After World War II, feelings of hostility formed into the Cold War. This event involved the Soviet Union and the United States for almost 50 years following World War II. The United States and Soviet Union united during World War II, but were very different countries. They both joined the Allied side to defeat the Axis powers, not to become friendly with each other. The two countries had very different governments that didn’t mesh well. The Communism of the Soviet Union was strongly opposed by the capitalistic United States, and the United States’ capitalism was opposed by the Soviet Union. Actions by both sides also played into the tensions of the Cold War. Americans feared the expansion of the Soviet Union across eastern Europe, while the Soviet Union felt that the United States had not put forth a comparable effort to itself in World War II and disliked how America was acting after having won the war. The fallout of these two countries, who had once fought side by side against a common enemy, became the basis for the Cold War.
The Cold War was not a fighting war. Neither the Soviets nor Americans declared war on each other nor did they fight each other in a battle. The Cold War was rather a large-scale grapple for world power and dominance between these two countries. The Americans practiced a containment policy where they stopped whatever Communist developments they could, in order to prevent the Soviet Union from gaining more power. Likewise, the Soviet Union imposed Communist governments on neighboring countries to keep away capitalism and therefore strengthen itself. Also, the countries were locked in a massive arms race. The atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki by the United States demonstrated the literal and figurative power of nuclear warfare to the world. The bombs destroyed cities and took a huge number of lives, but were also a turning point in World War II that led to the Japanese surrender and Allied victory. After witnessing the power of nuclear weapons, both America and the Soviet Union began developing and testing nuclear weapons as fast as they could. The desire to be more powerful than each other led each country to work on developing the most powerful atomic weapon, and the power race also spread to other technologies and efforts. Each country, however, worked in secrecy in order to not let the other side steal technology and also not give away how powerful the country was and what weapons it had amassed. The countries also wanted the knowledge of the other side’s technology and extent of its power. This led to government-supported espionage in the Cold War.
The Soviets and Americans used many methods of spying on each other in order to gain an information advantage in their quest of being more powerful than each other. For example, the United States Central Intelligence Agency and the Russian KGB (Committee for National Security) employed agents to infiltrate and collect information from the other side. The ground-spy method proved to be effective in gaining important information from each side.
Spy planes were also used as a method of collecting information. These planes were outfitted with sensors such as cameras to gather information while flying over opposing countries. These planes were greatly developed and implemented during the Cold War, especially by the United States, as a method of getting information on weapon development or other parts of a nation’s power that could be seen in the air.
The Americans were the first to produce a high-altitude spy plane. In the early 1950’s, the Cold War was just starting and Americans greatly desired information about the Soviet Union. The issue with old planes used for information gathering was they were easily detected and were not effective because they could not cover much of the Soviet Union’s massive territory. The U.S. Central Intelligence Agency, under President Dwight D. Eisenhower, started the secret U-2 Project in 1954 to fix the problems with old reconnaissance aircraft (Welzenbach Preface). Many American aviation companies submitted entries in the U-2 competition, but Lockheed Martin’s CL-282 aircraft design prevailed. While initially being repeatedly rejected for its lack of basic military aircraft equipment of the time, including landing gear, it eventually was chosen as the design for the U-2 Project. The CL-282 could fly at an altitude of 70,000 feet and did not look like a conventional military aircraft (Welzenbach 34). This was important because the plane was thought to be able to escape Soviet radar at this altitude, and the plane’s non-military features made it appear less confrontational should it crash or land in Soviet territory.
The CL-282, now the U-2, underwent some changes from the original Lockheed Martin design. The original design had been incredibly lightweight, and as a result, very fragile compared to the average military plane. The wings and tail were strengthened to minimize the chances of damage from turbulence. Also, landing gear was added. A small, lightweight camera was developed for the U-2 to allow it to perform its function of reconnaissance. The U-2 made its first official flight on August 8th, 1955 (Welzenbach 70). By 1956, it had begun to fly over the Soviet Union and captured images of its military developments. This information proved to be valuable, as it showed that the U.S.S.R.’s nuclear developments were not as powerful as the Soviets had claimed (U-2 Spy Incident 2). It also showed that the Soviet Union did not yet have the ability to stop these flights because of the high altitude achieved by the U-2s. The Soviets were, however, able to pick up the planes on radar during the early U-2 flights, but could not do anything to stop the flights.
Soon, however, the Soviets were able to stop the U-2. Four years later, in 1960, The Soviet Union had developed a new missile called the Zenith that was able to achieve the altitude that the U-2 cruised at. Finally, they weren’t helpless against the U-2 flights over their territory. The first Soviet takedown of a U-2 aircraft happened in the spring of 1960, and became a huge international affair between the Soviet Union and the United States.
The U-2 Spy Incident began on May 1st, 1960. An American U-2, piloted by Francis Gary Powers, was flying over Sverdlovsk, Russia to gather information on Soviet military construction. He was targeted by two of the U.S.S.R.’s new Zenith missiles. The first missile narrowly missed Powers’ U-2, but the explosion knocked the airplane off of its flight path. The second missile directly hit the plane, and Powers was forced to bail from the plane. On landing, he was captured by members of the Soviet military who tracked him after the missiles struck. (U-2 Spy Incident 6). When approached by the Soviet Union for an explanation for the U-2’s flight over Russia, American officials under President Eisenhower made up a story that the flight’s purpose was to collect weather data but the plane had mistakenly gone off course. This story had actually been created right before actual U-2 flights began in 1956 and was approved by top CIA officials to be used in this type of situation (Welzenbach 89). The officials believed that the plane had been destroyed in the crash, so the Soviets would have to believe the story. Unfortunately for the Americans, the Soviets had been able to salvage
The incident became such an affair that Powers was featured on the cover of Time two weeks after his crash. enough of the mangled U-2 to demonstrate that it was not a weather plane, but rather a spy aircraft (U-2 Spy Incident 7). The United States was forced to admit that it lied, and Francis Gary Powers was tried for espionage in the Soviet Union in 1960. He would gain his freedom in 1962, however, in an exchange between the U.S.A. and the U.S.S.R. involving Powers and captured Soviet spy (U-2 Spy Incident 9-10). The U-2 Spy Incident effectively ended American U-2 flights over the Soviet Union. It was disastrous proof that the U-2 was no longer safe in Soviet airspace because it could be tracked and taken down.
U-2 flights did continue in Cuba. The airplanes were used during the Bay of Pigs invasion to prepare for and monitor the invasion, which failed. U-2s also found evidence of the heavy Soviet armament of Cuba, which would lead to the Cuban Missile Crisis. One U-2 was shot down over Cuba while surveilling and increased the already high tensions in the Crisis (Klein 4). U-2s also flew over South Asia, but after a series of crashes, the airplanes were so few in number that a new batch of U-2s needed to be produced. The U-2s were updated with better cameras, engines, and a stronger airframe. The U-2 program, however, was becoming less-used for military surveillance and more for scientific research. The planes weren’t fast or advanced enough to avoid radar, and military monitoring was increasingly less requested. In 1974, the 40 Committee, a group responsible with reviewing military programs, decided to end the U-2 program effective August 1st, 1974 (Welzenbach 257). The nearly 20-year-long U-2 reconnaissance program came to an end. The plane would be brought back and continue going on surveillance missions in the future, but for the Air Force instead of the CIA. The U-2’s dominant role as a spy plane in the Cold War ended with its retirement by the CIA.
During the early flights of the U-2, it was realized that the plane could be tracked by Soviet radar. While originally not an issue due to the inability of the Soviet Union to stop the flights, American CIA officials correctly predicted that the Soviet technology would eventually catch up to the U-2. Attempts were made to make the U-2 less detectable to radar, but these did not prove effective enough to make the airplane truly undetectable. CIA officials turned their attention to the possibility and effectiveness of an aircraft that could fly far higher and faster than the U-2. In 1957, while U-2 flights were underway, Lockheed Martin and Corvair were commissioned with designing a plane that could meet these requirements. As the two companies worked on their designs, the CIA secured President Eisenhower’s support and therefore funding for Lockheed and Corvair’s individual projects. By 1959, the two companies had completed their projects, and the new project was placed in front of a panel of members from the Air Force, CIA, and the Department of Defense. Lockheed Martin had been successful in winning the U-2 design, and again prevailed with the new design. They had managed to produce an aircraft that could fly at Mach 3.2 (over 3 times the speed of sound) and fly at over of 91,000 feet (The Oxcart Story 10). These statistics were far greater than those of the U-2, and Lockheed was able to proceed with the CIA-run newly named OXCART project and produce 12 aircraft (McIninch 11).
The project required intense development of new technologies in order to actually let the airplane fly and accomplish what it needed to do regarding surveillance. The CIA worked closely with the United States Air Force on the project to gain the Air Force’s resources. The speed the plane could fly at caused the outside of the plane to become incredibly hot, and special titanium panels had to be designed and constructed for the plane. It also painted black, to help better dissipate heat across the plane body, resulting in the well-known nickname “Blackbird” for the plane (Creating the Blackbird 8). The camera and its window had to be specially developed to withstand this heat without warping the optics used to get images. The pilot needed to wear a special space suit when flying the aircraft, because putting a system to regulate pressure and
The suit worn by pilots and the small cockpit temperature in the cabin would be too heavy and hurt the efficiency of the plane. The plane was designed for long missions, and therefore had to include in-air refueling in its design because it burned through its fuel so quickly. Work was also done to ensure the plane would have a small radar footprint in order to avoid detection. In fact, the plane’s radar cross section was reduced by 90% to the point that it appeared smaller than a man to radar systems (Creating the Blackbird 11). The vast amount of technology that needed to be created and implemented made the OXCART program prone to high costs and many delays, but 5 years after beginning the design, the aircraft was ready for test flights.
A special runway and test facility was built in Nevada for testing of the OXCART aircraft. The plane had its first official flight on April 30th, 1962, and was declared a success (McIninch 40). When the U-2 piloted by Rudolph Anderson monitoring Cuba was shot down by Soviet missiles, the OXCART program became even more important, as the loss of the U-2 combined with the earlier U-2 Spy Incident demonstrated that U-2s were no longer safe in the air against the latest Soviet tracking and targeting technology. More aircraft were built, and flight time hours increased greatly. By 1965, 1160 flights had been completed by test and detachment aircraft, and there were 11 total OXCART airplanes, also known as A-12s (McIninch 59). The aircraft was declared ready for official mission use.
The OXCART planes in Nevada
In 1965, the American government was interested in using the OXCART A-12s over Cuba, and A-12s and pilots were prepped for Cuba missions. This mission never occurred, because U-2s proved to be adequate in the surveillance needed in the mission (McIninch 70). The U-2s were far cheaper to use, and the A-12 was considered too important to replace the U-2 on this mission.
Soon after, interest in monitoring Communist China grew. The U-2s previously used were considered too risky, after the prior events across the world in which U-2s were lost. Operation BLACK SHIELD was created in 1965 for surveillance of Asia, but was severely delayed from crashes of A-12s in test flights and officials not wanting to put their secret program into actual missions that would reveal its capabilities to the world. (McIninch 79). Growing fears of Communist military developments in Asia caused support for A-12 spy missions to grow, and flights started in May 1967. The first A-12 mission was determined to have avoided radar detection from the Chinese and North Vietnamese, but later BLACK SHIELD missions were detected by radar. The planes, however, flew far too fast and high to be intercepted by missiles or other aircraft. Other missions were flown over North Korea to monitor hostile actions, and all the Asia missions flown under BLACK SHIELD resulted in no crashes and were successful in evading missiles and gathering data.
The Air Force also ordered planes from Lockheed based on the CIA’s A-12 body and OXCART program. They were referred to as the SR-71, which is the more commonly-known variant of the OXCART aircraft. Some variants had seats for 2 pilots and were also designed for reconnaissance (McIninch 98). It had larger fuel tanks, meaning it could stay in the air without refueling for longer. The SR-71 began operations in September 1966, and by this time the CIA’s OXCART Program was coming to a close.
The OXCART Program had been immensely expensive, and with the addition of the upgraded SR-71 plane, the older single-pilot A-12s were thought to be unnecessary. At the beginning of 1967, the Bureau of the Budget decided to terminate the CIA OXCART program and have the SR-71 take over the job of Asia and Cuba surveillance. This didn’t go into effect until after the OXCART A-12 planes successfully completed their missions in these areas, which proved to be very successful missions. Although this demonstrated the success of the OXCART program, the decision to have the Air Force SR-71 take over still remained. By 1968, all OXCART aircraft were in storage. The SR-71 remained in service until 1989 but was not used for as many reconnaissance missions as the Soviet Union declined, bringing an end to the Cold War. The plane retired primarily due to the expensive nature of operating the plane. Some accounts value one hour of SR-71 flight time at $200,000 dollars (Majumdar 5). These missions were far longer than one hour, as well. Furthermore, surveillance satellites were becoming more advanced and increased in number, diminishing the need for spy planes. With the retirement of the SR-71, the use of American spy planes of the Cold War came to an end.
The Soviet Union put marginal effort into its spy planes compared to the United States. Their system of ground spies was able to relay a lot of information about American developments because American society was far more open than the restrictive society of the Soviet Union. Information and maps of American developments were far more accessible than those of the Soviet Union, so the U.S.S.R. didn’t need to put as much effort into spy plane programs. The planes that they considered “reconnaissance planes” were altered bombers and fighters and were not used or developed to the same extent that American spy planes were (Welzenbach 20). The Soviet Union had different methods of obtaining information than the United States.
The American spy plane programs during the Cold War were very significant. They were instrumental in collecting data about Soviet advancements, in the case of the Cuban Missile crisis for example. They helped clarify and denounce Soviet claims about their developments in military technology by actually showing America what the U.S.S.R. was building. Furthermore, the planes pushed the edge of aircraft technology and design. The U-2 required special designs to fly so high and it also needed an entirely new camera developed for it to take large clear photographs of the ground below. In fact, developed U-2s are still used today by the Air Force for imaging and sensing missions (Michel 1). The OXCART planes, the A-12 and SR-71, needed even more inventions. The SR-71 is the fastest air-breathing manned aircraft (Creating the Blackbird 5). It was a completely original design, not based on any aircraft before it. It had to tackle a number of design problems that needed entirely new methods to fix. The technologies used in these aircraft contributed to new aircraft and other technologies in the future, and some
The U-2 and SR-71 together SR-71s were used by NASA for research after their Air Force retirement. Also, these planes have had an impressive social impact, in particular the SR-71. It is a very well-known plane, and its incredibly unique and distinctive shape combined with its nickname “Blackbird” make it very memorable. Also, some retired planes have made it to displays in museums, such as the San Diego Air and Space Museum. These planes possess a certain coolness factor that inspires children and adults alike with its impressive feats of speed and design. Even today, people write articles on the supposed successor of the SR-71,
SR-71 on display in San Diego demonstrating that there is still public interest in the plane. The spy planes of the Cold War have had a significant impact on United States history for their practical use, technological advancements, and social impact.
Works Cited
- “Creating the Blackbird”. Lockheed Martin, 2017. https://www.lockheedmartin.com/us/ 100years/stories/blackbird.html
- Klein, Christopher. “How the Death of a U.S. Air Force Pilot Prevented a Nuclear War”. History.com, 2012. http://www.history.com/news/the-cuban-missile-crisis-pilot-whose- death-may-have-saved-millions
- Majumdar, Dave. “SR-71: Why is the World’s Fastest Plane in a Museum?”. The National Interest, 2015. http://nationalinterest.org/blog/the-buzz/sr-71-why-the-worlds-fastest- plane-museum-14747
- McIninch, Thomas P. “The Oxcart Story”. Central Intelligence Agency Library. CIA Historical Review Program, 1996. https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/ kent-csi/vol15no1/html/v15i1a01p_0001.htm#1-at-this-point
- Michel, Christopher. “U-2s Still Flying High”. U.S. Naval Institute, 2017. https://www.usni.org/ u-2s-still-flying-high
- Pedlow, Gregory W. Welzenbach, Donald E., McDonald, J. Kenneth “CIA and the U2 Program 1954-1974”. Diane Publishing, 1998.
- “U-2 Spy Incident”. History.com, 2009. http://www.history.com/topics/cold-war/u2-spy-incident
- http://www.history.com/news/the-cuban-missile-crisis-pilot-whose-death-may-have- saved-millions
- Bibliography
- “Creating the Blackbird”. Lockheed Martin, 2017. https://www.lockheedmartin.com/us/ 100years/stories/blackbird.html
- Graham, Richard H. “SR-71: The Complete Illustrated History of the Blackbird, The World’s Highest, Fastest Plane” Zenith Press, 2013.
- Klein, Christopher. “How the Death of a U.S. Air Force Pilot Prevented a Nuclear War”. History.com, 2012. http://www.history.com/news/the-cuban-missile-crisis-pilot-whose- death-may-have-saved-millions
- Majumdar, Dave. “SR-71: Why is the World’s Fastest Plane in a Museum?”. The National Interest, 2015. http://nationalinterest.org/blog/the-buzz/sr-71-why-the-worlds-fastest- plane-museum-14747
- McIninch, Thomas P. “The Oxcart Story”. Central Intelligence Agency Library. CIA Historical Review Program, 1996. https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/ kent-csi/vol15no1/html/v15i1a01p_0001.htm#1-at-this-point
- Michel, Christopher. “U-2s Still Flying High”. U.S. Naval Institute, 2017. https://www.usni.org/ u-2s-still-flying-high
- Norris, Logica P. “The Political Impact of Spy Satellites”.
- Pedlow, Gregory W. Welzenbach, Donald E., McDonald, J. Kenneth “CIA and the U2 Program 1954-1974”. Diane Publishing, 1998.
- Polmar, Norman. “Spyplane: The U-2 History Declassified”. MBI, 2001.
- “U-2 Spy Incident”. History.com, 2009. http://www.history.com/topics/cold-war/u2-spy-incident
- http://www.history.com/news/the-cuban-missile-crisis-pilot-whose-death-may-have- saved-millions