Documents / FOIA release

CIA/CSI/ History Staff Monograph, The Central Intelligence Agency and Overhead Reconnaissance: The U-2 and Oxcart Programs, 16 July 2002.

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, written in 1992 and approved for release in 2011. It covers the CIA's manned overhead reconnaissance program from 1954 to 1974 and its two aircraft, the U-2 and the A-12 OXCART. It follows their development, the overflights of the Soviet Union, the downing of Francis Gary Powers in 1960, and later operations. One section is titled "U-2s, UFOs, and Operation BLUE BOOK."

  • p. 11 …At great risk, US Air Force and Navy aircraft had been conducting peripheral reconnaissance and shallow…
  • p. 16 …As a result, in the late 1940s, the US Air Force and Navy began trying to…
  • p. 17 …Two months later, on 7 October 1952, Soviet fighter aircraft stalked and shot down a US…
  • p. 72 …agreement with the Air Force and the Navy (which at that time was also interested in…
  • p. 147 …turned to the Navy, which granted permission for Detachment C to use the Naval Air Station…
  • p. 180 …The Army, Navy, and CIA, however, doubted that any had been deployed, because none could be…
  • p. 223 …by Air Force and Navy reconnais- sance aircraft. President Kennedy used NPIC photographs to illustrate his…
  • p. 273 …Charyk, and his Navy counterpart, Garrison Norton. Designers from several air- craft manufacturers also attended some…
  • p. 283 …This engine had originally been developed for the Navy's large, jet-powered flying boat, the…
  • p. 297 …The need for additional buildings on the base was met by the Navy. Three surplus Navy…
  • p. 298 …After hearing Bissell and Holcomb's suggestion that the J58 might be used in future Navy…
SecrefTSQRN
Chapter 6
285
005653421 UNCLASSIFIED
to reduce expenditures. After much refiguring, project officials de-
cided to decrease the number of deliverable aircraft. Amendment No.
11 to the contract reduced from 12 to 10 the number of A- 12s, for a
total cost of $161.2 million:7
The cancellation of these two A- 12s was offset by an Air Force
order for the development of a supersonic interceptor variant of the
A-12 to serve as a replacement for the North American F- 108A Rapier
interceptor project, which had been canceled in late 1960. With the
assistance of the the Air Force
entered into an agreement with Lockneed to proauce uiree AF-12 air-
craft, based on the A-12 design but modified to carry a second crew-
man and three air-to-air missiles. This effort was called Project
KEDLOCK. The AF-12 (later redesignated the YF-12A) was de-
signed to intercept enemy bombers long before they reached the
United States, and initial Air Force plans envisioned a force of up to
100 of these supersonic interceptors. In fact, only three of these planes
were built and delivered during the 1963-64 time frame because
Secretary of Defense McNamara canceled the program as a cost-cut-
ting measure. The Air Force bore all of the costs of the YF-I2A pro-
ject.; CIA was only involved in helping to write -black" contracts.4
Lockheed was not the only OXCART contractor having trouble
containing costs: Pratt & Whitney was fighting an even bigger battle.
In mid-I961, Pratt & Whitney overruns threatened to halt the entire
OXCART project. At the suggestion of Cdr. William Holcomb in the
office of the Chief of Naval Materiel, Richard Bissell asked the Navy
to assist in funding the 158's development. After hearing Bissell and
Holcomb's suggestion that the J58 might be used in future Navy air-
craft, VAdm. William A. Schoech, Chief of the Navy Materiel
Command that had originally financed the J58 engine, authorized the
transfer of $38 million in end-of-year funds to the project, thus keep-
ing the OXCART's head above water."9 As it turned out, the J58 was
never used in a Navy aircraft.
OSA History. chap. 20. pp. 46-47, 51-55 (TS Codewordi r OXCART Story.-
p. 10 (S).
OSA History, chap. 20, pp. 46-47 (TS Codeword).
Parangosky interview (S): OSA History. chap. 20. P. 55 (TS Codeword). During this
period, Kelly Johnson was very disappointed with Pratt & Whitney'i work on the 158,
particularly when they shocked him in September 1961 with the news that the engine
would be overweight. underpowered, and late. Johnson, "Archangel log," II September
1961.
ED 129581.6hili1l>1010<25Yrs
IS1
UNCLASSIFIED

Not linked to a story yet.

About this file

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.