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.

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

Chapter 5

U-2 Operations After May 1960

U-2 Operations in Latin America...197

U-2 Support to the Bay of Pigs Invasion...197

Aerial Refueling Capability for the U-2...198

U-2 Coverage During the Cuban Missile Crisis...199

U-2s Over South America...211

U-2 Operations in Asia...211

Detachment C and the Indonesian Revolt of 1958...211

China Offshore Islands Dispute of 1958...215

U-2 Support for DDP Operations in Tibet...216

U-2Cs for Detachment C...217

U-2 Crash in Thailand...219

End of Detachment C Operations...219

Detachment G Missions Over Laos and North Vietnam...221

New Detachment on Taiwan...222

Use of Detachment H Aircraft by US Pilots...230

U-2s in India...231

Increasing Responsibilities, Inadequate Resources in Asia...233

Advanced ECM Equipment for Detachment H...237

Use of Infrared Scanner Over PRC Nuclear Plants...238

...240

The End of U-2 Overflights of Mainland China...242

Peripheral Missions by Detachment H...244

Operation SCOPE SHIELD Over North Vietnam...246

Improvements in U-2 Technology...247

Modification of U-2s for Aircraft Carrier Deployment...247

Use of Carrier-Based U-2 To Film a French Nuclear Test Site...249

A New Version of the U-2...251

Replacement of the Original U-2s With U-2Rs...253

The Final Years of the U-2...253

Support to Other Agencies...254

Overseas Deployment Exercises and Missions...255

The Phaseout of the Office of Special Activities...257

Chapter 6

The U-2's Intended Successor: Project OXCART, 1956-1968

The Evaluation of Designs for a Successor to the U-2 ... 260

Competition Between Lockheed and Convair... 267

The Selection of the Lockheed Design... 270

Efforts To Reduce the A-12's Radar Cross Section... 274

The OXCART Contract ... 277

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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.