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.
“The Pentagon”12 pages
244 ~eeFet NOFOAN Chapter 5 Overflights by Project TACKLE Fiscal Year Overflights Total 104 1961 18 1963 17 1964 13 1965 30 1966 10 1967 14 1968 1 Peripheral Missions by Detachment H Detachment H did not cease its activities following the termination of overflights of mainland China. Its next U-2 mission took place on 18 May 1968. This was an electronic intelligence mission that, in ac cordance with the new guidelines, never came closer than 20 miles to the Chinese coast. All future Detachment H missions against the PRC also conformed with this restriction but were still the target of interception attempts by PRC MiG-2ls or hastily erected SAM sites on offshore islands. The use of peripheral missions prevented any further losses, although one aircraft crashed into the sea from un known causes shortly after taking off to start a mission on 5 January 1969. Another pilot was killed on 24 November 1970 in a crash dur- • . • . • . f,(, mg a routine training m1ss10n. The level of activity gradually increased during the remaining years of Project TACKLE, as can be seen in the table on page 245. The U-2s flying these missions were generally equipped with the B or the newly designed 48-inch H cameras to obtain oblique pho tography and with various signal-intelligence-gathering systems. Beginning in May 1971, Project TACKLE began using a new com munications-intelligence collection package known as LONG SHAFT. This system was used on 32 occasions through 12 December 1973, when the LONG SHAFT collection program ended. "" ·•oftice of Special Activities History. April 1969 to Phase-Out." (draft: hereafter cited as "OSA History-2") (CIA: DS&T, 1974). chap. 3. pp. 36-41 (TS Codeword). Secret
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Official release, from the pursue 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.