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

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234
Sec,et N6FOfU\1
Chapter 5
The increased level of U-2 activity in the Far East during the
spring of 1963 exposed a serious weakness in Projects IDEALIST and
TACKLE, a shortage of aircraft. The Agency only had seven flyable
U-2s when the TACKLE overflights of the PRC began in January
1962, and one of these aircraft had already been lost during an over­
flight in September 1962. To deal with this shortage, DCI McCone
asked Defense Secretary McNamara and the Joint Chiefs of Staff on
IO June 1963 to transfer two U-2s from the Air Force to the CIA. The
Defense Department quickly approved this request. Before the two
Air Force aircraft were placed in service, however, the Agency had
them upgraded with J75/P- l 3A engines and various electronic de­
vices, a process that took more than four months. 52
As overflights over the PRC increased, so did concern about the
growing number of Chinese surface-to-air missile sites. The Office of
Special Activities, therefore, got permission from the Defense
Department to equip Project TACKLE aircraft with System-XII
SAM-warning units. These devices alerted the pilot that his aircraft
was being tracked by the FAN SONG acquisition radar, part of the
SA-2's electronic targeting system. The System-XII units also re­
corded each radar-tracking sequence. Analysis of these recordings re­
vealed changes in the FAN SONG radar's characteristics, information
that proved useful in designing electronic-countermeasure (ECM) de­
vices for US aircraft operating over Vietnam during the late l 960s.51
Despite the addition of System-XII in the spring of 1963, the
Nationalist Chinese-piloted U-2s of Project TACKLE had far fewer
ECM devices than other Agency U-2s. Project IDEALIST aircraft
possessed a complete suite of ECM gear in addition to the previously
mentioned System-XII unit. Among this ECM equipment was a de­
vice that told the pilot that an SA-2 missile had been launched
(nicknamed the "Oscar-Sierra" unit, which was the acronym for the
expletive U-2 pilots used when they learned that an SA-2 missile was
on the way: "Oh, shit!") and a System-XIII unit that produced
false-angle returns to the homing radar aboard the approaching mis­
sile in an effort to steer it away from the aircraft. The Defense
Department opposed installing such devices aboard Detachment H's
U-2s, for fear they could fall into Communist hands.
" OSA History, chap. 16, p. 10 (TS Codeword).
" Ibid., chap. 17, p. 50 (TS Codeword).
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