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 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.

  • p. 19 Secret NOFORN Chapter 1 6 RAF Canberra Mark-PR3 division in Baltimore, headed by Lt. Col…
  • p. 36 …In 1952 the Royal Air Force (RAF) began Project ROBIN, which was designed to modify the…
  • p. 106 …The U-2s were to use Lakenheath AFB, an RAF base also used by the USAF…
  • p. 107 …inadvertently penetrated the British radar network, causing RAF fighters to scramble. Afterward the Air Ministry made…
  • p. 122 …twin-engine Canberra bomber, similar to the RAF overflight of Kapustin Yar in 1953. The US…
  • p. 156 …Range for the first time since the RAF's overflight in 1953, obtaining photographs of a…
  • p. 166 …In November 1958, four RAF officers arrived at Detachment B at Adana, thus beginning the United…
  • p. 167 …On 7 February 1958, Bissell instructed the to ask Air Vice Marshal MacDonald if the RAF…
  • p. 168 …MacDonald agreed to Bissell's proposal and began recruiting RAF pilots to fly the U-2…
  • p. 169 …Most flights by the RAF pilots in Detachment B, however, took place in the Middle East…
  • p. 177 …For almost a year, the RAF pilots of Detachment B had been ready to fly over…
  • p. 194 …A four-man unit of RAF U-2 pilots was stationed at Detachment G, Edwards AFB…
  • p. 200 …approval authority for missions conducted by the RAF pilots in Detachment B. The loss of Powers…
  • p. 316 …Project IDEALIST U-2 flying from an RAF facility in Great Britain. The OXCART would fly…
  • p. 332 …1960, the need for British participation lessened. RAF pilots henceforth flew only training or ferry missions…
  • p. 339 …Division PSAC President's Science Advisory Committee RAF Royal Air Force RFP Request for proposal SAB…
  • p. 351 …May 1960 4154 Powers Peshawar B B Tyuratam, Kyshtym, Sverdlovsk; downed by SAM $ ^{a} $ RAF pilot
  • p. 402 …Louis 29 Watertown Strip 57 Watton RAF Base. England 156 "weather plane" cover story 179 weather…
security 2,27,40-41,43,55,59-60,72,81, 94,112,125,127,140,161,167, 185,187-188,191,197,201,209, 212,218,221-222,224,236,256, 273,283-284,294,318,327

Security, Office of 59,112,222

Semipalatinsk, Soviet Union 128,138-139,147,168

SENSINT--Sensitive Intelligence 3

sensors 11,22,241,292,310

Seventh Air Division 89

Severodvinsk, Soviet Union 172, 176

Shanghai, China 222,228,242

sheep-dipping 74

Index

Shell Oil Company 62,328

shellfish toxin 125

Shelton, William

shock wave 290-291

short-range reconnaissance vehicle 342

show trial 183

Shuangchengzi, China 226, 228, 235

shutter assemblies 53

Siberia 3

Sichuan, China 230

Sieker, Robert 131

Sierra snowfield 254

SIGINT Committee 332

Secret NOFORN

Signals Intelligence (SIGINT) 222

"single-pass" mission 306

Sino-Indian border 231-233,319

Sino-Soviet border 336

"Skonk Works"

45

Skunk Works 45,71,132,251,262,273-274

SKYLARK

299

Smithsonian Institution 55

"snap-up"

148

Snark missiles 22

Snider, Sammy V. C. 138

snowmelt 254

SOFT TOUCH 135,139,143

software algorithms 52

solar cells

240

solid-fueled missiles 161,317

sound barrier 289

SOUTH GATE 216

South Vietnam 230-231,243,301,305

Southeast Asia 190,198,216,221,301,310

Sovetskaya Gavan', Soviet Union 144

Soviet Bloc 1-2,4,6,16-20,87,93,112,123 147,152,159,195,197,211,330

Soviet Communist Party Congress 160

Soviet Far East 134,144

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About this file

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