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

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Seeret NOFORN
Chapter 7
government could not afford to maintain two such similar reconnais­
sance programs. The elimination of the Agency's OXCART program
did not, however, spell the end of the usefulness of the world's most
advanced aircraft; its offspring, the SR-71, is still in service.
In addition to the aircraft themselves, many other items associ­
ated with the reconnaissance program have represented important ad­
vances in technology. The flight suits and life-support systems of the
U-2 and OXCART pilots were the forerunners of the equipment used
in the space program. Camera resolution improved dramatically as the
result of cameras and lenses produced for the CIA's reconnaissance
program.
COOPERATION WITH THE AIR FORCE
In this history, which concentrates on the CIA's involvement in over­
head reconnaissance, it is easy to overlook the important role that the
US Air Force played in the U-2 and OXCART programs. From the
. v_ery beginnings of the U-2 program in 1954, the Agency and the Air
Force were partners in advancing the state of the art in overhead re­
connaissance. Air Force personnel served at all levels of the recon­
naissance program, from project headquarters to the testing site and
field detachments. The Air Force supplied the U-2's engines, at times
diverting them from other high-priority production lines. Perhaps
most important of all, the Air Force provided pilots for the U-2s after
the Agency's original attempt to recruit a sufficient number of skilled
foreign pilots proved unsuccessful. Finally, the day-to-day operations
of the U-2s could not have been conducted without the help of Air
Force mission planners, weather forecasters, and support personnel in
the field detachments. The cooperation between the Agency and the
Air Force that began with the U-2 and continued with Project
OXCART remains a major feature in US reconnaissance programs
today.
IMPACT OF THE OVERHEAD RECONNAISSANCE
PROGRAM ON THE CIA
CIA's entry into the world of overhead reconnaissance at the end of
1954 ultimately produced major changes in the Agency. Classical
forms of intelligence-the use of covert agents and clandestine
operations-gradually lost their primacy to the new scientific and
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