Documents / Official release
CIA-UAP-003, The Central Intelligence Agency and Overhead Reconnaissance; The U-2 and OXCART Programs, 1954-1974
Central Intelligence Agency · 1954 · 406 pages · text from the file's own layer
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.
“Sea”42 pages
- p. 16 …An RB-29 lost in
the Sea of Japan on 13 June 1952 was probably also…
- p. 38 …off to about 6
percent of its sea-level thrust.
Finally, low structural load factors, like…
- p. 62 …U-2 landing gear and pogos
.Sea,et-
- p. 69 …chap. 8, pp. 1-2 (TS Codeword); Miller, Lockheed U-2. pp. 19-20.
Sea,at
- p. 75 …a boiling point of 300°F at sea level.
Manufacturing this special fuel required petroleum byproducts…
- p. 80 …pounds heavier
and delivered only 10.200 pounds of thrust at sea level; the resulting
Secret
- p. 89 …that they could not be
flown at sea level faster than 190 knots in smooth air…
- p. 98 …Sec.el NOfOftN
Chapter 2
Sea,et
- p. 102 …working on a cover story for over
seas operations. It was important to have a plausible…
- p. 115 North
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First Overflights, 20 June - 5 July 1956
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- p. 139 …Soviet border from the Black Sea to the Caspian
Sea and on to Afghanistan. The System…
- p. 146 …On 31 July,
the same aircraft made a run over the Black Sea. There were a…
- p. 148 …was
the first to photograph the major Soviet space launch facility east of
the Aral Sea…
- p. 153 …of
Soviet naval maneuvers in the Barents Sea. The final overflight of
Detachment A , mission 2040…
- p. 154 …K~ome<e,,
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Barents Sea
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- p. 155 …Norwegian radars tracked
the overflights of the Barents Sea and Murmansk in October 1957,
and Col…
- p. 157 …well within international airspace above the Black Sea, as
was the case on 27 October I957…
- p. 158 …it turned
abruptly upward over the Bering Sea just west of Alaska, climbed to
110,000…
- p. 166 …the Soviet border and over the Black
Sea without entering Soviet airspace. In late August, as…
- p. 179 Baltic
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- p. 185 …Because the Bodo airfield was involved in
NATO maneuvers taking place in the Barents Sea area…
- p. 215 …Caribbean Sea
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Mission 3088 29 August…
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- p. 225 …forces were conducting an all-out air-sea-land drive against
the rebel-held areas in…
- p. 226 f.
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- p. 248 …6eeret NOFORN
Chapter 5
Sea,et
- p. 257 …The use of peripheral missions prevented any
further losses, although one aircraft crashed into the sea…
- p. 288 275
Settee NOPORN
Chapter 6
Radar testing of A-72 mockup
Sea,et
- p. 316 …Shortly before Leningrad, the A-12
would head west-southwest down the Baltic Sea, skirting the…
- p. 317 …2 would be flying farther out to
sea, safely beyond the range of all Soviet SAMs…
- p. 350 …B B Afghanistan, Tashkent, Tyuratam,
Kazalinsk, Aral Sea
11 August 1957 4039 McMurray Lahore B B…
- p. 351 …A-2 Dushanbe, Tashkent, Tyuratam,
Kazalinsk, Aral Sea
10 September 1957 4059 Hall Adana B A…
- p. 369 …AQUILINE
304, 339-343
Arabs
256
Aral Sea
135
Arbenz, Jacobo
16
"Archangel-I"
262
"Archangel…
- p. 371 358
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Index
Baltic Sea
3, 303
Baltic states
104
Baltimore; Maryland
6, 9…
- p. 373 …186, 201, 205, 208-209, 299, 327
Caspian Sea
126
catheterized
64
cathode-ray tube
267…
- p. 382 …23-24, 109, 139, 143, 164
Kara Sea
142
Kazakh language
135
Kazakhstan
135
Kazan', Soviet…
- p. 385 …301
mechanical fuel totalizer/counters
68
Mediterranean Sea
114, 116. 121, 140, 142, 153
medium-range…
- p. 393 …Pennsylvania
222
Sea of Japan
3
Seaberg, John
8-9. 12. 35-36. 333
SEAFOAM
211…
303
Soviet missile system. As early as 1962, the intelligence community
began to be concerned about the actual purpose of new missile instal
lations that first appeared near Tallinn, Estonia, and soon spread along
the northwestern quadrant of the Soviet Union. Attempts to photo
graph the sites using reconnaissance satellites had been frustrated by
the prevailing cloud cover in the region. Because of the lack of accu
rate information about the missile sites, there was a wide divergence
of views within the intelligence community about their purpose.
These views ranged from the CIA's belief that the installations con
tained long-range, surface-to-air missiles designed to counter strate
gic bombers, to the Air Force's contention that Tallinn sites
represented a deployed antiballistic missile system.
Photointerpreters insisted that imagery with a resolution of 12 to
18 inches was necessary to determine missile size, antenna pattern,
and configuration of the engagement radars associated with the sys
tem. Electronic intelligence (ELINT) analysts also needed data about
the Tallinn radars, but there were no collection sites that could moni
tor the Tallinn emanations when the radars were being tested.
Moreover, the Soviets never operated the radars in the tracking and
lockon modes, a fact that prevented analysts from knowing the fre
quencies or any other performance characteristics of the radar.
To settle the question of the purpose of the Tallinn installations.
Office of Special Activities planners proposed a mission that would
use the high resolution of the OXCART's camera along with the
U-2's sophisticated ELINT-collection equipment. This project's un
classified name was Project SCOPE LOGIC; its classified title was
Operation UPWIND.
The proposed project involved launching an A-12 OXCART air
craft from Area 51 in Nevada and flying it to a Baltic Sea rendezvous
with a Project IDEALIST U-2 flying from an RAF facility in Great
Britain. The OXCART would fly north of Norway and then turn south
along the Soviet-Finnish border. Shortly before Leningrad, the A-12
would head west-southwest down the Baltic Sea, skirting the coasts of
Estonia, Latvia. Lithuania, Poland. and East Germany before heading
west to return to Area 51. The entire flight would cover 11,000 nauti
cal miles, take eight hours and 38 minutes, and require four aerial re
fuelings.
Although the A-12 would not violate Soviet airspace during this
dash, it would appear to Soviet radar network operators to be headed
for an overflight penetration in the vicinity of Leningrad. It was
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Chapter 6
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Not linked to a story yet.
About this file
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.