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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.

Open the PDF at page 260 Original source ↗

“Nevers”24 pages

  • p. 13 …Without their help a good deal of this story could never have become known. The assistance…
  • p. 44 …the CL-282; in fact, there may never have been a formal decision as such. In…
  • p. 74 …fly, Lockheed engineers had to solve problems never before encountered. Among these problems was the need…
  • p. 84 …Flight tests continued, with the U-2 ascending to alti- tudes never before attained in sustained…
  • p. 102 …put aside for further thought (which it never received), and Bissell's weather research cover re…
  • p. 138 …Then in January 1960, the commander of Detachment B, raised an important question that had never…
  • p. 147 …Peninsula, because of bad weather and, therefore, never entered Soviet airspace. A second attempt to photograph…
  • p. 159 …Six of the men on board were killed and the remaining 11 were never heard from…
  • p. 160 …Although this new Berlin crisis never became as threatening as the blockade of 1948-49, President…
  • p. 165 …The Air Force never equipped its orig- inal U-2s with the J75 engines." Detachment C…
  • p. 189 …Powers never made it past Sverdlovsk. Four and a half hours into the mission, an SA…
  • p. 208 …very good reason, and such a situation never developed, in part because satellite photography gradually began…
  • p. 210 …Since this never happened, Francis Gary Powers' flight on I May 1960 proved to be the…
  • p. 223 …Responsibility for photo- graphic coverage of Cuba remained with the Air Force; Agency pilots never flew…
  • p. 264 Sratrt.11/Qt2.1....31■1 Chapter 5 251 005653421 UNCLASSIFIED There was never another Agency…
  • p. 290 …the OXCART aircraft for its own use. never adopted the laminated vertical stabilizers.'4 THE OXCART…
  • p. 294 …Scott employed concepts never be- fore used in camera systems. These included the use of a…
  • p. 298 …As it turned out, the J58 was never used in a Navy aircraft. OSA History. chap…
  • p. 299 …This new delay was caused by leaking fuel tanks, a problem that would never be solved…
  • p. 313 …even though the SKYLARK contingency plan was never put into effect. Since U-2s continued to…
  • p. 316 …Moreover, the Soviets never operated the radars in the tracking and locktin modes, a fact that…
  • p. 326 …collector of strategic intelligence, the OXCART was never used for this purpose. Its brief deployment was…
  • p. 328 …Yet, the President never went so far as to eliminate the overflight program. As Commander in…
  • p. 333 …its speed and altitude have never been equaled. The development of this aircraft also led to…
SecNEQRN
Chapter 5
247
Ibid.. pp. 48-51 (TS Cocleword).
CO5653421 UNCLASSIFIED
Vietnam in January 1973, US military flights in the area were forbid-
den. The Nixon administration, therefore, tasked the CIA with moni-
toring North Vietnam's compliance with the cease-fire accords.
[Their highly sensitive missions had to remain at
least 15 nautical miles away from the North Vietnamese coast, and
they initially flew at low altitude in a deceptive direction in order to
avoid PRC radars. These constraints made the missions diffic-
ult because at low altitude the U-2 consumed more fuel and encoun-
tered more turbulence and the pilots' pressure suits tended to
overheat.
The first mission on 30 March 1973 was only marginally suc-
cessful because of cloud cover and haze, which prevented it from
photographing most of its targets. A second mission on the following
day had somewhat better luck with the weather, but problems with the
film processing reduced the mission's coverage. Afterward, the mon-
soon season prevented any further missions until 21 July 1973. This
-Mission obtained usable photography of SAM sites and North
Vietnamese supply operations, although the resolution was not as
high as it should have been because the H camera lens had not been
properly focused. The last SCOPE SHIELD mission, on 6 January
1974, finally succeeded in obtaining high-quality photography. The
mission provided complete coverage of shipping in Haiphong Harbor,
SAM defenses, and North Vietnamese naval order of battle."
[012958 1.6(d1111>10111010<25Yrs
(S1
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.