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.
“Sea”26 pages
- p. 16 …An RB-29 lost in the Sea of Japan on 13 June 1952 was probably also…
- p. 38 …off to about 6 percent of its sea-level thrust.
Finally, low structural load factors, like…
- p. 75 …3 0 0 ^{\circ} \mathrm{F} $ at sea level. Manufacturing this special fuel required petroleum byproducts…
- p. 80 …276 pounds heavier and delivered only 10,200 pounds of thrust at sea level; the resulting
- p. 89 …that they could not be flown at sea level faster than 190 knots in smooth air…
- p. 98 …southern Europe and then across the Black Sea and the desert areas of China. These balloons…
- p. 139 …Soviet border from the Black Sea to the Caspian Sea and on to Afghanistan. The System…
- p. 146 …On 31 July, the same aircraft made a run over the Black Sea. There were a…
- p. 148 …space launch facility east of the Aral Sea in Kazakhstan. None of the mission planners was…
- p. 153 …of Soviet naval maneuvers in the Barents Sea. The final overflight of Detachment A. mission 2040…
- p. 157 Secret NOFORN
Chapter 3
144
U-2s flying well within international airspace above the Black Sea…
- p. 158 …it turned abruptly upward over the Bering Sea just west of Alaska, climbed to 110,000…
- p. 166 …the Soviet border and over the Black Sea without entering Soviet airspace. In late August, as…
- p. 185 …Because the Bodo airfield was involved in NATO maneuvers taking place in the Barents Sea area…
- p. 225 …forces were conducting an all-out air-sea-land drive against the rebel-held areas in…
- p. 257 …The use of peripheral missions prevented any further losses, although one aircraft crashed into the sea…
- p. 316 …Shortly before Leningrad, the A-12 would head west-southwest down the Baltic Sea, skirting the…
- p. 317 …2 would be flying farther out to sea, safely beyond the range of all Soviet SAMs…
- p. 350 …B B Afghanistan, Tashkent, Tyuratam, Kazalinsk, Aral Sea
11 August 1957 4039 McMurray Lahore B B…
- p. 351 …A-2 Dushanbe, Tashkent, Tyuratam, Kazalinsk, Aral Sea
10 September 1957 4059 Hall Adana B A…
- p. 369 …AQUILINE
304, 339-343
Arabs
256
Aral Sea
135
Arbenz, Jacobo
16
"Archangel-1"
262
"Archangel…
- p. 371 ## Secret NOFORN
Index
358
Baltic Sea
3, 303
Baltic states
104
Baltimore; Maryland
6, 9
Barents…
- p. 373 …186, 201, 205, 208-209, 299, 327
Caspian Sea
126
catheterized
64
cathode-ray tube
267…
- p. 382 …23-24, 109, 139, 143, 164
Kara Sea
142
Kazakh language
135
Kazakhstan
135
Kazan', Soviet…
- p. 385 …301
mechanical fuel totalizer/counters
68
Mediterranean Sea
114, 116, 121, 140, 142, 153
medium-range…
- p. 393 …7
Scranton-Wilkes-Barre Airport, Pennsylvania
222
Sea of Japan
3
Seaberg, John
8-9, 12…
## Secret NOFORN
Hiring U-2 Pilots ... 73
Pilot Training ... 75
Final Tests of the U-2 ... 76
Three Fatal Crashes in 1956 ... 79
Coordination of Collection Requirements ... 80
Preparations To Handle the Product of U-2 Missions ... 82
The Impact of the Air Force Project GENETRIX Balloons ... 84
AQUATONE Briefings for Selected Members of Congress ... 88
The U-2 Cover Story ... 89
Chapter 3
U-2 Operations in the Soviet Bloc and Middle East, 1956-1958
The Deployment of Detachment A to Lakenheath ... 94
The Move to Wiesbaden ... 95
President Eisenhower’s Attitude Toward Overflights ... 96
First Overflights of Eastern Europe ... 100
First U-2 Flights Over the Soviet Union ... 104
Soviet Protest Note ... 109
The End of the Bomber Gap ... 111
Tactical Intelligence From U-2s During the Suez Crisis ... 112
Renewed Overflights of the Soviet Union ... 122
Radar-Deceptive “Dirty Birds” ... 128
The New Detachment C ... 133
Detachment B Flights From Pakistan ... 135
The Decline of Detachment A ... 139
... 142
Declining Overflight Activity ... 143
Concerns About Soviet Countermeasures Against the U-2 ... 147
More Powerful Engines for the U-2 ... 149
Intervention in Lebanon, 1958 ... 152
British Participation in the U-2 Project ... 153
The U-2 Project at the Beginning of 1959 ... 157
# Chapter 4
The Final Overflights of the Soviet Union, 1959-1960
The U-2 and the “Missile-Gap” Debate... 159
The Last Overflight: Operation GRAND SLAM... 170
The Aftermath of the U-2 Downing... 177
The Withdrawal of the Overseas Detachments... 181
The Fate of Francis Gary Powers... 183
Changes in Overflight Procedures After May 1960... 187
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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.