184-478: On 1 May 1960, a United States U-2 spy plane was shot down by the Soviet Air Defence Forces while conducting photographic aerial reconnaissance deep inside Soviet territory. Flown by American pilot Francis Gary Powers , the aircraft had taken off from Peshawar , Pakistan, and crashed near Sverdlovsk (present-day Yekaterinburg), after being hit by a surface-to-air missile . Powers parachuted to
368-470: A MiG-19 and a Su-9 during the flight. The U-2 left Soviet air space and landed at an Iranian airstrip at Zahedan . It was clear that the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency had successfully performed an extraordinarily dangerous but productive intelligence operation. The next flight of the U-2 spy plane from Peshawar airport was planned for late April. On 28 April 1960, a U.S. Lockheed U-2 C spy plane, Article 358,
552-633: A hypersonic unmanned surveillance plane, as it would be suited for missions that require greater speed for time-sensitive targets. The company released a notional artist's impression of the TR-X aircraft at an Air Force Association conference in Washington on 14 September 2015. Its name was changed to mean "tactical reconnaissance" to reflect its purpose as an affordable peace and wartime intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) aircraft, distinguishing it from strategic, penetrating SR-71-class platforms; TR
736-450: A suicide pill , although most chose not to. If put in the mouth and bitten, the "L-pill"—containing liquid potassium cyanide —would cause death in 10–15 seconds. After a pilot almost accidentally ingested an L-pill instead of candy during a December 1956 flight, the suicide pills were put into boxes to avoid confusion. When in 1960 the CIA realized that a pill breaking inside the cockpit would kill
920-540: A $ 22.5 million contract (equivalent to $ 255.9 million today) in March 1955 for the first 20 aircraft, with the first $ 1.26 million ($ 14.33 million today) mailed to Johnson's home in February 1955 to keep work going during negotiations. The company agreed to deliver the first aircraft by July of that year and the last by November 1956. It did so, and for $ 3.5 million ($ 39.2 million today) under budget. The Flight Test Engineer in charge
1104-555: A 1,600 mi (1,400 nmi ; 2,600 km ) radius. The reconnaissance aircraft was essentially a jet-powered glider . In June 1954, the USAF rejected the design in favor of the Bell X-16 and the modified B-57. Reasons included the lack of landing gear, use of the J73 engine instead of the more proven Pratt & Whitney J57 used by the competing designs, and not using multiple engines, which
1288-467: A 5,000-pound (2,300 kg) payload and 130-foot (40 m) wingspan. It will use the same F118-101 turbofan and generator as the U-2, but thrust could increase to 19,000 pounds (8,600 kg) and power increased to 65–75 kVA; service ceiling would increase to 77,000 ft (23,000 m) with a second engine. The TR-X is meant to be "survivable, not unnoticeable", operating outside of enemy air defense bubbles rather than penetrating into them. In 2020,
1472-462: A Polish expatriate were added to the U-2 trainees although only two of the Greek pilots were subsequently allowed to fly the aircraft. Their flight proficiency was poor. The language barrier and a lack of appropriate flying experience proved problematic; by late 1955, foreign pilots had been dropped from the program. USAF pilots had to resign their military commissions before joining the agency as civilians,
1656-622: A U.S. president. His speech on 11 May revolved around four main points: the need for intelligence gathering activities; the nature of intelligence gathering activities; how intelligence activities should be viewed (as distasteful, but vital); and finally that Americans should not be distracted from the real problems of the day. Eisenhower closed passionately by reacting to the Soviet claim that the US acted provocatively and said: "They had better look at their own [espionage] record." As he finished, he told reporters he
1840-612: A combination of warheads and massive amounts of countermeasures designed to defeat anti-missile systems ; it was announced by the Russian military as a response to the US Prompt Global Strike . In July 2023, North Korea fired a suspected intercontinental ballistic missile that landed short of Japanese waters. The launch follows North Korea's threat to retaliate against the US for alleged spy plane incursions. The following flight phases can be distinguished: ICBMs usually use
2024-699: A joint USAF-CIA project (the first time the CIA dealt with sophisticated technology) came in November 1954. Lockheed had meanwhile become busy with other projects and had to be persuaded to accept the CL-282 contract after its approval. Bissell became head of the project, which used covert funding; under the Central Intelligence Agency Act of 1949, the CIA's director is the only federal government employee who can spend "unvouchered" government money. Lockheed received
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#17328520780682208-454: A lens with a 240-inch (610 cm) focal length, Johnson replied "I'd sell my grandmother for six more inches!"; Baker instead used a 180-inch (460 cm) f/13.85 lens in a 13 in × 13 in (33 cm × 33 cm) format for his final design. The U-2 has used Jet Propellant Thermally Stable ( JPTS ) since the aircraft's development in the 1950s. JPTS is a high thermal stability, high altitude fuel , created specifically for
2392-628: A meeting of the United Nations Security Council on 23 May to tell their side of the story. The meetings continued for four days with other allegations of spying being exchanged, as well as recriminations over the Paris Summit, and a US offer of an "open skies" proposal to allow reciprocal flights over one another's territory, at the end of which the Soviet Union overwhelmingly lost a vote on a concise resolution which would have condemned
2576-400: A minimal independent nuclear deterrent entering its own cold war after an ideological split with the Soviet Union beginning in the early 1960s. After first testing a domestic built nuclear weapon in 1964, it went on to develop various warheads and missiles. Beginning in the early 1970s, the liquid fuelled DF-5 ICBM was developed and used as a satellite launch vehicle in 1975. The DF-5, with
2760-641: A network of binary addition circuits that continually recalculate the missile's position. The inputs to the navigation circuit are set by a general-purpose computer according to a navigational input schedule loaded into the missile before launch. One particular weapon developed by the Soviet Union ;– the Fractional Orbital Bombardment System – had a partial orbital trajectory, and unlike most ICBMs its target could not be deduced from its orbital flight path. It
2944-515: A next-generation High-Altitude Long Endurance (HALE) platform, but Lockheed sees a future need and wants something in development early. The company's last attempt to create a stealth unmanned aircraft was the RQ-3 DarkStar , which never made it past flight testing and was canceled. Plans for a U-2 replacement would not conflict with the development of the SR-72 , another project by the company to create
3128-420: A perfect balance in the fuel tanks essential for a safe landing. Similarly to sailplanes , the U-2 has a yaw string on the canopy to detect slip or skid during the approach. A skid during flight with no bank is the hint of an imbalance around the longitudinal axis which could be resolved by moving the fuel to the left or right wing tank. When the first overflights of the Soviet Union were tracked by radar,
3312-677: A planned trip to Washington D.C. of a Soviet air marshal, inviting Chinese communist leader Mao Zedong to Moscow, and launching an anti-American press campaign designed to critique "American aggression". At this time east and west were divided about how to move forward in Berlin, and the American press characterized Khrushchev's decision to emphasize the U-2 incident at the summit as an attempt to gain leverage on this issue. The summit itself did not last long, with talks only beginning on 15 May and ending on 16 May. Both Eisenhower and Khrushchev gave statements on
3496-452: A political trap for Eisenhower. His plan began with the release of information to the world that a spy plane had been shot down in Soviet territory, but he did not reveal that the pilot of this aircraft had also been found and that he was alive. With the information that Khrushchev released, the Americans believed that they would be able to continue with their cover story that the crashed U-2 was
3680-402: A process referred to as "sheep dipping", and were always called "drivers", not pilots. The program only recruited fighter pilots with reserve USAF commissions, as regular commissions complicated the resignation process. The program offered high salaries and the USAF promised that pilots could return at the same rank as their peers. The CIA's standards for selection were higher than the USAF's once
3864-611: A range of 10,000 to 12,000 km (6,200 to 7,500 mi)—long enough to strike the Western United States and the Soviet Union—was silo deployed, with the first pair in service by 1981 and possibly twenty missiles in service by the late 1990s. China also deployed the JL-1 Medium-range ballistic missile with a reach of 1,700 kilometres (1,100 mi) aboard the ultimately unsuccessful Type 092 submarine . In 1991,
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#17328520780684048-518: A ready state. Failure rates were very high throughout the early years of ICBM technology. Human spaceflight programs ( Vostok , Mercury , Voskhod , Gemini , etc.) served as a highly visible means of demonstrating confidence in reliability, with successes translating directly to national defense implications. The US was well behind the Soviets in the Space Race and so US President John F. Kennedy increased
4232-618: A report from the National Security Agency" which alleged that the U-2 had descended from 65,000 to 34,000 feet (19,812 to 10,363 m) before changing course and disappearing from radar. One more recent reading of the NSA's story is that they mistakenly tracked the descent of a MiG-19 piloted by Sr. Lt. Sergei Safronov. In 1996, Soviet pilot Captain Igor Mentyukov claimed that, at 65,000 feet (19,800 m) altitude, under orders to ram
4416-534: A result of the spy plane incident and the attempted cover-up, the Four Power Paris Summit was not completed. At the beginning of the talks on 16 May, there was still hope that the two sides could come together even after the events that took place earlier in May, but Eisenhower refused to apologize and Khrushchev left the summit one day after it had begun. Even though Eisenhower refused to apologize, he did admit that
4600-464: A single aspheric singlet lens . Six-thousand-foot (1,800 m) reels of film were used, with the emulsion being coated on a polyester ( PET ) base that offered significantly improved dimensional stability over extremes of temperature and humidity compared to conventional cellulose acetate . In addition, the U-2 also carried a low-resolution Perkin-Elmer tracking camera using a 3-inch lens, which made continuous horizon-to-horizon photographs. This
4784-467: A single missile to carry several warheads, each of which can strike a different target. The United States , Russia , China , France , India , the United Kingdom , Israel , and North Korea are the only countries known to have operational ICBMs. Pakistan is the only nuclear-armed state that does not possess ICBMs. Early ICBMs had limited precision , which made them suitable for use only against
4968-600: A target of Soviet nuclear forces. General Khalid Mahmud Arif of the Pakistan Army stated that "Pakistan felt deceived because the US had kept her in the dark about such clandestine spy operations launched from Pakistan's territory", although Pakistan's president Muhammad Ayub Khan may have known about the operations. Khan visited the USSR in 1965 and apologized for the incident. When Khan invited Soviet foreign minister Andrei Gromyko to visit Pakistan, pointing out he'd never visited
5152-500: A target with 1,500 nmi (1,700 mi ; 2,800 km ) of operational radius. The USAF decided to solicit designs only from smaller aircraft companies that could give the project more attention. Under the code name "Bald Eagle", it gave contracts to Bell Aircraft , Martin Aircraft , and Fairchild Engine and Airplane to develop proposals for the new reconnaissance aircraft. Officials at Lockheed Aircraft Corporation heard about
5336-414: A visit to the Soviet Union and was very upset when his invitation was retracted. The two sides were going to discuss topics such as nuclear arms reduction and also how to deal with increasing tensions surrounding Berlin. According to Eisenhower, had it not been for the U-2 incident, the summit and his visit to the Soviet Union could have greatly helped Soviet and American relations. The Soviet Union convened
5520-567: A war break out between the United States and the Soviet Union. Accordingly, when the U2 revelations came to light, Japanese protesters felt added urgency in their drive to eliminate the treaty and rid Japan of U.S. military bases. The U-2 incident severely compromised Pakistan's security and dented relations with the United States . After the incident, Nikita Khrushchev threatened to drop a nuclear bomb on Peshawar, thus warning Pakistan that it had become
5704-506: A weapon to escape in the event of capture. To decrease the risk of developing decompression sickness , pilots breathe 100% oxygen for an hour prior to taking off to remove nitrogen from the blood. A portable oxygen supply is used during transport to the aircraft. Since 2001, more than a dozen pilots have reportedly suffered the effects of decompression sickness, including permanent brain damage in nine cases; initial symptoms include disorientation and becoming unable to read. Factors increasing
1960 U-2 incident - Misplaced Pages Continue
5888-436: A weather research aircraft and not a military spy plane. The cover-up stated that the pilot of the U-2 weather aircraft had radioed in that he was experiencing oxygen difficulties while flying over Turkey. From there they claimed that the aircraft could have continued on its path because of auto-pilot, and that this could be the U-2 that crashed in the Soviet Union. The final attempt to make the cover story seem as real as possible
6072-428: Is a ballistic missile with a range greater than 5,500 kilometres (3,400 mi), primarily designed for nuclear weapons delivery (delivering one or more thermonuclear warheads ). Conventional , chemical , and biological weapons can also be delivered with varying effectiveness, but have never been deployed on ICBMs. Most modern designs support multiple independently targetable reentry vehicle (MIRVs), allowing
6256-728: Is a reference to the short-lived rebranding of the U-2 as the TR-1 in the 1980s. Size, and thus cost, is kept down by having less endurance than the Global Hawk at around 20 hours, which is still about the same time as a normal RQ-4 sortie even though it is capable of flying for 34 hours. The TR-X concept is aimed squarely at USAF needs and is not currently being marketed to the CIA or other government agencies. It would have increased power and cooling to accommodate new sensors, communication equipment, electronic warfare suites, and perhaps offensive or defensive laser weapons . TR-X could be ready for service in
6440-655: Is believed to have deployed a road mobile nuclear ICBM, the Jericho III , which entered service in 2008; an upgraded version is in development. India successfully test fired Agni V , with a strike range of more than 5,000 km (3,100 mi) on 19 April 2012, claiming entry into the ICBM club. The missile's actual range is speculated by foreign researchers to be up to 8,000 km (5,000 mi) with India having downplayed its capabilities to avoid causing concern to other countries. On 15 December 2022, first night trial of Agni-V
6624-480: Is common practice in high resolution cameras in later systems also, where the large image helps localize the small high-resolution images. The aircraft carries a variety of sensors in the nose, Q-bay (behind the cockpit, also known as the camera bay), and wing pods. The U-2 is capable of simultaneously collecting signals , imagery intelligence and air samples. Imagery intelligence sensors include either wet film photography, electro-optic, or radar imagery—the latter from
6808-399: Is driven by a second U-2 pilot who assists the landing U-2 by reporting the aircraft's altitude. In practice, once the aircraft has descended to an altitude of two feet (0.61 m) above the runway the pilot initiates a stall and the aircraft falls from this height. Chase cars and live calling of aircraft altitude are necessary because the landing gear is not designed to absorb the weight of
6992-526: Is no rocket exhaust or other emissions to mark its position to defenders. The high speeds of the warheads make them difficult to intercept and allow for little warning, striking targets many thousands of kilometers away from the launch site (and due to the possible locations of the submarines: anywhere in the world) within approximately 30 minutes. Many authorities say that missiles also release aluminized balloons, electronic noisemakers, and other decoys intended to confuse interception devices and radars . As
7176-636: Is now holding both the plane and the pilot. The plane was on an espionage mission ... the activity ... [was] under the aegis of the Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces of the United States, for whom all members of the subcommittee have the highest regard and in whose military capacity they have the utmost confidence. At the end of Cannon's speech, Democrats and Republicans uncharacteristically rose to their feet to applaud. Still, Eisenhower faced criticism in
7360-649: Is one of a handful of aircraft types to have served the USAF for over 50 years, along with the Boeing B-52 , Boeing KC-135 , Lockheed C-130 and Lockheed C-5 . The newest models (TR-1, U-2R, U-2S) entered service in the 1980s, and the latest model, the U-2S, had a technical upgrade in 2012. The U-2 is currently operated by the USAF and NASA. After World War II , the U.S. military desired better strategic aerial reconnaissance to help determine Soviet capabilities and intentions, and to prevent being caught off-guard as it had been in
7544-493: Is the case, we have got to ask whether or not this administration has any real control over the federal bureaucracy." Mansfield, more than any other person, highlighted the dilemma Eisenhower faced—Eisenhower could admit responsibility for the U-2 flight, and likely ruin any chances for détente at the Paris Summit, or he could continue to deny knowledge and indicate that he did not control his own administration. After Khrushchev found out about America's NASA cover story, he developed
1960 U-2 incident - Misplaced Pages Continue
7728-446: The Arrow missile in 1998, but it is mainly designed to intercept shorter-ranged theater ballistic missiles, not ICBMs. The Alaska-based United States national missile defense system attained initial operational capability in 2004. ICBMs can be deployed from multiple platforms: The last three kinds are mobile and therefore hard to detect prior to a missile launch. During storage, one of
7912-535: The Beriev S-13 , but development was cancelled after Powers was released. The original consensus about the cause of the U-2 incident was that the spy plane had been shot down by one of a salvo of 14 Soviet SA-2 missiles. This story was originated by Oleg Penkovsky , a GRU agent who spied for MI6 . In 2010, CIA documents were released indicating that "top US officials never believed Powers's account of his fateful flight because it appeared to be directly contradicted by
8096-503: The LGM-30 Minuteman , Polaris and Skybolt . Modern ICBMs tend to be smaller than their ancestors, due to increased accuracy and smaller and lighter warheads, and use solid fuels, making them less useful as orbital launch vehicles. The Western view of the deployment of these systems was governed by the strategic theory of mutual assured destruction . In the 1950s and 1960s, development began on anti-ballistic missile systems by both
8280-630: The P-80 . He was also known for completing projects ahead of schedule, working in a separate division of the company, informally called the " Skunk Works ". Johnson's design, named CL-282 , was based on the Lockheed XF-104 with long, slender wings and a shortened fuselage. The design was powered by the General Electric J73 engine and took off from a special cart and landed on its belly. It could reach an altitude of 73,000 feet (22,300 m) and had
8464-534: The Raytheon ASARS-2 system. It can use both line-of-sight and over-horizon data links. Though the USAF and the Navy would eventually fly the U-2, the CIA had majority control over the project, code-named Project DRAGON LADY. Despite SAC chief LeMay's early dismissal of the CL-282, the USAF in 1955 sought to take over the project and put it under SAC until Eisenhower repeated his opposition to military personnel flying
8648-695: The Semipalatinsk Test Site , the Dolon Air Base where Tu-95 strategic bombers were stationed, the surface-to-air missile (SAM) test site of the Soviet Air Defence Forces near Saryshagan , and the Tyuratam missile range ( Baikonur Cosmodrome ). The aircraft was detected by the Soviet Air Defense Forces when it had flown more than 250 kilometres (155 mi) over the Soviet national boundary and avoided several attempts at interception by
8832-494: The USSR /Russia preferred ICBM designs that use hypergolic liquid fuels, which can be stored at room temperature for more than a few years. Once the booster falls away, the remaining "bus" releases several warheads, each of which continues on its own unpowered ballistic trajectory , much like an artillery shell or cannonball. The warhead is encased in a cone-shaped reentry vehicle and is difficult to detect in this phase of flight as there
9016-527: The attack on Pearl Harbor . The Air Force commissioned the 'Beacon Hill Report' from Project Lincoln at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology , which was researched in 1951–1952 and delivered in 1952. The committee was led by Carl F. P. Overhage and was overseen by the Air Force's Gordon P. Saville , and included James Gilbert Baker and Edwin H. Land , who would design the specialized optics in
9200-464: The cryogenic fuel liquid oxygen boiled off and caused ice formation, and therefore fueling the rocket was necessary before launch. This procedure was a source of significant operational delay and might allow the missiles to be destroyed by enemy counterparts before they could be used. To resolve this problem Nazi Germany invented the missile silo that protected the missile from Strategic Bombing and also hid fueling operations underground. Although
9384-439: The cryptonym AQUATONE to the project, with the USAF using the name OILSTONE for their support to the CIA. James Baker developed the optics for a large-format camera to be used in the U-2 while working for Perkin-Elmer . The new camera had a resolution of 2.5 feet (76 cm) from an altitude of 60,000 feet (18,000 m). The aircraft was so crowded that when Baker asked Johnson for six more inches (15 cm) of space for
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#17328520780689568-445: The stall speed at that altitude was only 10 knots (12 mph; 19 km/h). This narrow window is called the " coffin corner ", because breaching either limit was likely to cause airflow separation at the wings or tail. For most of the time on a typical mission the U-2 was flying less than five knots (6 mph; 9 km/h) above stall speed. A stall would cause a loss of altitude, possibly leading to detection and overstress of
9752-432: The "constant stream of Russian fighters" trying to shoot down the U-2 during overflights was sometimes "so thick" that they interfered with photographs. Repeatedly failing for years to stop the aircraft embarrassed the USSR, which made diplomatic protests against the flights but did not publicize the penetration of Soviet territory. Intercontinental ballistic missiles An intercontinental ballistic missile ( ICBM )
9936-412: The 16th. Khrushchev blasted the United States on the U-2 incident. He pointed out that the policy of secret spying was one of mistrust and that the incident had doomed the summit before it even began. He expected the United States and Eisenhower to condemn the spying and pledge to end further reconnaissance missions. At the summit, after Khrushchev had blown Eisenhower's cover, Eisenhower did not deny that
10120-685: The 1950s by the United States Air Force (USAF) and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). It provides day and night, high-altitude (70,000 feet, 21,300 meters), all-weather intelligence gathering . Lockheed Corporation originally proposed the aircraft in 1953. It was approved in 1954, and its first test flight was in 1955. It was flown during the Cold War over the Soviet Union , China, Vietnam , and Cuba . In 1960, Gary Powers
10304-405: The 2025 timeframe, with a fleet of 25–30 aircraft proposed to replace the nearly 40-aircraft mix of U-2s and RQ-4s. Lockheed Martin revealed more specifications about the TR-X concept at a 15 March 2016 media day, confirming the aircraft would be unmanned and air refuelable. Its maximum takeoff weight would be greater than either the U-2's or RQ-4's at around 54,000 lb (24,000 kg), with
10488-409: The 32-metre-tall (105 ft) Unha-3 rocket. The United States claimed that the launch was in fact a way to test an ICBM. (See Timeline of first orbital launches by country .) In early July 2017, North Korea claimed for the first time to have tested successfully an ICBM capable of carrying a large thermonuclear warhead. In July 2014, China announced the development of its newest generation of ICBM,
10672-851: The A9/A10 rocket was tested a few times in January and February 1945. After the war, the US executed Operation Paperclip , which took von Braun and hundreds of other leading Nazi scientists to the United States to develop IRBMs , ICBMs, and launchers for the US Army. This technology was predicted by US General of the Army Hap Arnold , who wrote in 1943: Someday, not too distant, there can come streaking out of somewhere – we won't be able to hear it, it will come so fast – some kind of gadget with an explosive so powerful that one projectile will be able to wipe out completely this city of Washington. After World War II,
10856-641: The American missile defense batteries in California and Alaska. New development of ICBM technology are ICBMs able to carry hypersonic glide vehicles as a payload such as RS-28 Sarmat . On 12 March 2024 India announced that it had joined a very limited group of countries, which are capable of firing multiple warheads on a single ICBM. The announcement came after successfully testing multiple independently targetable reentry vehicle (MIRV) technology. [REDACTED] Russia [REDACTED] Russia [REDACTED] Russia [REDACTED] Russia Russia,
11040-594: The Americans and Soviets. Such systems were restricted by the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty . The first successful ABM test was conducted by the Soviets in 1961, which later deployed a fully operational system defending Moscow in the 1970s (see Moscow ABM system ). The 1972 SALT treaty froze the number of ICBM launchers of both the Americans and the Soviets at existing levels and allowed new submarine -based SLBM launchers only if an equal number of land-based ICBM launchers were dismantled. Subsequent talks, called SALT II, were held from 1972 to 1979 and actually reduced
11224-511: The Americans and the Soviets started rocket research programs based on the V-2 and other German wartime designs. Each branch of the US military started its own programs, leading to considerable duplication of effort. In the Soviet Union, rocket research was centrally organized although several teams worked on different designs. The US initiated ICBM research in 1946 with the RTV-A-2 Hiroc project. This
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#173285207806811408-487: The Americans have said. Also, because of the release of some photographs of the aircraft, there was evidence that most of the covert U-2 technologies had survived the crash. From this Khrushchev was able to openly embarrass the Eisenhower administration by exposing the attempted cover-up. Khrushchev still attempted to allow Eisenhower to save face, and possibly to salvage the peace summit to some degree, by specifically laying
11592-665: The Atlas. Due to the improvements in engine technology and guidance systems the Titan I overtook the Atlas. In the Soviet Union, early development was focused on missiles able to attack European targets. That changed in 1953, when Sergei Korolyov was directed to start development of a true ICBM able to deliver newly developed hydrogen bombs. Given steady funding throughout, the R-7 developed with some speed. The first launch took place on 15 May 1957 and led to an unintended crash 400 km (250 mi) from
11776-492: The CIA conduct its own overflights, Land and James Killian of MIT told President Eisenhower about the aircraft; Eisenhower agreed that the CIA should be the operator. Dulles finally agreed, but some USAF officers opposed the project because they feared it would endanger the RB-57D and X-16. The USAF's Seaberg helped persuade his own agency to support the CL-282, albeit with the higher-performance J57 engine, and final approval for
11960-536: The CIA initiated Project Rainbow to reduce the U-2's radar cross-section . This effort ultimately proved unsuccessful, and work began on a follow-on aircraft, which resulted in the Lockheed A-12 Oxcart . In August 2015, the 60th anniversary of the U-2 program, Lockheed Martin's Skunk Works revealed they were internally developing a successor to the U-2, referred to as the UQ-2 or RQ-X, combining features from both
12144-473: The CIA set up a cover story involving experimental rocket aircraft. Shell Oil developed a new low-volatility, low vapor pressure jet fuel that would not evaporate at high altitudes; the fuel became known as JP-7 . Manufacturing several hundred thousand gallons for the aircraft in 1955 caused a nationwide shortage of Esso's FLIT insecticide. Realizing the plane could not be tested and flown out of Burbank Airport , they selected what would become Area 51 . It
12328-523: The Cockpit Altitude Reduction Effort (CARE), increasing the cabin pressure from 3.88 psi to 7.65 psi, a 15,000-foot (4,600 m) altitude equivalent. The urine collection device also was rebuilt to eliminate leakage. Existing cameras had ground resolution down to 23 feet (7 m) from an altitude of 33,000 feet (10,000 m), and were inadequate for the 70,000 feet (21,000 m) altitude. Ground resolution of 9.8 feet (3 m)
12512-509: The Dongfeng-41 ( DF-41 ), which has a range of 12,000 kilometres (7,500 miles), capable of reaching the United States, and which analysts believe is capable of being outfitted with MIRV technology. Most countries in the early stages of developing ICBMs have used liquid propellants, with the known exceptions being the Indian Agni-V , the planned but cancelled South African RSA-4 ICBM, and
12696-481: The Four Powers Summit was the type of international negotiation that could lead to a relationship between the United States and the Soviet Union where there would be no need to spy on each other. Eisenhower also laid out a plan for an international agreement that authorized the U.N. to "inspect" any nations willing to submit to its authority for signs of increased militarization and aggressive action. He stated that
12880-600: The Lakenheath flights. To avoid delays, in June 1956, Detachment A moved to Wiesbaden , Germany, without approval from the German government , while Giebelstadt Army Airfield was prepared as a more permanent base. Eisenhower remained concerned that despite their great intelligence value, overflights of the Soviet Union might cause a war. While the U-2 was under development, at the 1955 Geneva Summit he proposed to Nikita Khrushchev that
13064-624: The NASA cover-up plan. Nikita Khrushchev used the American misstep to embarrass President Eisenhower and his administration. That same day on 5 May, the Senate made its first comments on the U-2 incident and began a domestic political controversy for Eisenhower. Mike Mansfield , the Senate Majority Whip , stated, "First reports indicate that the President had no knowledge of the plane incident. If that
13248-712: The PR3 photo-reconnaissance variant, but the USAF asked for English Electric's help to further modify the American-licensed version of the Canberra, the Martin B-57 , with long, narrow wings, new engines, and a lighter airframe to reach 67,000 feet (20,400 m). The U.S. Air Research and Development Command mandated design changes that made the aircraft more durable for combat, but the resulting RB-57D aircraft of 1955 could only reach 64,000 feet (19,500 m). The Soviet Union, unlike
13432-400: The RB-57D would not meet the 70,000 feet (21,300 m) requirement that panel member Allen F. Donovan of Cornell Aeronautical Laboratory believed was necessary for safety. The CIA told the panel about the CL-282. The design elements that the USAF considered to be flaws (the single-engine and light load factor) appealed to Donovan. He was a sailplane enthusiast who believed that a sailplane
13616-431: The Soviet Union and the United States would each grant the other country airfields to use to photograph military installations. Khrushchev rejected the "Open Skies" proposal. The CIA told the president that the Soviets could not track high-altitude U-2 flights; this belief was based on studies using old Soviet radar systems and American systems that were not as effective at high altitudes as current Soviet systems, of which
13800-521: The Soviet Union's best interceptor aircraft , which could barely reach 45,000 feet (13,700 m). He and others believed that Soviet radar, which used American equipment provided during the war, could not track aircraft above 65,000 feet (19,800 m). At the time, the highest-flying aircraft available to the US and its allies was the English Electric Canberra , which could reach 48,000 feet (14,600 m). The British had already produced
13984-547: The Soviet submarine construction program in Leningrad , and counting the numbers of the new Myasishchev M-4 "Bison" bomber. Soviet radar monitored the U-2 incursion into Soviet airspace in real-time, with radar tracking starting from the time the aircraft crossed into East German airspace. Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev was informed immediately. . While contemplating appropriate retaliatory steps, he ordered Soviet Ambassador to Washington, Georgy Zarubin , to protest vehemently to
14168-455: The Soviet testing of their first thermonuclear weapon , but it was not until 1954 that the Atlas missile program was given the highest national priority. The Atlas A first flew on 11 June 1957; the flight lasted only about 24 seconds before the rocket exploded. The first successful flight of an Atlas missile to full range occurred 28 November 1958. The first armed version of the Atlas, the Atlas D,
14352-526: The U-2 difficult during the first intentional test flight three days later. On his sixth try, he found that landing the aircraft by touching down on the rear wheel first was better than making the initial touchdown with the front wheel. Pilots continued to have difficulty during landing because the ground effect held the aircraft off the runway for long distances. On a test flight on 8 August, the U-2 reached 32,000 feet (9,800 m), proving that Johnson had met his promised specifications and deadline. By 16 August,
14536-410: The U-2 flight over Soviet territory. Although the Four Powers Summit was the first meeting between western and Soviet leaders in five years when it was held, the mood was optimistic that there could be an easing of tensions between the Soviet Union and the United States. In an effort to present a less hostile, more cordial Soviet Union, Khrushchev publicly advocated a policy of "peaceful coexistence with
14720-762: The U-2 its remarkable performance also makes it a difficult aircraft to fly. Martin Knutson said that it "was the highest workload air plane I believe ever designed and built … you're wrestling with the airplane and operating the camera systems at all times", leaving no time to "worry about whether you're over Russia or you're flying over Southern California". The U-2 was designed and manufactured for minimum airframe weight, which results in an aircraft with little margin for error. Most aircraft were single-seat versions, with only five two-seat trainer versions known to exist. Early U-2 variants were powered by Pratt & Whitney J57 turbojet engines. The U-2C and TR-1A variants used
14904-495: The U-2 was returned to the United States and is on display at the National Cryptologic Museum . The Summit was attended by Eisenhower, Khrushchev, French President Charles de Gaulle , and British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan . It was the first conference to be attended by both Soviet and western leaders in five years. However, prospects for constructive dialogue were dashed by the explosive controversy surrounding
15088-607: The U-2's flight over Soviet airspace, the CIA turned to a foreign power, MI6 , the British Secret Intelligence Service, to request authorization from Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Harold Macmillan , who approved the flights. The fact that radar had—contrary to the CIA's expectations—successfully tracked the aircraft worried Eisenhower, but he approved the first Soviet overflight, Mission 2013 on 4 July. U-2 Article 347's main targets were
15272-527: The U-2's onboard systems, a new mission computer designed to the U.S. Air Force's open mission systems standard and a new and modern cockpit displays ( Primary Flight Display or PFD). The avionics upgrades are scheduled to be completed by 2022. Lockheed Martin then plans to refresh the U-2's sensors and other electronic systems., to act as a node in the Advanced Battle Management System (ABMS) now under development. The design that gives
15456-559: The U-2. During the early 1950s, the best intelligence the American government had on facilities deep inside the Soviet Union were World War II German Luftwaffe photographs taken during the war of territory west of the Ural Mountains , so overflights to take aerial photographs of the Soviet Union would be necessary. The committee suggested a plane with advanced optics, flying above 70,000 feet (21,300 m). After 1950, Soviet air defenses consistently intercepted all aircraft near
15640-457: The U-2. JPTS has a lower freeze point, higher viscosity, and higher thermal stability than standard USAF fuels. In 1999, the Air Force spent approximately $ 11.3 million (equivalent to $ 20.58 million in 2023 dollars) on fuel for the U-2 aircraft and was looking for a lower-cost alternative. JPTS is a specialty fuel and as such has limited worldwide availability and costs over three times the unit volume price of USAF's primary jet fuel, JP-8 . Research
15824-453: The U.S. State Department that very day, explaining that the recent trust-building to ease tensions between the two countries was undermined by the overflight provocations. A second flight on 5 July continued searching for Bisons, took photographs of Moscow (the only ones taken by the program), and flew over cloud-covered rocket factories at Kaliningrad and Khimki. Eisenhower knew from the earlier overflights that his hope of no Soviet detection
16008-534: The U.S. in April 1956, convincing project overseers that the aircraft was ready for deployment. As often happens with new aircraft designs, there were several operational accidents. One occurred during these test flights when a U-2 suffered a flameout over Tennessee ; the pilot calculated that he could reach New Mexico. Every air base in the continental U.S. had sealed orders to carry out if a U-2 landed. The commander of Kirtland Air Force Base near Albuquerque, New Mexico ,
16192-529: The U.S. was not aware. Knutson later said that "the U-2 was really quite invisible to American radar, but Russian radar were a little different—better, you might say". Although the Office of Scientific Intelligence issued a more cautious report in May 1956 that stated that detection was possible, it believed that the Soviets could not consistently track the aircraft. Dulles further told Eisenhower, according to presidential aide Andrew Goodpaster , that in any aircraft loss
16376-549: The US Air Force awarded the Avionics Tech Refresh contract to Lockheed Martin for upgrading the U-2. In February 2020, the flight tests and the installation of new electro-optical reconnaissance systems were completed. SYERS-2C cameras manufactured by Collins Aerospace equip the entire U-2S fleet. The contract is valued at $ 50 million. The U-2S's ISR very high altitude mission requires changes for avionics suite for
16560-504: The USAF believed to be more reliable. General Curtis LeMay of Strategic Air Command (SAC) walked out during a CL-282 presentation, saying that he was not interested in an airplane without wheels or guns. Civilian officials including Trevor Gardner , an aide to Secretary of the Air Force Harold E. Talbott , were more positive about the CL-282 because of its higher potential altitude and smaller radar cross-section, and recommended
16744-430: The United States and Britain, had improved radar technology after the war, and could track aircraft above 65,000 feet (19,800 m). It was thought that an aircraft that could fly at 70,000 feet (21,300 m) would be beyond the reach of Soviet fighters, missiles, and radar. Another Air Force officer, John Seaberg, wrote a request for proposal in 1953 for an aircraft that could reach 70,000 feet (21,300 m) over
16928-535: The United States and the Soviet Union agreed in the START I treaty to reduce their deployed ICBMs and attributed warheads. As of 2016 , all five of the nations with permanent seats on the United Nations Security Council have fully operational long-range ballistic missile systems; Russia, the United States, and China also have land-based ICBMs (the US missiles are silo-based, while China and Russia have both silo and road-mobile ( DF-31 , RT-2PM2 Topol-M missiles). Israel
17112-483: The United States forthrightly acknowledge its use of U-2 overflights "to guard against surprise attack". Their advice was not followed, and the weather cover story led to the disaster that followed the May 1960 U-2 loss. The British government in January 1956 approved the U-2's deployment from RAF Lakenheath . NACA announced that the USAF Air Weather Service would use a Lockheed-developed aircraft to study
17296-526: The United States many clues on how the Communist countries used radar to track overflights, which benefited the U-2 program. With approval from the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA)'s director Hugh Dryden , Bissell's team at the CIA developed a cover story for the U-2 that described the aircraft as used by NACA for high-altitude weather research; the cover story would be used if
17480-522: The United States would be more than willing to submit to such an inspection by the U.N. and that he hoped to circumvent the spying controversy with this alternative international surveillance agreement. The meeting during which both parties made their statements lasted just over three hours. During this time Khrushchev rescinded an invitation he had earlier given to Eisenhower to visit the Soviet Union. According to American broadcast journalist Walter Cronkite , Khrushchev would go on to say that this incident
17664-420: The United States". The May Day celebrations on 1 May of that year were marked by this newfound cooperative spirit. Absent were the militarized symbols of previous parades, such as artillery and armor. Instead, there were children, white doves, and athletes. But the reaction of the Soviet government to the spy plane incident and the response from the United States doomed any potential meaningful peace agreement. In
17848-475: The additional warheads; hence, most ABM system proposals have been judged to be impractical. The first operational ABM systems were deployed in the United States during the 1970s. The Safeguard ABM facility, located in North Dakota, was operational from 1975 to 1976. The Soviets deployed their ABM-1 Galosh system around Moscow in the 1970s, which remains in service. Israel deployed a national ABM system based on
18032-408: The aircraft had been spying on Soviet military installations but contended that the action was not aggressive but defensive. He argued that the current state of international relations was not one in which peaceful coexistence was an already established fact. The policy of the United States towards the Soviet Union at that time was defensive and cautionary. Eisenhower also made the point that dialogue at
18216-408: The aircraft jumped into the air at 70 knots (81 mph; 130 km/h), amazing LeVier who, as he later said, "had no intentions whatsoever of flying". The lake bed had no markings, making it difficult for LeVier to judge the distance to the ground, and the brakes proved too weak; he bounced the U-2 once before it stopped rolling, but the aircraft suffered only minor damage. LeVier again found landing
18400-478: The aircraft was detected, Lieutenant General of the Air Force Yevgeniy Savitskiy ordered the air-unit commanders "to attack the violator by all alert flights located in the area of foreign plane's course, and to ram if necessary". Because of the U-2's extreme operating altitude, Soviet attempts to intercept the aircraft using fighter aircraft failed. The U-2's course was out of range of several of
18584-545: The aircraft were lost over hostile territory. U-2s flew some real weather-related missions, taking photographs that appeared in the press, and sometimes had civilian government decals, but few believed in the cover story; in May 1957 the UK's Daily Express newspaper reported the U-2 operating east of the Iron Curtain . The civilian advisers Land and Killian disagreed with the cover story, advising that in case of an aircraft loss,
18768-464: The aircraft when falling from altitudes much above two feet (0.61 m). Instead of the typical tricycle landing gear, the U-2 uses a bicycle configuration with a forward set of main wheels located just behind the cockpit and a rear set of main wheels located behind the engine. The rear wheels are coupled to the rudder to provide steering during taxiing. To maintain balance while taxiing and take-off, two auxiliary wheels called "pogos" are attached under
18952-420: The aircraft. Nonetheless, the USAF substantially participated in the project; Bissell described it as a "49 percent" partner. The USAF agreed to select and train pilots and plot missions, while the CIA would handle cameras and project security, process film, and arrange foreign bases. Beyond not using American military personnel to fly the U-2, Eisenhower preferred to use non-U.S. citizens. Seven Greek pilots and
19136-407: The airframe. The U-2's flight controls are designed for high-altitude flight; the controls require light control inputs at operational altitude. However, at lower altitudes the higher air density and lack of a power-assisted control system make the aircraft very difficult to fly: control inputs must be extreme to achieve the desired response, and a great deal of physical strength is needed to operate
19320-467: The amiable "Spirit of Camp David" that had prevailed for eight months, prompting the cancellation of the summit in Paris and embarrassing the U.S. on the international stage. The Pakistani government issued a formal apology to the Soviet Union for its role in the mission. Following his capture, Powers was convicted of espionage and sentenced to three years of imprisonment plus seven years of hard labour ; he
19504-477: The archives from 1960 of Norwegian Intelligence Service have not been declassified. Upon his capture, Gary Powers told his Soviet captors what his mission had been and why he had been in Soviet airspace. He did this in accordance with orders that he had received before he went on his mission. Powers pleaded guilty and was convicted of espionage on 19 August and sentenced to three years imprisonment and seven years of hard labor . He served one year and nine months of
19688-629: The base in Peshawar on a mission with the operation's code word GRAND SLAM to overfly the Soviet Union, photographing targets including the ICBM sites at the Baikonur Cosmodrome and Plesetsk Cosmodrome , then land at Bodø in Norway. At the time, the USSR had six ICBM launch pads, two at Baikonur and four at Plesetsk. Mayak , then named Chelyabinsk-65 , an important industrial center of plutonium processing,
19872-428: The blame not on Eisenhower himself, but on Director of Central Intelligence Allen Dulles and the CIA : Khrushchev said that anyone wishing to understand the U-2's mission should "seek a reply from Allen Dulles, at whose instructions the American aircraft flew over the Soviet Union". On 9 May, the Soviet premier told US ambassador Thompson that he "could not help but suspect that someone had launched this operation with
20056-410: The controls. The U-2 is very sensitive to crosswinds, which, together with its tendency to float over the runway, makes the aircraft notoriously difficult to land. As it approaches the runway, the cushion of air provided by the high-lift wings in ground effect is so pronounced that the U-2 will not land unless the wings are fully stalled. A landing U-2 is accompanied on the ground by a chase car , which
20240-558: The country's borders—sometimes even those in Japanese airspace. Existing US reconnaissance aircraft, primarily bombers converted for reconnaissance duty such as the Boeing RB-47 , were vulnerable to anti-aircraft artillery, missiles, and fighters. Richard Leghorn of the United States Air Force suggested that an aircraft that could fly at 60,000 feet (18,300 m) should be safe from the MiG-17 ,
20424-569: The country, the latter sarcastically replied "I always keep ahead of the U-2". The communications wing at Badaber was formally closed down on 7 January 1970. Further, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee held a lengthy inquiry into the U-2 incident. In Norway, authorities gave permission for the United States to have a temporary base in Bodø during 1960; the condition was that U-2 missions were only to fly over international waters;
20608-461: The days directly leading up to the conference, tensions increased dramatically between the United States and the Soviet Union over the U-2 incident. At this point in the negotiations, the hardliners of the Soviet government were applying heavy pressure to Khrushchev. In the weeks leading up to the summit there had been a revitalization of anti-American sentiment within the Kremlin, with the Soviets blocking
20792-448: The deliberate intent of spoiling the summit meeting". Thompson also wrote in his diplomatic cable that Khrushchev suspected it was Allen Dulles, and that Khrushchev had heard about Senator Mansfield's remarks that Eisenhower did not control his own administration. Upon receiving this cable, Eisenhower, who frequently was very animated, was quiet and depressed. The only words he said to his secretary were, "I would like to resign." Meanwhile,
20976-574: The denials. Such reasoning, while constrained, is hardly unusual. It is easier for a President to deal with foreign leaders who are known to have committed violent acts, but have never admitted having done so, than to meet formally with those who have acknowledged 'unacceptable' behavior." Today a large part of the wreck as well as many items from Powers' survival pack are on display at the Central Armed Forces Museum in Moscow. A small piece of
21160-476: The design to the Central Intelligence Agency 's Office of Scientific Intelligence . At that time, the CIA depended on the military for overflights, and Director of Central Intelligence Allen Dulles favored human over technical intelligence-gathering methods. However, the Intelligence Systems Panel, a civilian group advising the USAF and CIA on aerial reconnaissance, had recognized by 1954 that
21344-611: The domestic pressure continued to mount. Eisenhower then accepted Dulles's argument that the congressional leadership needed to be briefed on the U-2 missions from the last four years. Dulles told the legislature that all U-2 flights were used for aerial espionage and had been flown pursuant to "presidential directives". Still, Dulles played down Eisenhower's direct role in approving every previous U-2 flight. The next day on 10 May, without consulting with any agency heads, House Appropriations Chair Clarence Cannon received considerable press attention when he, not President Eisenhower, revealed
21528-622: The era; it was believed to be beyond the reach of Soviet missiles as well. A facility established in Badaber ( Peshawar Air Station ), 10 miles (16 km) from Peshawar , was a cover for a major communications intercept operation run by the United States National Security Agency (NSA). Badaber was an excellent location because of its proximity to Soviet central Asia. This enabled the monitoring of missile test sites, key infrastructure and communications. The U-2 "spy-in-the-sky"
21712-459: The expected flood of U-2 photographs. Before the aircraft became operational, however, USAF's Project Genetrix , which used high-altitude balloons to photograph the Soviet Union, China, and eastern Europe, led to many diplomatic protests from those countries and for a while, CIA officials feared that the U-2 project was at risk. While Genetrix was also a technical failure—only 34 of the 516 balloons returned usable photographs—the balloon flights gave
21896-459: The flights were "suspended and would not resume". Some public opinion was that Khrushchev had overreacted to the event in an attempt to strengthen his own position, and for that, he was the one to blame for the collapse of the Four Power Paris Summit. Before the U-2 incident Khrushchev and Eisenhower had been getting along well and the summit was going to be an opportunity for the two sides to come together. Also, Eisenhower had been looking forward to
22080-407: The flying of two more missions before the Four Power Paris Summit, scheduled for 16 May. The final two missions before the summit were to be flown by American pilots. On 9 April 1960, a U-2C spy plane of the special CIA unit "10-10", piloted by Bob Ericson, crossed the southern national boundary of the Soviet Union in the area of Pamir Mountains and flew over four Soviet top-secret military objects:
22264-463: The ground and was captured. Initially, American authorities acknowledged the incident as the loss of a civilian weather research aircraft operated by NASA , but were forced to admit the mission's true purpose a few days later after the Soviet government produced the captured pilot and parts of the U-2's surveillance equipment, including photographs of Soviet military bases. The incident occurred during
22448-448: The ground resolution can be inferred by calculation to be 24 inches (60 cm). This was followed by the "B" camera with a 36-inch-focal-length (910 mm) lens with F/10 and image motion compensation, resolving 100 lines per mm, and the ground resolution can be inferred by calculation to be 9.1 inches (23 cm). It was a panoramic camera which took pictures of an extremely large area of the earth's surface. The lens design consisted of
22632-611: The incursions and requested the US to prevent their recurrence. The incident also reverberated around the world. For example in Japan, the incident contributed to the growth of the ongoing Anpo protests against the U.S.-Japan Security Treaty (known as "Anpo" in Japanese) which allowed the United States to maintain military bases on Japanese soil. The Japanese government was forced to admit that U-2 planes were also based at U.S. bases in Japan, which meant that Japan might be subject to attack should
22816-462: The intruder, he had caught the U-2 in the slipstream of his unarmed Sukhoi Su-9 , causing the U-2 to flip over and break its wings. The salvo of missiles had indeed scored a hit, downing a pursuing MiG-19 , not the U-2. Mentyukov said that if a missile had hit the U-2, its pilot would not have lived. Lockheed U-2 The Lockheed U-2 , nicknamed " Dragon Lady ", is an American single-engine, high altitude reconnaissance aircraft operated from
23000-476: The largest targets , such as cities. They were seen as a "safe" basing option, one that would keep the deterrent force close to home where it would be difficult to attack. Attacks against military targets (especially hardened ones) demanded the use of a more precise, crewed bomber . Second- and third-generation designs (such as the LGM-118 Peacekeeper ) dramatically improved accuracy to the point where even
23184-399: The latter began its own U-2 flights; although more candidates were rejected, the CIA's program had a much lower accident rate. Test pilot Tony LeVier trained other Lockheed pilots to fly the U-2. By September 1955 he had trained six USAF pilots, who in turn trained other "sheep-dipped" pilots. As no two-seat trainer model was available for the program's first 15 years, training was done before
23368-450: The loss of the aircraft. A committee of Army, Navy, USAF, CIA, NSA , and State Department representatives created lists of priority targets for U-2 and other intelligence-gathering methods. The U-2 project received the list and drew up flight plans, and the committee provided a detailed rationale for each plan for the president to consider as he decided whether to approve it. The CIA's Photo Intelligence Division grew in size to prepare for
23552-468: The manned U-2 and unmanned Northrop Grumman RQ-4 Global Hawk and improving upon them. Disclosed details say the design is essentially an improved U-2 airframe with the same engine, service ceiling, sensors, and cockpit, with the main differences being an optional manning capability (something Lockheed has proposed for the U-2 to the USAF several times, but has never gained traction) and low-observable characteristics. The USAF has no requirement or schedule for
23736-494: The mission had been delayed by one day. As a result, Bob Ericson flew Article 358 back to Incirlik and John Shinn ferried another U-2C, Article 360, from Incirlik to Peshawar. On 30 April, the mission was delayed one day further because of bad weather over the Soviet Union. The weather improved and on 1 May, 15 days before the scheduled opening of the east–west summit conference in Paris, Captain Powers, flying Article 360, 56–6693 left
23920-512: The more powerful Pratt & Whitney J75 turbojet. The U-2S and TU-2S variants incorporated the more powerful General Electric F118 turbofan engine. High aspect ratio wings give the U-2 glider -like characteristics, with an engine out glide ratio of about 23:1, comparable to gliders of the time. To maintain their operational ceiling of 70,000 feet (21,000 m), the early U-2A and U-2C models had to fly very near their never-exceed speed (V NE ). The margin between that maximum speed and
24104-573: The most important features of the missile is its serviceability. One of the key features of the first computer-controlled ICBM, the Minuteman missile , was that it could quickly and easily use its computer to test itself. After launch, a booster pushes the missile and then falls away. Most modern boosters are Solid-propellant rocket motors , which can be stored easily for long periods of time. Early missiles used liquid-fueled rocket motors . Many liquid-fueled ICBMs could not be kept fueled at all times as
24288-665: The nearby detonation of friendly warheads), one neutron-resistant material developed for this purpose in the UK is three-dimensional quartz phenolic . Circular error probable is crucial, because halving the circular error probable decreases the needed warhead energy by a factor of four . Accuracy is limited by the accuracy of the navigation system and the available geodetic information. Strategic missile systems are thought to use custom integrated circuits designed to calculate navigational differential equations thousands to millions of FLOPS in order to reduce navigational errors caused by calculation alone. These circuits are usually
24472-413: The nearest SAM sites, and one SAM site even failed to engage the aircraft since it was not on duty that day. The U-2 was shot down near Kosulino, Ural Region, by the first of three S-75 Dvina surface-to-air missiles fired by a battery commanded by Mikhail Voronov. The S-75 site had been supposedly identified previously by the CIA, using photos taken during Vice President Richard Nixon's visit to Sverdlovsk
24656-554: The now in service Israeli Jericho III . The RS-28 Sarmat (Russian: РС-28 Сармат; NATO reporting name : SATAN 2), is a Russian liquid-fueled , MIRV -equipped, super-heavy thermonuclear armed intercontinental ballistic missile in development by the Makeyev Rocket Design Bureau from 2009, intended to replace the previous R-36 missile . Its large payload would allow for up to 10 heavy warheads or 15 lighter ones or up to 24 hypersonic glide vehicles Yu-74 , or
24840-522: The nuclear warhead reenters the Earth's atmosphere, its high speed causes compression of the air, leading to a dramatic rise in temperature which would destroy it, if it were not shielded in some way. In one design, warhead components are contained within an aluminium honeycomb substructure , sheathed in a pyrolytic carbon - epoxy synthetic resin composite material heat shield. Warheads are also often radiation-hardened (to protect against nuclear armed ABMs or
25024-625: The number of nuclear warheads held by the US and Soviets. SALT II was never ratified by the US Senate , but its terms were honored by both sides until 1986, when the Reagan administration "withdrew" after it had accused the Soviets of violating the pact. In the 1980s, President Ronald Reagan launched the Strategic Defense Initiative as well as the MX and Midgetman ICBM programs. China developed
25208-402: The pilot might have fallen unconscious while the autopilot was still engaged, even falsely claiming that "the pilot reported over the emergency frequency that he was experiencing oxygen difficulties". To bolster this, a U-2 was quickly painted in NASA colors and shown to the media. Under the impression that the pilot had died and that the plane had been destroyed, the Americans had decided to use
25392-413: The pilot wears a partially pressurized space suit , which delivers the pilot's oxygen supply and provides emergency protection in case cabin pressure is lost. While pilots can drink water and eat various liquid foods in squeezable containers through a self-sealing hole in the face mask, they typically lose up to 5% of their body mass on an eight-hour mission. Initially, pilots had the option of carrying
25576-500: The pilot would almost certainly not survive. With such assurances and the growing demand for accurate intelligence regarding the alleged " bomber gap " between the U.S. and the Soviet Union, in June 1956 Eisenhower approved 10 days of overflights. The first U-2 overflight had already occurred, using the existing authorization of air force overflights over Eastern Europe. On 20 June 1956, a U-2 flew over Poland and East Germany, with more flights on 2 July. When Eisenhower refused to approve
25760-489: The pilot, it destroyed the L-pills, and as a replacement, its Technical Services Division developed a needle poisoned with a powerful shellfish toxin and hidden in a silver dollar . Only one was made because the agency decided if any pilot needed to use it the program would probably be canceled. Like the suicide pill, not all pilots carried the coin, and Knutson did not know of any that intended to commit suicide; he carried it as
25944-505: The press for not controlling his own administration, as Cannon's speech only said the mission was "under the aegis of" the president, not "directed by". Press reports were creating a belief in the public that Eisenhower had lost control, which Eisenhower would not let stand. Knowing that he was jeopardizing the Paris Peace Summit, Eisenhower decided to reveal the aerial espionage program and his direct role in it, an unprecedented move for
26128-419: The previous summer. Powers bailed out but neglected to disconnect his oxygen hose first and struggled with it until it broke, enabling him to separate from the aircraft. After parachuting safely down onto Soviet soil, Powers was quickly captured. Powers carried with him a modified silver dollar which contained a lethal, shellfish-derived saxitoxin -tipped needle, but he did not use it. The SAM command center
26312-445: The project and decided to submit an unsolicited proposal. To save weight and increase altitude, Lockheed executive John Carter suggested that the design eliminate landing gear and not attempt to meet combat load factors for the airframe. The company asked Clarence "Kelly" Johnson to come up with such a design. Johnson was Lockheed's best aeronautical engineer, responsible for the P-38 and
26496-413: The proposal. Using British pilots allowed Eisenhower to be able to use the U-2 aircraft to spy for American interests in the Soviet Union, while still being able to plausibly deny any affiliation if a mission became compromised. After the success of the first two British pilots and because of pressure to determine the number of Soviet intercontinental ballistic missiles more accurately, Eisenhower allowed
26680-453: The prototype flew at 52,000 feet (15,800 m), an altitude never before reached in sustained flight; by 8 September, it reached 65,000 feet (19,800 m). By January 1956, the U-2 had so impressed the USAF that it decided to obtain its own aircraft. The USAF purchased a total of 31 U-2s through the CIA; the transaction's code name, Project DRAGON LADY, was the origin of the aircraft's nickname. Meanwhile, U-2s conducted eight overflights of
26864-527: The request from the U.S. was made to chief of intelligence Vilhelm Evang , then passed on to defense minister Nils Handal , then passed on to " regjeringens sikkerhetsutvalg ('the Cabinet's security committee') where prime minister Gerhardsen and foreign minister Lange" were members. In the Norwegian Armed Forces, the U2 incident caused "dirty laundry to be aired", but no blame was assigned; as of 2022,
27048-496: The risk of illness since 2001 include longer mission durations and more cockpit activity. Conventional reconnaissance missions would limit pilot duties to maintaining flight paths for camera photography. Operations over Afghanistan included more real-time activities, such as communication with ground troops, increasing their bodies' oxygen requirements and the risk of nitrogen bubble formation. U-2 pilots now exercise during oxygen pre-breathing. In 2012, modifications were initiated under
27232-512: The sentence before being exchanged for Rudolf Abel on 10 February 1962. The exchange occurred on the Glienicke Bridge connecting Potsdam , East Germany , to West Berlin . The incident showed that even high-altitude aircraft were vulnerable to Soviet surface-to-air missiles. As a result, the United States began emphasizing high-speed, low-level flights for its previously high altitude B-47 , B-52 and B-58 bombers, and began developing
27416-466: The site. The first successful test followed on 21 August 1957; the R-7 flew over 6,000 km (3,700 mi) and became the world's first ICBM. The first strategic-missile unit became operational on 9 February 1959 at Plesetsk in north-west Russia. It was the same R-7 launch vehicle that placed the first artificial satellite in space, Sputnik , on 4 October 1957. The first human spaceflight in history
27600-477: The smallest point targets can be successfully attacked. ICBMs are differentiated by having greater range and speed than other ballistic missiles: intermediate-range ballistic missiles (IRBMs), medium-range ballistic missiles (MRBMs), short-range ballistic missiles (SRBMs) and tactical ballistic missiles . The first practical design for an ICBM grew out of Nazi Germany 's V-2 rocket program. The liquid-fueled V-2, designed by Wernher von Braun and his team,
27784-482: The stakes with the Apollo program , which used Saturn rocket technology that had been funded by President Dwight D. Eisenhower . These early ICBMs also formed the basis of many space launch systems. Examples include R-7 , Atlas , Redstone , Titan , and Proton , which was derived from the earlier ICBMs but never deployed as an ICBM. The Eisenhower administration supported the development of solid-fueled missiles such as
27968-655: The supersonic F-111 , which would include an FB-111A variant for the Strategic Air Command . The Corona spy satellite project was accelerated. The CIA also accelerated the development of the Lockheed A-12 OXCART supersonic spyplane that first flew in 1962 and later began developing the Lockheed D-21 unmanned drone . As a result of the capture, the Russians reverse-engineered the U-2 and ended up producing
28152-574: The tenures of American president Dwight D. Eisenhower and Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev , around two weeks before the scheduled opening of an east–west summit in Paris , France. Khrushchev and Eisenhower had met face-to-face at Camp David in Maryland in September 1959, and the seeming thaw in U.S.-Soviet relations had raised hopes globally for a peaceful resolution to the Cold War . The U-2 incident shattered
28336-411: The trainee's first solo flight and via radio. Pilots had to adjust to the U-2's unusual combination of jet engines and enormous, high-lift glider wings; because of the "coffin corner" they learned of the need to pay complete attention to flying when not using the autopilot. After AQUATONE was funded and security handled by the CIA, the agency referred to all its high altitude aircraft as "articles". This
28520-428: The trajectory which optimizes range for a given amount of payload (the minimum-energy trajectory ); an alternative is a depressed trajectory , which allows less payload, shorter flight time, and has a much lower apogee. Modern ICBMs typically carry multiple independently targetable reentry vehicles ( MIRVs ), each of which carries a separate nuclear warhead , allowing a single missile to hit multiple targets. MIRV
28704-596: The true nature of the U-2 mission. He said to an open session of the House of Representatives that the U-2 was a CIA aircraft engaged in aerial espionage over the Soviet Union. Cannon said, Mr. Chairman, on May 1 the Soviet Government captured, 1300 miles inside the boundaries of the Russian Empire, an American plane, operated by an American pilot, under the direction and control of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency, and
28888-641: The two countries. In order to ease the burden of flying Americans into Soviet airspace the idea developed to have British pilots from the Royal Air Force fly these missions in place of the American Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). With the United Kingdom still reeling from the aftermath of the Suez Crisis and in no position to snub American requests, the British government was amenable to
29072-460: The weather and cosmic rays at altitudes up to 55,000 feet; accordingly, the first CIA detachment of U-2s ("Detachment A") was known publicly as the 1st Weather Reconnaissance Squadron, Provisional (WRSP-1). The death in April 1956, however, of British agent Lionel Crabb while examining Soviet ships in Portsmouth harbor embarrassed the British government, which asked the United States to postpone
29256-418: The wings. These fit into sockets underneath each wing at about mid-span and fall off at takeoff. To protect the wings during landing, each wingtip has a titanium skid. After the U-2 comes to a halt, the ground crew re-installs the pogos, then the aircraft taxis to parking. Because of the high operating altitude and the cockpit's partial pressurization, equivalent to 28,000 feet (8,500 m) pressure altitude,
29440-466: Was Joseph F. Ware Jr. Initial design and manufacturing was done at Lockheed's Skunk Works factory in Burbank, California , with engineers embedded in the manufacturing area to address problems quickly. Procurement of the aircraft's components occurred secretly. When Johnson ordered altimeters calibrated to 80,000 feet (24,400 m) from a company whose instruments only went to 45,000 feet (13,700 m),
29624-571: Was shot down in a CIA U-2C over the Soviet Union by a surface-to-air missile (SAM). Major Rudolf Anderson Jr. was shot down in a U-2 during the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962. U-2s have taken part in post-Cold War conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq , and supported several multinational NATO operations. The U-2 has also been used for electronic sensor research, satellite calibration, scientific research, and communications purposes. The U-2
29808-432: Was a three-stage effort with the ICBM development not starting until the third stage. However, funding was cut in 1948 after only three partially successful launches of the second stage design, that was used to test variations of the V-2 design. With overwhelming air superiority and truly intercontinental bombers, the newly formed US Air Force did not take the problem of ICBM development seriously. Things changed in 1953 with
29992-509: Was accomplished on a derivative of R-7, Vostok , on 12 April 1961 , by Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin . A heavily modernized version of the R-7 is still used as the launch vehicle for the Soviet/Russian Soyuz spacecraft , marking more than 60 years of operational history of Sergei Korolyov 's original rocket design. The R-7 and Atlas each required a large launch facility, making them vulnerable to attack, and could not be kept in
30176-543: Was acquired and a paved runway constructed for the project. The planes were dismantled, loaded onto cargo planes, and flown to the facility for testing. The aircraft was renamed the U-2 in July 1955, the same month the first aircraft, Article 341, was delivered to Groom Lake . The "U" referred to the deliberately vague designation "utility" instead of "R" for "reconnaissance", and the U-1 and U-3 aircraft already existed. The CIA assigned
30360-498: Was allowed to use the Pakistan Air Force section of Peshawar Airport to gain vital photo intelligence in an era before satellite observation. President Eisenhower did not want to fly American U-2 pilots over the Soviet Union because he felt that if one of these pilots were to be shot down or captured, it could be seen as an act of aggression. At a time like the Cold War , any act of aggression could spark open conflict between
30544-520: Was an outgrowth of the rapidly shrinking size and weight of modern warheads and the Strategic Arms Limitation Treaties ( SALT I and SALT II ), which imposed limitations on the number of launch vehicles. It has also proved to be an "easy answer" to proposed deployments of anti-ballistic missile (ABM) systems: It is far less expensive to add more warheads to an existing missile system than to build an ABM system capable of shooting down
30728-699: Was another of the targets that Powers was to photograph. A close study of Powers' account of the flight shows that one of the last targets he overflew, before being shot down, was the Chelyabinsk-65 plutonium production facility. The U-2 flight was expected, and all units of the Soviet Air Defence Forces in the Central Asia, Kazakhstan, Siberia , Ural , and later in the USSR European Region and Extreme North , were placed on red alert. Soon after
30912-431: Was carried out to find a cheaper and easier alternative involving additives to generally used jet fuels. A JP-8 based alternative, JP-8+100LT, was being considered in 2001. JP-8+100 has increased thermal stability by 100 °F (56 °C) over stock JP-8, and is only 0.5 cents per gallon more expensive; low-temperature additives can be blended to this stock to achieve desired cold performance. The small landing gear made
31096-418: Was declared operational in January 1959 at Vandenberg, although it had not yet flown. The first test flight was carried out on 9 July 1959, and the missile was accepted for service on 1 September. The Titan I was another US multistage ICBM, with a successful launch February 5, 1959, with Titan I A3. Unlike the Atlas, the Titan I was a two-stage missile, rather than three. The Titan was larger, yet lighter, than
31280-416: Was decommissioned in compliance with arms control agreements, which address the maximum range of ICBMs and prohibit orbital or fractional-orbital weapons. However, according to reports, Russia is working on the new Sarmat ICBM which leverages Fractional Orbital Bombardment concepts to use a Southern polar approach instead of flying over the northern polar regions. Using that approach, it is theorized, avoids
31464-504: Was ferried from Incirlik Air Base in Turkey to the US base at Peshawar airport by pilot Glen Dunaway. Fuel for the aircraft had been ferried to Peshawar the previous day in a US Air Force C-124 transport. A US Air Force C-130 followed, carrying the ground crew, mission pilot Francis Powers , and the backup pilot, Bob Ericson. On the morning of 29 April, the crew in Badaber was informed that
31648-408: Was intended to reduce the chances of a security breach as part of a compartmented security system. These three-digit "article" numbers were factory assigned. Article 341 was the original U-2 prototype, and it never received a USAF serial. The first flight took place at Groom Lake on 1 August 1955, during what was intended to be only a high-speed taxi test. The sailplane-like wings were so efficient that
31832-470: Was on 15 May 1956, when the pilot stalled the aircraft during a post-takeoff maneuver that was intended to drop off the wingtip outrigger wheels. The second occurred on 31 August, when the pilot stalled the aircraft immediately after takeoff. On 17 September, a third aircraft disintegrated during ascent in Germany, also killing the pilot. There were other non-fatal incidents, including at least one that resulted in
32016-593: Was released two years later, in February 1962, in a prisoner exchange for Soviet intelligence officer Rudolf Abel . In July 1958, U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower requested permission from the Pakistani prime minister Feroze Khan Noon for the U.S. to establish a secret intelligence facility in Pakistan and for the U-2 spy plane to fly from Pakistan. The U-2 flew at altitudes that could not be reached by Soviet fighter jets of
32200-480: Was required, at a maximum payload weight of 440 pounds (200 kg). The U-2's camera was specially designed by James G. Baker of Harvard and Richard Scott Perkin of the Perkin-Elmer Company, initially in collaboration and later separately. Initial missions were flown with the trimetrogon "A" camera, consisting of three 24-inch-focal-length (610 mm) cameras, with F/8 resolving 60 lines per mm, and
32384-591: Was still going to the Paris Peace Summit. Defense analyst Richard Best, for the Congressional Research Service, writes: "Many observers believed that when President Eisenhower in 1960 accepted responsibility for U-2 overflights of the Soviet Union, he made reaching agreements with Moscow much more difficult; had he blamed the flights on the Pentagon or the CIA, Khrushchev arguably might not have felt forced to react so strongly even though he might not believe
32568-408: Was successfully carried out by SFC from Abdul Kalam Island, Odisha. The missile is now 20 percent lighter because the use of composite materials rather than steel material. The range has been increased to 7,000 km. By 2012 there was speculation by some intelligence agencies that North Korea is developing an ICBM. North Korea successfully put a satellite into space on 12 December 2012 using
32752-414: Was the beginning of his decline in power as party chairman, perhaps because he seemed unable to negotiate the international arena and the communist hardliners at home. The collapse of the summit also saw an increased tension between the Soviets and the Americans in the years to come. After this debacle, the arms race accelerated and any considerations for negotiations were dashed for the immediate future. As
32936-451: Was the grounding of all U-2 aircraft for mandatory inspection of oxygen systems in order to make sure that no other "weather missions" would have the same result as the one that was lost and possibly crashed in the Soviet Union. On 7 May, Khrushchev sprang his trap and announced: I must tell you a secret. When I made my first report I deliberately did not say that the pilot was alive and well ... and now just look how many silly things
33120-488: Was the type of high-altitude aircraft the panel was seeking. Edwin Land , the developer of instant photography and another member of the panel, proposed to Dulles through Dulles' aide, Richard M. Bissell Jr. , that his agency should fund and operate this aircraft. Land believed that if the military, rather than the CIA, operated the CL-282 during peacetime, such action could provoke a war. Although Dulles remained reluctant to have
33304-464: Was then widely used by Nazi Germany from mid-1944 until March 1945 to bomb British and Belgian cities, particularly Antwerp and London. Under Projekt Amerika, von Braun's team developed the A9/10 ICBM, intended for use in bombing New York and other American cities. Initially intended to be guided by radio, it was changed to be a piloted craft after the failure of Operation Elster . The second stage of
33488-443: Was told to open his orders, prepare for the arrival of an unusual aircraft making a deadstick landing , and get it inside a hangar as soon as possible. The U-2 successfully landed after gliding for more than 300 miles (480 km), and its strange, glider-like appearance and the space-suited pilot startled the base commander and other witnesses. Not all U-2 incidents were so benign, with three fatal accidents in 1956 alone. The first
33672-491: Was unaware for more than 30 minutes that the aircraft was destroyed. One of the Soviet MiG-19 fighters pursuing Powers was also destroyed in the missile salvo, and the pilot, Sergei Safronov , was killed. The MiGs' IFF transponders were not yet switched to the new May codes because of the 1 May holiday . Four days after Powers' disappearance, NASA issued a very detailed press release noting that an aircraft had "gone missing" north of Turkey . The press release speculated that
33856-438: Was unrealistic, but ordered that the overflights stop if the aircraft could be tracked. The CIA found that the Soviets could not consistently track the U-2s and therefore did not know that Moscow and Leningrad had been overflown. The aircraft's photographs showed tiny images of MiG-15s and MiG-17s attempting and failing to intercept the aircraft, proving that the Soviets could not shoot down an operational U-2. Knutson recalled that
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