Documents / Official release
This is a Secret History Staff monograph by Gregory W. Pedlow and Donald E. Welzenbach of the Central Intelligence Agency, published in 1992. It gives a history of the CIA's manned overhead reconnaissance program from 1954 to 1974, covering the development and operation of the U-2 and the A-12 OXCART aircraft. It covers overflights of the Soviet Union, the 1960 downing of Francis Gary Powers, and later operations. One section is titled "U-2s, UFOs, and Operation BLUE BOOK."
From the source:Release of 2026-06-12 This CIA History Staff document chronicles the complete history of the U-2 and OXCART (A-12) high-altitude reconnaissance aircraft programs from 1954 to 1974, detailing their development, operations over the Soviet Union and other targets worldwide, the famous downing of Francis Gary Powers in 1960, organizational reforms following that incident, and the eventual transfer of operations from CIA to Air Force control. A more redacted version of this document has been available on CIA's public website.
“RAF”18 pages
238 Setret PdOFQRl)I Chapter 5 ground force installations .. .would require about two man-years work, backed up by a larger expansion of photointerpretation ef fort.,, S3 Use of Infrared Scanner Over PRC Nuclear Plants Photographic missions were not the only method used by the Agency to gather information on the PRC's progress in developing nuclear weapons. fn fact, standard overhead photography was of little value in determining whether or not various nuclear-related facilities were producing weapon-grade materials. Such information could onl1y be obtained from agent reports or infrared imaging of the targets. which would reveal the heat associated with nuclear-refining activity. Early in 1963 the Agency sought special funds from the Pentagon to de velop a high-resolution infrared scanner for the U-2 in order to ascer tain the operntional status of Chinese nuclear reactors. After this request was turned down. the Agency decided to fund the develop ment of such a scanner itself. In the spring of 1963, the Office of Research and Development (ORD) signed a contract with the Texas Instruments C'Jmoration for the :roduction of an infrared scanner that would operat ~----:---,.~-- ~ To conceal the intended purpose of the scanner, the dev ices were called forest fire dete,ctors and assigned model numbers such as "FFD-I ... Tests conducted in Septe ~3 oro...-ed that model FFD-2 was ca • f reveal incr activit ·-------- -~~ I ~ Further im- provements followed, and on 26 October 1964 ORUcleclarecl the infrared unit operational. In reporting the successful results of the in frared testing to DCI McCone. ORD Director Robert Chapman men tioned that there was only one such unit in existence. McCone immedi ately told Chapman to order more, and the Agency then pur chased several for Project TACKLE and a stereo-configured FFD-4 for Project OXCART. DC[ McCone reviewed these infrared detection developments with Defense Secretary McNamara and his new deputy, Cyrus Vance, on 30 October. being careful to point out that the new device was a E..-ncv-snnnsored R&D because the Pentagon had ref~ '• ORR. M.:moran<lum tor tho: R.:cord. 11 January 1965, OSA records (TS Co<l.:wonJ). So5ret
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Official release, from the pursue 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.