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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."

Open the PDF at page 319 Original source ↗

“The Advance”26 pages

  • p. 6 …Project OXCART, 1956-1968 The Evaluation of Designs for a Successor to the U-2 260…
  • p. 22 …retired from the Air Force to become the assistant director of Lockheed's Advanced Development Program…
  • p. 24 ORN Chapter 1 11 Kelly Johnson %.419r.,‹ 005653421 UNCLASSIFIED gravity (g's) instead of the military…
  • p. 27 …He later advanced to the rank of brigadier general in the reserve. For Strong's contacts…
  • p. 32 …lithium deuteride, a tech- nology more advanced than the heavy water method used by US BEACON…
  • p. 33 …between the developed and undeveloped nations. This aggressive Soviet foreign policy, combined with advances in nuclear…
  • p. 58 …secrecy in the new project, Kelly Johnson placed it in Lockheed's Advanced Development facility at…
  • p. 65 …His software algorithms made it possible to model lens designs and determine in advance the effects…
  • p. 76 …UNCLASSIFIED """"Igeret-ALQ Chapter 2 63 advanced gear for the U-2 pilots. David Clark expert…
  • p. 111 …of Soviet advances in long-range bombers and missiles. The initial sighting of the new Soviet…
  • p. 114 …Adenauer be informed in advance of US plans to overfly the Soviet Union from bases in…
  • p. 174 …concentrating on developing the more advanced solid-fueled missiles rather than increasing the num- ber of…
  • p. 191 …the cover story that had been prepared and distributed in advance of the mission. The first…
  • p. 250 …so urgent that the Defense Department finally re ente CO5653421 UNCLASSIFIED Advanced ECM Equipment for Demand…
  • p. 265 …the U-2R needed a camera that incorporated the many im- portant advances that had occurred…
  • p. 266 …This camera was actually a very advanced version of the original B camera with a new…
  • p. 282 …aircraft from the small inventory of its most advanced bomber. Even had the B-58B program…
  • p. 295 …In fact, it was an advanced version of the highly reliable B camera developed for the…
  • p. 307 …he an- nounced the successful development of an -advanced experimental jet aircraft, the A-11. which…
  • p. 310 …It was now time to find work for the most advanced aircraft ever conceived and built…
  • p. 321 …advanced aircraft ever built was to be put out to pasture. The aban- donment of the…
  • p. 325 …when the OXCART program ended in the summer of 1968, no more advanced successor was wait…
  • p. 326 …The most advanced aircraft of the 20th century had become an anachronism before it was ever…
  • p. 333 …ADVANCES IN TECHNOLOGY One very important byproduct of the CIA's manned reconnaissance program was the…
  • p. 334 …the end of the usefulness of the world's most advanced aircraft; its offspring, the SR…
  • p. 335 …Thus, the CIA sponsored the development of the world's most advanced aircraft—the OXCART—and…
005653421 UNCLASSIFIED
—51reret-WELlaft_
Chapter 6
306
During the next six weeks, there were alerts for 15 BLACK
SHIELD missions, seven of which were actually flown. Only four de-
tected hostile radar signals. By mid-July 1967. the BLACK SHIELD
missions had provided sufficient evidence for analysts to conclude
that no surface-to-surface missiles had been deployed in North
Vietnam.6'
[0 12958 1.61111111>1010<25Yrs
(Si
Project Headquarters in Langley_planned and directed all
operational BLACK SHIELD missions. \
A typical mission over North Vietnam required refueling south
of Okinawa, shortly after takeoff. After the planned photographic pas-
ses, the aircraft withdrew for a second aerial refueling in the Thailand
area before returning to Kadena. So _great was the plane's speed that it
spent only 12.5 minutes over Vietnam during a "single-pass" mis-
sion, and 21.5 minutes during a "two-pass" mission. Because of its
wide 86-mile turning radius, the plane occasionally crossed into
Chinese airspace when getting into position for a second pass.
After the aircraft landed, the camera film was removed and sent
by special plane to processing facilities in the United States. By late
summer, however, an Air Force photo laboratory in Japan began do-
ing the processing in order to place the photointelligence in the hands
of US commanders in Vietnam within 24 hours of a mission's com-
pletion.
BLACK SHIELD activity continued unabated during the second
half of 1967. From 16 August to 31 December 1967, 26 missions
were alerted and 15 were flown. On 17 September one SAM site
tracked the vehicle with its acquisition radar but was unsuccessful
with its FAN SONG guidance radar. It was not until 28 October that a
North Vietnamese SAM site launched a missile at the OXCART.
Mission photography documented the event with photographs of mis-
sile smoke above the SAM firing site and pictures of the missile and
its contrail. Electronic countermeasures equipment aboard the
OXCART performed well, and the missile did not endanger the air-
craft.
'OXCART Story. - pp. 25-28 (S): OSA History, chap. 20. pp. 119-124. annex
1 _(iS Codeword).
UNCLASSIFIED

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