The Central Intelligence Agency and Overhead Reconnaissance; The U-2 and OXCART Programs, 1954-1974

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Seeret NOFORN
Chapter 3
boom, which could lift entire airframes 50 feet in the air, technicians
could change the airframe's attitude and run radar tests almost contin­
uously without having to fuel and fly the plane.n
By the summer of 1957, testing of the radar-deception system
was complete, and in July the first "dirty bird" (DB) arrived at
Detachment B. The first operational use of this aircraft occurred on
21 July l 957 in mission 4030 over Iran, Iraq, and Syria. On 31 July,
the same aircraft made a run over the Black Sea. There were a total of
nine DB missions over the USSR. The antiradar system did not prove
very effective, and its use was curtailed in May 1958.79
THE NEW DETACHMENT C
On 8 June 1957, a U-2 took off from Eielson Air Force Base in
Alaska to conduct the first intentional overflight of the Soviet Union
since December 1956. This mission broke new ground in two re­
spects: it was the first overflight conducted from American soil and
• -the first by the new Detachment C.
Detachment C (known officially as Weather Reconnaissance
Squadron, Provisional-3) was composed of the third group of pilots to
complete their training in Nevada. In the autumn of 1956, this third
detachment needed a new base because Area 51 was about to become
the training site for a large number of Air Force pilots who would fly
the 29 U-2s purchased by the Air Force. The Agency decided that the
best location for Detachment C would be the Far East and begao
looking for bases there.
Even without the arrival of the Air Force pilots, Detachment C
could not have stayed in Nevada much longer. In June 1957, the en­
tire facility had to be evacuated because the Atomic Energy
Commission was about to conduct a series of nuclear tests whose fall­
out was expected to contaminate the Groom Lake facility. All remain­
ing CIA personnel, materiel, and aircraft were transferred to Edwards
AFB, California, and became known as Detachment G.
" Ibid (S).
,., Cunningham interview (TS Codeword}.
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