Documents / FOIA release

The Central Intelligence Agency and Overhead Reconnaissance; the U-2 and Oxcart Programs, 1954-1974

Central Intelligence Agency · 1900-01-01 · 406 pages · text by GLM-OCR

This is a 1992 CIA History Staff monograph by Gregory W. Pedlow and Donald E. Welzenbach, originally classified Secret NOFORN and approved for release in 2013. It covers the CIA's manned overhead reconnaissance program from 1954 to 1974 and the two aircraft it developed, the U-2 and the A-12 OXCART. The history covers the U-2 overflights of the Soviet Union, the 1960 downing of Francis Gary Powers and later operations in Asia and Latin America. It also includes a section on U-2s, UFOs and Operation BLUE BOOK.

Open the PDF at page 393 Original source ↗

“Mission Control”28 pages

  • p. 9 …The struggle between the CIA and the US Air Force to control the U-2 and…
  • p. 72 …2 missions. Access to the photographs taken by the U-2 would be strictly controlled, which…
  • p. 73 …This pact gave the Air Force responsibility for pilot selection and training, weather information, mission plotting…
  • p. 81 …Before the start of a mission, the ground crew set the counters to indicate the total…
  • p. 96 …All of the products from this project would be placed in the new control system. By…
  • p. 100 …This was an S-band radar used by Soviet forces for early warning and ground-controlled…
  • p. 113 …The President nevertheless maintained tight control over the program and authorized only 10 days of overflights…
  • p. 128 …personnel controlling overseas photo processing and interpretation centers, which were normally under Air Force control. Further…
  • p. 140 …Although the President would not allow U-2s to fly their primary mission of reconnaissance of…
  • p. 142 …of the first series of U-2 missions. The CIA proprietary firm Scientific Engineering Institute was…
  • p. 147 …To take advantage of these weaknesses, Detachment C staged three missions from Alaska into the Soviet…
  • p. 156 …After these missions, penetration overflights became a rarity. There would be only six more during the…
  • p. 167 …U-2 missions. To handle U-2 material, the British created a new control system, which…
  • p. 168 …The British missions would be operationally controlled by CIA project headquarters. Soon afterward four British pilots…
  • p. 169 …of authority for the joint program: "British missions are carried out on your authority and are…
  • p. 170 Secret NOFORN Chapter 3 May 1959, and used to fly weather missions on 7 and 8…
  • p. 180 …As in December, the pilot was British, and the mission had been ordered by Prime Minister…
  • p. 188 …some Soviet airborne-missile fire-control systems. Operation GRAND SLAM, mission 4154 and the 24th deep…
  • p. 191 …This revised cover story, along with a mission flight plan consistent with it, was sent to…
  • p. 193 …the impression that he was not in control of his administration. On Wednesday, 11 May, the…
  • p. 196 …with Abel's "wife" (probably his Soviet control) in East Germany. In November 1961, Acting DCI…
  • p. 204 …in the DDP in order to maintain control of his overhead reconnaissance projects (the U-2…
  • p. 220 …Strongly favoring Air Force control of the U-2 missions over Cuba, the DOD representatives called…
  • p. 237 …In reality, however, the United States would maintain strict control over the missions to be flown…
  • p. 335 …The flood of information that the U-2 missions gathered led to a major expansion of…
  • p. 340 …In 1959 Bissell became Deputy Director for Plans but kept the reconnaissance projects under his control…
  • p. 348 …System-I used S- and X-band ELINT receivers to collect ground-controlled intercept and air…
  • p. 400 mission 2023 108 mission 2029 124 mission 3086 200 mission 3088 200 mission 3089 201 mission…

Read from the scan by GLM-OCR; expect the odd misread word.

## Secret NOFORN

Russell, Richard B. 88

## S

S-band radar

87

sailplane

10-11, 24-26, 47

Sakhalin Island

201

Saltonstall, Leverett

88

SAM site

177, 205, 306

San Cristobal, Cuba

206-207, 209

San Diego, California

247, 343

Santa Barbara Channel

254

Santa Clara Airfield, Cuba

201

Saratov Engels Airfield, Soviet Union

164

Saryshagan, Soviet Union

139, 168, 232, 336

satellite imagery

298, 255

satellite navigation systems

341

satellite photography

87, 195-197, 226, 233, 237, 241

satellites

22, 100, 104, 159, 162, 211, 299,

303, 312, 320, 322, 328

Saville, Gordon P.

17-18

Schalk, Louis

288-289

Schlesinger, James R.

257, 333

Schoech, William A. 285

Schriever, Bernard A.

7, 11

Schultze, Charles L.

309

Science and Technology, Directorate of

193, 287, 328

Science and Technology, Special Assistant

to the President for

37

Scientific Advisory Board

17, 23

Scientific Advisory Committee

17, 89, 332

Scientific Engineering Institute (SEI)

110-111, 129, 260, 267, 274, 331-332

Scientific Intelligence (OSI), Office of

14, 21, 39, 81, 97, 331, 333

SCOPE COTTON

310

SCOPE CRANE

242

SCOPE LOGIC

303

SCOPE SAINT

255

SCOPE SAINT-I

255

SCOPE SAINT-II

255

SCOPE SHIELD

246-247

Scott, Roderick M.

51, 53, 281, 333

Scoville, Herbert

207, 287, 289, 333

SCR-270 radar

7

Scranton-Wilkes-Barre Airport, Pennsylvania

222

Sea of Japan

3

Seaberg, John

8-9, 12, 35-36, 333

SEAFOAM

211

sealant

286, 288

secrecy agreements

295

Not linked to a story yet.

About this file

FOIA release, from the cia-readingroom collection. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is above. The text was read from the page images by GLM-OCR; expect the odd misread word. 406 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.