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/specialCollection/MissileGap/1992/1992-04-01.pdf

Central Intelligence Agency · 406 pages · text from the file's own layer

This is a CIA History Staff monograph by Gregory W. Pedlow and Donald E. Welzenbach, published in Washington in 1992 and approved for release in 2011. It covers the CIA's manned overhead reconnaissance program from 1954 to 1974, which developed and flew the U-2 and the A-12 OXCART. It traces the U-2's development, the overflights of the Soviet Union, the downing of Francis Gary Powers on 1 May 1960, and later operations. One section is titled U-2s, UFOs, and Operation BLUE BOOK.

  • 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 …with a boiling point of 300T at sea level. Manufacturing this special fuel required petroleum byproducts…
  • p. 80 …heavier and delivered only 10,200 pounds of thrust at sea level; the resulting --soarer UNCLASSIFIED
  • 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 bal…
  • p. 102 …working on a cover story for over- seas operations. It was important to have a plausible…
  • p. 120 …neanteagon • 724744 (8009071 4-92 Finland Baltic Sea ükranian Italy ROME IUMIS Tunisia Mediterranean Sea UNCLASSIFIED
  • p. 139 …Soviet border from the Black Sea to the Caspian Sea and on to Afghanistan. The System…
  • p. 146 …aircraft made a run over the Black Sea. 'I here were a total of nine DB…
  • p. 148 …space launch taciitty east of the Aral Sea in Kazakhstan. None of the mission planners was…
  • 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. 215 …F"••• N. ' :\ ■ Caribbean Sea Ceyrnen Islands M FL) .r, Unttad ) ' ^ Gulf of Mexico NORTH ATLANTIC OCEAN…
  • p. 216 …Isle of P,floo Caribbean Sea ••• Corn. Islands IWO Janss — 200 kilometers 100 200 Miles ".! SgsgalgOidaRte…
  • p. 217 SAM Sites in Cuba, August 1962 Caribbean Sea Gulf of Mexico NORTH A TLANTIC OCEAN 9…
  • p. 316 …Shortly before Leningrad, the A-12 would head west-southwest down the Baltic Sea, skirting the…
Noronai
Chapter 3
139
CO5653421 UNCLASSIFIED
nuclear device. These photographs also revealed evidence of a recent,
low-yield, above-ground nuclear test I
On its way to Semipalatinsk, the 21 August mission flew a
search pattern over the western end of Lake Balkash looking for an-
other Soviet missile-related installation and made the first photo-
graphs of what was later determined to be the new missile test center
at Saryshagan. This facility was used to test radars against incoming
missiles fired from Kapustin Yar, 1,400 miles to the west. Saryshagan
later became the center for the development of the Soviet Union's ad-
vanced antiballistic missile (ABM) weapon system.
On 23 August 1957, DDCI Cabe11, Richard Bissell, and Air
Force Chief of Staff Twining met with President Eisenhower to report
on the results of Operation SOFT TOUCH. They showed the
President some of the photographic results of the earlier missions and
reported on the effects of the antiradar measures. Although the
antiradar measures had not proved successful, the photographic yield
from the missions was extremely valuable. Bissell then informed the
President that the SOFT TOUCH operation was just about to con-
clude with the transfer of the aircraft back to Adana. He asked per-
mission for one of the U-2s to make another overflight of the Soviet
Union on this return trip, but the President denied the request, not
wishing to conduct any more overflights than were necessary:°
ED 129581.6Idlill>101010<25Yrs
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" Mission folder 4045 (20 August 1957) and 4050 (21 August 1957), OSA records
TS Codeword).
Andrew .1. Goodpaster, Memorandum for the Record, 23 August 1957, WHOSS, Alpha,
DDEL (TS).
UNCLASSIFIED

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FOIA release, from the cia-readingroom collection. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is under it. 406 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.