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

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250
Sec, et PJOFORPJ
Chapter 5
December 1963, France had announced its intention to detonate a hy­
drogen device over Mururoa Atoll in the Tuamotu Archipelago area
of French Polynesia but had given no specific date for the event. The
Committee on Overhead Reconnaissance had been following French
nuclear developments since September 1963, when it had apprised the
USIB of the need for overflights of this South Pacific area. At that
time the USIB decided against recommending such overflights be­
cause of State Department concern about potential political difficul­
ties with France in the event the mission was discovered.
Following reports of a buildup of French troops and technical
personnel in neighboring Tahiti, the Special Group on 24 April 1964
approved a mission to overfly the atoll to check for activity. This re­
quired photography with a resolution better than the 3 to 5 feet possi­
ble with the standard B-model camera that had been in use since
October 1956. Work on a very-high-resolution camera had begun in
early 1963, when the Agency contracted with the Itek Corporation to
modify for placement in the U-2 a camera that had been developed
for the satellite program. Known as the Delta-II, or the 112A, this de­
vice could photograph a 28-kilometer swath with 26° convergent ste­
reoscopic lenses, resulting in a 70° lateral coverage and a ground
resolution of 10 inches. This camera was installed in a Detachment H
U-2 and used on two missions conducted over Indochina in late
December 1963. Resolution was not as high as had been expected,
and the unit was returned to Itek for modifications. By early 1964, the
112A had been reworked and was now known as the 112B. In tests it
had proved capable of providing photography with resolution in the
I 0- to 12-inch range.
Detachment G conducted Operation FISH HAWK in May 1964
by sending two pilots, an NPIC photointerpreter. and a U-2G
equipped with the Itek 112B camera to make the first operational U-2
flights from an aircraft carrier. On 19 May the U-2 took off from the
USS Ranger and overflew the French atomic test area. As soon as the
aircraft returned to the Ranger, the film was developed in the carrier's
photo lab, and the NPIC photointerpreter then read out the film to see
if the photography met the requirements for resolution and quality. A
second U-2 flight carried out a similar mission on 22 May. The pho­
tography provided all the detail needed to identify the preparations for
the nuclear test that occurred later that year. 111
"' "U-2 Aircraft Carrier Operations: Project 'WHALE TALE,' Operation FISH HAWK,'.
DS&T. 1964, pp. 17-25.
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