ultimate
Cold War spy plane,

the CIA will do anything
to keep the top secret tech

under wraps,
even if it means igniting

one of history's greatest
conspiracy theories.

♪ ♪

- This plane is
cutting-edge technology,

but it's kind of weird.

It uses advanced materials
like titanium

that's strong and lightweight,

but it also has
these strange features.

Like, it's gangly,
and the landing gear

is lined up
like bicycle wheels.

[Greg] This is
a curious-looking bird.

This plane has 130-foot-long
wings that droop

at their length,
to the point that

they actually will
hit the ground

when the plane is grounded.

- Most unusually, though,
for a plane produced by

a fighter jet company,
this aircraft isn't going

to carry a single weapon.

[Duchovny] The reason for
this plane's extreme design

is its extreme mission.

It's being made
for the U.S. government

to fly at
record-breaking altitudes

on top secret
reconnaissance missions

over Soviet territory.

♪ ♪

- In the 1950s,
the Americans are worried

about the technology
that the Soviets have.

The rumor at the time
is that the Soviets

had developed a bomber
capable of flying from Moscow

to the United States.

So the CIA comes up
with this ingenious plan

to find out if it was true.

- We don't have much
of a spy network operating

in the Soviet Union
in the 1950s.

The Soviets are protected
behind an Iron Curtain.

If you can't go through
the Iron Curtain

or sneak behind it,

you might have to fly over it.

♪ ♪

[Duchovny] To avoid detection,
the CIA decides to build

a state-of-the-art spy plane.

[Paul] Any aircraft that are
flying over Soviet territory

might be susceptible
to air defense,

including
sophisticated missiles.

And they might be accused of
violating international law.

The solution is
to create an aircraft

that flies twice as high
as the Himalayan peaks.

- 70,000 feet and above.

[Duchovny] No plane has
flown so high for so long.

To achieve it means developing
brand-new technology.

♪ ♪

[Nehemiah] So the government
tasked Lockheed

to build this spy plane.

And their solution
is essentially

to make a giant glider and
to stick a jet engine on it.

[Greg] Flying at the
altitude that it is

presents all sorts
of new challenges.

For instance, traditional
jet fuel just won't work.

[Nehemiah] They need
to invent an entirely

new type of kerosene fuel
that doesn't

boil off at low pressure.

[Duchovny]
Lockheed's engineers

call its new creation
the Angel,

as it flies
so close to heaven.

The government designates it
Utility Aircraft 2,

or the U-2.

But building this
incredible plane

is only half the battle.

♪ ♪

[James] When the U-2
is complete,

the government needs
to figure out how to test it

and, most importantly,
where to test it.

♪ ♪

[Hakeem]
Building a plane in secret,

that's doable because
it's done inside of a hangar.

But testing a plane in secret,
that's a lot more difficult.

♪ ♪

[Duchovny] For decades,
the location of the U-2's

testing site remains
one of the government's

most closely guarded secrets.

But conducting so many flights
of this classified plane

has a strange side effect.

[Hakeem] When they
start testing the U-2,

UFO sightings
go up tremendously.

The public sees it.

They have no idea
what they're looking at.

Air traffic controllers
and professional pilots,

they don't know either.

[Gary] They see
the shimmering in the sky.

They don't know what it is.
It's really high up there.

Therefore,
they think it's a UFO.

♪ ♪

[James] Rather than confess
that they're testing

a top secret new plane,

which might alert
the Soviets to their plan,

the CIA launch a cover-up.

- They claim the sightings
are due to natural phenomena,

so understandably, the
conspiracy theories go nuts.

[Paul] There are some people
who argue that the U-2,

in its early stages
of development

is actually responsible
for more than half of all

reported UFO sightings
in the 1950s.

[Duchovny] In 2013, the U.S.
admits for the first time

what many have long suspected.

The name of the U-2's
secret test base is Area 51.

♪ ♪

- One of the reasons
that Area 51 is so important

and so secret is that it's near
the Nevada proving grounds.

And no one in
their right mind is

gonna wanna go
into an area where

they're testing nuclear bombs.

[Hakeem]
They specifically purchased

the land for testing the U-2.

Were it not for the U-2,
there would be no Area 51,

and we would have lost
our most iconic

UFO conspiracy location.

[Duchovny] While Area 51
becomes the most notorious

UFO site in the world,

the U-2 plane
becomes one of America's

most vital intelligence tools.

[Gary] Between 1956,
the first operational flight,

July 4th,
through May 1st of 1960,

the U-2 program dispelled

the missile gap
and the bomber gap.

There was none.

We were still ahead
of the Soviets,

even though they were saying
they were ahead of us.

♪ ♪

- Over the next four years,
30 flights

photograph almost 15%
of the USSR.

This provides 90% of
the CIA's hard intelligence

on its fiercest rival.

- The CIA thought
it had a shelf life

of two to four years.

Well, other than the B-52,
the U-2 spy plane

Well, other than the B-52,
the U-2 spy plane

is the longest flying airplane

in the U.S. Air Force's
arsenal.

And it's still flying today.

- In World War II,
Hitler's U-boats

are hunting British ships
relentlessly.

So Britain gambles on
a radical new innovation,

an unsinkable ship built
not from steel, but from ice.

[dramatic music]

- By 1942, Britain feels
like it's against the ropes.

U-boats hunting in
the mid-Atlantic

are sinking 650,000 tons
of shipping every month.

- The killing zone
is called U-boat Alley.

It's a stretch
of the mid-Atlantic

where Allied ships
are unprotected.

Air Force planes can't reach
that far from land bases,

and the British can't send
aircraft carriers to help

because they would be sunk
by the U-boats too.

- What they need is an aircraft
carrier that can't be sunk.

[Duchovny]
Enter Geoffrey Pyke,

an eccentric adventurer
and inventor

now working for Allied HQ.

[Hakeem] Geoffrey Pyke
comes up with the realization

that nature already produces
giant, unsinkable platforms

in the ocean.

They're called icebergs.

So he comes up
with the idea that

you could flatten one

and tow it wherever
you wanted it to be.

- You can use it as
an unsinkable aircraft carrier,

and it can close
the mid-Atlantic gap.

[Duchovny] But Pyke soon
realizes icebergs won't work.

- They have this nasty
tendency to flip,

which would put your aircraft
and your crew

in the cold Atlantic waters.

So no, not a good solution.

[Duchovny] Pyke won't
be stopped so easily.

He begins to design
an artificial iceberg.

[Hakeem]
Pyke's idea is to create

a giant aircraft carrier
not from steel,

but from blocks of carved ice.

He could have a system
of cooling pipes

throughout the ice
to keep it frozen

and also use diesel engines
to propel it forward.

[Duchovny]
At a secret lab

hidden in a refrigerated
storage unit

at London's
Smithfield Meat Market,

Pyke's team
starts experimenting.

[Martin] There's one big
shortcoming with ice:

it is extremely brittle.

If it came under enemy
attack, it will fracture.

- So as Pyke considers
this problem,

he takes some inspiration
from reinforced concrete

and the idea
that perhaps combining

water with another element

would produce
a harder ice product.

[Duchovny]
Pyke's team searches

for potential additives

to increase
the durability of ice.

[Don] They find
a research paper

from scientists
in Brooklyn, New York,

testing cotton as a reinforcer.

But this makes a slushy,
uneven ice block.

[Hakeem] Finally, after
lots of experimentation,

they come up with
just the right recipe,

and that is 4% wood pulp
and 96% water.

This combination creates
an incredibly durable

block of ice.

[Duchovny]
Pyke's new ice behaves

like nothing else on Earth.

It's strong as concrete
and almost bulletproof

but can be cast like metal
and cut like wood.

♪ ♪

They name this new
miracle material Pykrete,

after its inventor.

[Sami] British Prime Minister
Winston Churchill

is the kind of guy who likes
unusual, bold, daring ideas.

So he says, yeah,
let's do this.

Pyke's project is given
the code name Habakkuk.

♪ ♪

[Duchovny] Habakkuk is
an Old Testament prophet

who records God's promise
to the doubtful.

"I am going to do something
in your days

that you would not believe,
even if you were told."

Pyke chooses the name to fit
his impossibly ambitious

ice ship.

Now he needs to
construct a prototype.

But Britain is
too warm to build it,

so the entire project
moves to Canada.

♪ ♪

[Don] They turn the frozen
surface of Patricia Lake

into a giant laboratory
and build a 1,000-ton,

60-foot-long scale model.

♪ ♪

[Hakeem] The Habakkuk team
starts experimenting,

and they find that, in order
to keep the ice stable,

the ship's refrigerators
need to keep it

at a frosty 5 degrees.

[Don] They also discover that,
to stop a torpedo,

the hull has to be
at least 30 feet thick.

[Hakeem] When they
complete their design,

it is an absolute behemoth.

[Martin] Pyke wanted
an ice ship with a runway

2,000 feet long
and 300 feet wide.

- It has 40-foot-thick walls,

and it can carry
over 150 bombers at one time.

- This will be the largest
naval vessel ever built.

♪ ♪

[Duchovny] Project Habakkuk is
now becoming hugely expensive,

so it needs American backing.

In August 1943, at the
Allied conference in Quebec,

the Brits make their pitch.

- To prove the properties
of pykrete to the Americans,

one of the UK's top commanders,
Lord Mountbatten,

stages a demo.

- Mountbatten gives U.S.
General Hap Arnold an ax

and asks him to smash
a block of pykrete.

Arnold swings at the pykrete
with all his might.

The ax bounces off.

- Then Mountbatten
draws his pistol

and fires it at the pykrete.

[gunshot]

The bullet ricochets off,

sending the generals
diving for cover.

- The room erupts,
but the point is made.

The Americans are on board
for Habakkuk.

[Duchovny]
Before production can begin,

the tides turn
in the Atlantic.

Long-range aircraft
and new anti-submarine tactics

blunt the U-boat threat.

With the crisis over, the ice
ship is no longer needed.

♪ ♪

- In January 1944,
Project Habakkuk is canceled.

- The prototype ship
they built on Patricia Lake

is allowed to melt away.

[Duchovny] Soon the war
comes to an end,

but the British military
keeps details of pykrete

on ice for the next 30 years.

[Martin] We only learn
the full details

through declassified documents
that are discovered in 1973.

They speak to
an hour of desperation

when England faced
an existential threat

as a result of the U-boat.

♪ ♪

- Some new technology
lands with a bang,

others barely a sound.

To help end the Vietnam War,

the CIA needs
a helicopter so stealthy,

the enemy will never
even know it's there.

[dramatic music]

[Hakeem] It's 1971,
and the Vietnam War

has been going on
full tilt for six years.

The American public is
now putting pressure

on the government
to end the war,

and troops are actually
starting to come home.

[Sami]
Peace talks are underway,

but President Nixon
finds himself in the middle

of a diplomatic deadlock
that is just so absurd that--

and this is no joke--
after 10 weeks,

the only thing
negotiators have agreed on

is the shape
of the conference table.

[Martin] Henry Kissinger
is Richard Nixon's

national security advisor.

Kissinger feels a concern
that the North Vietnamese

are not negotiating
in good faith.

He turns to the CIA
in the interests of developing

a more accurate
intelligence picture.

[Sami] The CIA has learned
that about 15 miles

from the city of Vinh,
a single phone line

carries the North Vietnamese
military's

most senior communications.

♪ ♪

[Duchovny]
Laying a tap on this line

could hand Nixon
Hanoi's playbook in real-time.

But there's a catch.

- The phone line runs about
150 miles into enemy territory.

Reaching it means
flying a helicopter

deep behind enemy lines.

And this is further than
any covert flight of the war.

[helicopter whirring]

[Duchovny] Very little about
a helicopter is stealthy.

- A conventional helicopter
can be heard for several miles.

Using one will blow
the mission's cover

and also get
the team shot down.

Somehow, the team need
to source a helicopter

that the enemy
won't hear coming.

♪ ♪

- Enter the Quiet One,
a stealth helicopter

in the works at the Pentagon's
top research lab.

♪ ♪

- Instead of four rotor
blades, it runs five.

It cuts down on the thump

that these rotor blades
tend to make.

They also use oversized
mufflers, which soften

the entire exhaust signature.

[Duchovny] At 400 feet,
it registers just 71 decibels,

earning its title
as the world's

quietest helicopter.

But quiet isn't the same
as combat-ready.

- Landing in North Vietnam
would be catastrophic,

so the Quiet One
needs to make a 300-mile

round trip without stopping.

- The CIA modifies it
with a 500 horsepower engine,

twice the standard,
so it can fly

long haul without refueling.

- They also give the aircrew
forward-looking

infrared screens,
allowing these crews

to fly in complete darkness.

- To top it off,
the whole chopper is

coated head to toe
in experimental

radar-absorbing black paint.

- By October of 1971,
two prototypes are ready

and shipped to a secret
air base in Taiwan.

♪ ♪

[Duchovny] Now Kissinger
just needs the right team

to fly his new machine.

- The CIA wants to keep
this mission deniable

for the U.S. government,
so they send in two

American helicopter pilots
to train Taiwanese

on how to fly
the stealth helicopter.

♪ ♪

[Hakeem] Training turns out
to be a disaster.

The Taiwanese pilots
are told to push the aircraft

beyond what they're capable of.

One of the helicopters crashes
and is damaged beyond repair.

♪ ♪

[Duchovny] Down to
their last Quiet One,

the CIA upends
its original plan.

- By late 1972,
the CIA has no choice.

The U.S. pilots will have to
fly the mission themselves.

♪ ♪

So on December 6,
they give the green light

for the most covert flight
of the entire Vietnam War.

[Martin] The aircraft delivers
the team to the bluff.

The team scramble off of it.

The aircraft then quietly
returned to the air.

[Duchovny] Placing the wiretap
should be the easy part,

but there's a problem.

- The telegraph poles
are not made of wood,

like they expected,
but they're concrete.

The special climbing gear
they brought won't bite.

♪ ♪

- The commandos muscle
their way up the pole

by hand,
which wastes precious time.

[Martin] Undeterred,
they reach that spot,

install the wiretap,
scramble back down.

[Sami] The Quiet One
descends in silence,

the commandos climb back
aboard, and they head for base.

♪ ♪

[Duchovny] A few weeks later,
the Vietnam War

comes to an end when the Paris
Peace Accords are signed.

[Hakeem] Many believe that
the intercept by the Quiet One

gave Kissinger the leverage
that he needed

to close the deal.

[Duchovny] While Kissinger
takes the spotlight,

the Quiet One disappears
into CIA silence.

And its Black Ops mission
is buried.

Then, in 1982, historians
Ken Conboy and James Morrison

start to piece
together the truth

through hundreds of interviews
with those involved.

Over a decade later,
they reveal

the full story to the world.

- In a remote desert, military
engineers test a cutting-edge

piece of spy tech
so unusual and classified,

some will claim
it's out of this world.

[dramatic music]

♪ ♪

- This is a very technologically
advanced program,

so secret that
the individuals working on it

don't know what
they're working on.

♪ ♪

Nearly everyone
on this program are told

that they're working on
meteorological equipment.

Even the code name, Mogul,
is classified.

♪ ♪

[Duchovny] Project Mogul
is being built

to keep the U.S. in the lead
of the nuclear arms race.

♪ ♪

- As far as the Americans know,
the Soviets don't have

the technology
to build the atomic bomb,

but they also know that
it's only a matter of time

before they do.

♪ ♪

[Gary] The Soviet Union
is filled

with these vast wildernesses.

The Americans are concerned
that they're gonna be able

to test these weapons
in total secrecy.

♪ ♪

This is in an age where we
can't get over the Soviet Union

undetected,
so they have to come up

with an idea on how
to monitor the Soviets

as they test nuclear weapons.

♪ ♪

[Duchovny] The answer comes
from a renowned

U.S. geophysicist
and oceanographer who claims

he can make tech that can
listen for the Soviet tests.

[Don] Dr. W. Maurice Ewing
is convinced

sound channels exist
at high altitudes

which could be used
to detect nuclear explosions.

♪ ♪

His idea gets the attention
of U.S. Air Force officials,

who authorize
a top secret research effort

called Project Mogul.

- The concept is simple--
to place microphones

8 1/2 miles in the air
in the aerial sound channel

to listen
for nuclear detonations.

[Duchovny]
The idea may be simple,

but the execution is not.

[Gary] The Americans have to
figure out how to get

these microphones up to
altitude, 70,000, 100,000 feet,

and stay up there
for a very long time.

[Duchovny] Dr. Ewing thinks
the answer is to float them,

using helium balloons.

[Amy] Helium balloons
don't make any sound,

they can stay aloft
for days at a time,

and they don't need
any fuel or a crew.

They're basically the perfect
autonomous vehicle.

[Duchovny] In 1947, the Mogul
team head into the desert

to begin the secret testing
of these balloons

and the cutting-edge audio
spy tech they will carry.

[Nehemiah]
The payload equipment--

sound monitors, ballast,
and batteries--

they all hung below.

This stretches up to 600 feet
from tip to tail,

which is twice as tall
as the Statue of Liberty.

[Amy] Rising to 45,000 feet,
balloons can withstand

temperature fluctuations
of up to 160 degrees Fahrenheit

and winds
of over 30 miles per hour.

♪ ♪

[Duchovny]
It takes just one accident

for this top secret program
to ignite an enduring mystery.

♪ ♪

[Gary] There's one problem.

These balloons can not
always be controlled.

They don't always go
where you want them to,

and sometimes they crash.

♪ ♪

[Don] In June 1947,
a rancher stumbles

upon strange, mangled,
high-tech metallic debris.

The rancher brings
a sample of the wreckage

to a nearby army airfield.

[Amy] When the airfield public
affairs officer releases

a statement about the debris,
he has no idea

about the Air Force's
Mogul Program.

He says there is a flying
disk among the debris

now being analyzed
at a nearby airfield

that is called Roswell.

♪ ♪

- Headlines around
the world appear--

UFO, Roswell, New Mexico.

♪ ♪

- The air force is thrilled.

It needs a cover
for these balloons,

and alien spacecraft
are as good a cover as any.

- As a result,
Roswell, New Mexico,

has become synonymous
with UFOs, and still is today.

[Duchovny] No one connects the
dots for nearly five decades.

The truth is only
revealed in 1995,

when an investigation into
the Roswell UFO incident

makes the link to the
top secret balloon program.

♪ ♪

For the military,
the alien invasion cover story

is a huge success,
but the project is not.

Mogul's use of balloons to
detect bombs proves a failure.

♪ ♪

- Spies use tech to eavesdrop
on the enemy,

to secretly photograph them,
and even to kill them.

But what about smell them?

When the U.S.
needs to find enemy troops

in the Vietnam jungle,

they build a machine
to do just that--

hunt soldiers by their scent.

[dramatic music]

♪ ♪

[Hakeem] By the mid 1960s,
the United States

is struggling to monitor enemy
troop movements in Vietnam.

The Viet Cong are masters
of hide-and-seek.

They have tunnels, spider
holes, jungle camouflage.

[Martin] The enemy has
become so masterful

in the use of concealment
that there are cases where

GIs are 3 feet away
from the enemy,

and they don't even know
that they're there.

- You can't fight an enemy
that you can't find.

♪ ♪

[Duchovny]
The thick jungle canopy

makes aerial
reconnaissance useless,

so the U.S. needs
a new type of technology

to pinpoint
the invisible enemy.

Their incredible solution
is a device that will

sniff them out, literally.

- The natural process
of producing sweat

releases ammonia.

A large formation
of troops will

consist of men
who are releasing

invisible ammonia gas.

If you have the ability
to detect that,

you can fix the exact position
of the enemy force.

♪ ♪

[Duchovny] To seek out
the enemy's sweat,

the army approaches
General Electric.

They're already
building chemical detectors

to trace the exhaust fumes
of enemy submarines.

Now they're given
this new mission.

- Technicians at
General Electric come up

with a scent sensor they call

the XM-2 Man Packed
Personnel Detector.

[Duchovny] The troops will
call it something simpler--

the People Sniffer.

[Hakeem] The XM-2
is meant to be carried

on a GI's back like a backpack.

It has a tube that
attaches to the muzzle

of a soldier's weapon with
a probe that sucks in air.

The air passes over
hydrochloric acid.

If there's ammonia present,
the acid reacts with it.

[Duchovny] This will be
turned into a beeping sound

in the operator's earphones.

- The gadget is basically
an alarm bell that tells you,

hey, just so you know,
I can smell that the enemy

is pretty close right now.

♪ ♪

[Duchovny] In August 1965,
200 People Sniffers are sent

to Vietnam for field testing.

♪ ♪

But the jungle is a big leap
from the laboratory.

[beeping]

[Sami] The field results
are mixed at best.

The XM-2 does work sometimes.

But it doesn't have much range,
300 yards at most.

And even worse,
if the wind shifts

and blows back at you...

[rapid beeping]

You'll get a false positive
from your own sweat.

♪ ♪

- But the U.S. Army
doesn't shut down

the People Sniffer project.

Instead, they double down
on the technology,

only this time,
they send it into the sky.

[Catherine] The army realizes
that ammonia

is lighter than air,
and it always rises,

so they decide to put
the sniffer on a helicopter.

The result is the
Airborne Personnel Detector.

- They lengthen the probe so
it hangs

outside the aircraft.

Plus, they put two XM-3s
in each aircraft

so they can double
their sniff power.

This sniffer bird
flies low and fast,

maybe 50 feet over the trees.

When it gets a hit,
the operator

radios in the location,
then they call in the cavalry.

[Duchovny]
In the fall of 1967,

this unusual new gadget

suddenly faces
a make-or-break test.

[Hakeem] U.S. intelligence
reports rumors

of an ominous buildup
of North Vietnamese troops

near a strategic outpost
called Dak To.

Dak To is home to
a critical camp

where the CIA train
civilian militias.

The U.S. suspects that a major
offensive on Dak To is coming.

They need to confirm
whether this force of VC

is really hiding in the jungle.

[Duchovny]
This crucial mission is given

to the Airborne
People Sniffer.

- So the Sniffer helicopter
is flying

perpendicular to the wind,
just above the tree tops.

♪ ♪

[Martin] You have an operator.

He detects at first
a faint beep.

The beep continues
to get louder.

The aircraft sweeps
back around to the area

where they detected
the beep to begin with,

and it gets louder
and louder and louder,

and they finally realize,
we're on to something here.

- It's ammonia.
This must be thousands of men.

This is exactly
the confirmation

Command has been waiting for.

[Duchovny]
Thanks to the People Sniffer,

the U.S. launches
a massive preemptive strike

on Viet Cong positions
outside Dak To...

♪ ♪

Safeguarding
their critical base.

But this battle will be
the Sniffer's high point.

The enemy soon learns
how to deceive it.

- The North Vietnamese
come up with a way

to mislead that flying Sniffer,
by hanging buckets of mud

and urine in the trees
to create false positives,

ultimately sending the
Americans on wild goose chases

to empty patches of jungle.

[Duchovny]
Outwitted by buckets of waste,

the People Sniffer
fades from use.

Its full story remains
a secret for decades,

until 2000, when a review
of the project

is declassified, finally
revealing the strange history

of a gadget that used
classroom chemistry

to fight jungle warfare.

From aircraft carriers
made from solid ice

to helicopters
that don't make a sound.

When it comes to governments'
battle for supremacy,

no technology is off-limits.

But even their most
closely guarded inventions

can't stay hidden forever.