Posted on 02/09/2023 12:57:50 PM PST by nickcarraway
US ‘Super Spy’ Aircraft, Famously Shot Down By Russia In 1960s, Used To Track China’s ‘Spy Balloon’
The US Air Force’s (USAF’s) U2S ‘Dragon Lady’ high altitude reconnaissance aircraft were reportedly used to monitor and gather intelligence on the Chinese surveillance balloon that a USAF F-22 Raptor shot down on February 4.
US Navy ‘Unknowingly’ Tried Shooting Down A ‘Spy Balloon’ Before Realizing They Were Firing At Planet Venus A US defense official has reportedly confirmed that the U-2S was used as part of the broader response to the Chinese surveillance balloon. However, at what points along the balloon’s more than a week-long voyage through the US and Canadian airspace, the U-2s were deployed is not exactly clear.
According to the US Defense Department, the balloon first entered the US airspace over the Aleutian Islands on January 28. Two days later, it passed into Canadian airspace before returning to the US over northern Idaho on January 31.
The balloon then moved along a broadly southeasterly track across the contiguous United States before moving out over the Atlantic off South Caroline, where the Raptor finally brought it down.
As per reports, at least two U-2Ss were employed by the USAF for assistance in monitoring the balloon while it was overflying the Midwest. The U-2Ss in question reportedly used the callsigns Dragon 01 and Dragon 99.
Also, at least one U-2S was in contact at times with the USAF’s Eastern Air Defense Sector (EADS), also referred to by the callsign Huntress, which is part of the US-Canadian North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) and is responsible for protecting the airspace over roughly the eastern half of the contiguous United States.
It is not sure what role the U-2Ss may have played in monitoring the balloon. However, the Dragon Lady is known to have been equipped with a wide array of sensors that could be used to gather high-quality visuals of the balloon and detect any electronic emissions that may be coming from it.
More importantly, the U-2 is known to be the only US military aircraft capable of flying persistently at altitudes exceeding that of the Chinese balloon, which is said to have been flying roughly between 60,000 and 70,000 feet throughout its voyage across the US and Canada.
The U-2 ‘Dragon Lady’ is one of the few aircraft types that have served the USAF for more than 50 years, including the Boeing B-52 strategic bomber, Boeing KC-135 tanker, and the Lockheed C-130 and C-5 transport aircraft.
Lockheed U-2 (Credit: Lockheed Martin) Lockheed U-2 (Lockheed Martin) Therefore, U-2 is one of those iconic American aircraft that have had a very eventful history going back to the Cold War era, not much different from the legendary B-52 bomber, which has been a bastion of the USAF’s bomber fleet for nearly 70 years and will continue to remain for decades to come, as the service does not plan on retiring the bomber anytime soon.
This entire Chinese balloon saga has brought back the memories of the U-2 crisis of 1960, which provoked a tense confrontation between the US and the Soviet Union (USSR).
The U-2 Crisis Of 1960 The US had flown U-2 spy planes over Soviet Territory since the mid-1950s. While both sides knew it was happening, the Americans would fly into the Soviet airspace with impunity, encouraged by the U-2’s ability to cruise at an altitude of 70,000 feet, which for years remained beyond the reach of the Soviet air defense systems and fighter jets.
Interestingly, before the U-2s, even the US used to send ‘espionage balloons’ over the Soviet Union, according to Michael Beschloss, the author of the book, ‘Mayday: Eisenhower, Khrushchev, and the U-2 Affair,’ published in 1986.
“They did this to detect any danger of an imminent Soviet surprise attack and to assess the size of the Soviet military complex so that Truman and Eisenhower could gauge how much they needed to spend on defense,” said Beschloss.
He added that then US President Dwight D Eisenhower believed that such spying missions served the peace by averting an unnecessary arms race that could spiral into war.
In 1956, the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) began sending U-2 planes over Soviet territory, relying on the flawed assessments that the Soviet radars could not detect the U-2 at 70,000 feet.
U-2S Dragon Lady
The agency even assured Eisenhower that the plane could not be detected. However, the former President realized that the flights could be seen as an act of war and insisted that he would personally approve every single overflight.
The Soviet radars were detecting the flights, and the Soviet air force would scramble its MiG-15s and MiG-17s, which could be seen in U-2’s photographs, attempting and failing to intercept the spy plane.
The CIA also developed a cover story for the U-2 after securing approval from the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) director Hugh Dryden. It described the aircraft as a high-altitude weather research platform used by the NACA, just in case a U-2 was ever lost over hostile territory.
There was reportedly some opposition to this cover story from certain advisors who suggested that in case of an aircraft loss, the US must acknowledge its use of U-2 overflights “to guard against surprise attack.”
This advice was not followed. The US had to face massive public embarrassment after the U-2 flown by CIA civilian pilot Francis Gary Powers was shot down by the Soviet S-75 ‘Dvina’ air-defense system on May 1, 1960.
The Americans soon realized that the plane had not returned to a base in Norway and assumed it had crashed. Based on a strong and flawed belief that a U-2 pilot cannot survive a crash, they put out a ‘cover’ statement that a weather plane had gone missing during a flight over Turkey.
Meanwhile, the Soviets who had captured Powers alive remained silent and lured the Americans into reinforcing their cover story. Finally, on May 7, they revealed that Powers was alive and confessed to spying on the Soviet Union, thereby exposing the American lie!
Also, the incident occurred only two weeks before Eisenhower and Khrushchev were due to meet at the Paris summit on May 16, an event organized after two years of diplomatic efforts from the American and Soviet diplomats.
Eisenhower took responsibility for the incident on May 11 and suspended further flights. Both men still attended the summit. However, Khrushchev demanded an apology from Eisenhower which Eisenhower refused, and the whole thing was called off.
The Chinese Balloon Episode Repeats History
One of the similarities between the U-2 incident and the latest Chinese balloon incident is the insistence of the Chinese government that the balloon was just a weather craft, which will now be under investigation.
Sailors assigned to the US Navy’s Explosive Ordnance Disposal Group 2 recover a high-altitude surveillance balloon off Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, on February 5, 2023. (US Navy) Both incidents have demonstrated that such unexpected events have a great potential to destroy years of diplomatic efforts.
Eisenhower had ordered U-2 flights to be halted well ahead of the Paris meeting, but after bad weather pushed forward the mission before the meeting, then CIA director Richard Bissell persuaded the US President to authorize a final flight on May 1.
The incident forced Eisenhower to acknowledge that he had been authorizing intelligence gathering overflights over the Soviet Union “to protect the United States…. against surprise attack and to enable them (his administration) to make effective preparations for defense.” Such measures were “a distasteful but vital necessity,” he admitted while adding that if the Soviets did not like it, then they should end their own “fetish of secrecy and concealment.”
The shoot-down of the U-2 plane finished Eisenhower’s hopes of achieving a breakthrough in the Cold War. This unexpected incident dashed his plans to visit Moscow and all chances of easing tensions and perhaps even brokering an arms control treaty between the two nuclear powers.
“Thanks to the U-2,” Khrushchev said, “the honeymoon was over.”
In a similar vein, even now, a critical diplomatic mission has just ruptured with the US Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken postponing his trip to Beijing that was expected to commence on February 3.
So, the outcome is quite similar: a high-stakes diplomatic meeting collapsed, and tensions between superpowers worsened!
The only difference between the U-2 crisis and the latest Chinese balloon incident is that the Chinese craft was unmanned, saving the Chinese the trouble of worrying over what to do about a captured pilot.
After capturing Powers, the Soviets convicted him of spying. They sentenced him to three years in prison and seven more years of hard labor before he was released in February 1962 in a spy swap between the US and Soviet Union, brokered by an American lawyer, James Donovan.
Yeah. Right.
How did they shoot down the U-2? That ought to be explained when posting this article.
Slingshot?
I still remember that! Powers had a custom knife made by Bo Randall. He never got it back and the joke was Khrushchev was later picking his teeth with it.
Black Cat Squadron
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Not to be confused with Black Bat Squadron.
35th Squadron
ROCAF35mark.png
Black Cat Squadron official emblem
Active 1961–74
Branch Republic of China Air Force
Role Surveillance
Garrison/HQ Taoyuan Air Base
Nickname(s) Black Cat Squadron
Commanders
Current
commander Lu Xiliang
Aircraft flown
Reconnaissance Lockheed U-2
The Black Cat Squadron (Chinese: 黑貓中隊; pinyin: Hēimāo Zhōngduì), formally the 35th Squadron, was a squadron of the Republic of China Air Force that flew the U-2 surveillance plane out of Taoyuan Air Base in northern Taiwan, from 1961 to 1974. 26 ROCAF pilots successfully completed U-2 training in the US and flew 220 operational missions,[1] with about half over the People’s Republic of China.
When the squadron was formed in 1961, Colonel Lu Xiliang (盧錫良) became its first commander and would become its longest-serving squadron commander. Colonel Lu was born in Shanghai on December 27, 1923 and completed his training in the US.
During the squadron’s 14 years of existence, five U-2s were shot down by PRC air defenses (using SA-2 missiles[2]), with three pilots killed and two captured. Another pilot was killed while performing an operational mission off the Chinese coast, while seven U-2s were lost during training missions, killing six pilots.[3]
A total of 19 U-2s were assigned to the Black Cat Squadron, over fourteen years, although the squadron usually had only two U-2s assigned to it at any one time; sometimes there was just one aircraft.[4]
The intelligence gathered by the Black Cat Squadron, which included evidence of a military build-up on the Sino-Soviet border, may have contributed to the U.S. opening to China during the Nixon administration by revealing the escalating tensions between the two communist nations. Shortly after Nixon’s visit to Beijing, all reconnaissance flights over the People’s Republic ceased, and the Black Cat Squadron was officially disbanded in the spring of 1974.
Operational missions
During a reconnaissance mission in Yunnan province, Chuang Ren-Liang saw two incoming missile in his correction camera and evaded SA-2 missiles that day.
The only other U-2 operator than CIA, USAF and United Kingdom was the Republic of China (Taiwan), which flew missions mostly over the People’s Republic of China (PRC). Since the 1950s, the Republic of China Air Force had used the RB-57A/D aircraft for reconnaissance missions over the PRC, but suffered two losses when MiG-17s and SA-2 Surface-to-Air Missiles were able to intercept the aircraft.
In 1958, ROC and American authorities reached an agreement to create the 35th Squadron, nicknamed the Black Cat Squadron, composed of two U-2Cs in Taoyuan Air Base in northern Taiwan, at an isolated part of the airbase. To create the typical misdirections at the time, the unit was created under the cover of high altitude weather research missions for ROCAF. To the US government, the 35th Squadron and any US CIA/USAF personnel assigned to the unit were known as Detachment H on all documents. But instead of being under normal USAF control, the project was known as Project RAZOR,[5][6] and was run directly by CIA with USAF assistance.
Each of the 35th Squadron’s operational missions had to be approved by both the US and the Taiwan/ROC presidents beforehand. To add another layer of security and secrecy to the project, all US military and CIA/government personnel stationed in Taoyuan assigned to Detachment H were issued official documents and ID with false names and cover titles as Lockheed employees/representatives in civilian clothes. The ROCAF pilots and ground support crew would never know their US counterpart’s real name and rank/title, or which US government agencies they were dealing with.
A total of 26 out of 28 ROC pilots sent to the US completed training between 1959 and 1973, at Laughlin Air Force Base, Texas.[7] On the night of 3 August 1959, a U-2 on a training mission, out of Laughlin AFB, Texas, piloted by Maj. Mike Hua of ROC Air Force, made a successful unassisted nighttime emergency landing at Cortez, Colorado, that was later known as the “Miracle at Cortez”. Major Hua was later awarded the US Air Force Distinguished Flying Cross for saving the top secret aircraft.[8][9][10][11]
In January 1961, the CIA provided the ROC with its first two U-2Cs, and in April the squadron flew its first mission over mainland China. Other countries were also covered from time to time by the 35th Squadron, such as North Korea,[12] North Vietnam and Laos, but the main objective of the ROC 35th Squadron was to conduct reconnaissance missions assessing the PRC’s nuclear capabilities. For this purpose the ROC pilots flew as far as Gansu and other remote regions in northwest China. Some of the missions, due to mission requirements and range, plus to add some element of surprise, had the 35th Squadron’s U-2s flying from or recovered at other US air bases in Southeast Asia and Eastern Asia, such as K-8 (Kunsan) in South Korea, or Takhli in Thailand. All US airbases in the region were listed as emergency/ alternate recovery airfields and could be used besides the 35th Squadron’s home base at Taoyuan Air Base in Taiwan. Initially, all film taken by the Black Cat Squadron was flown to Okinawa or Guam for processing and development, and the US forces would not share any of the mission photos with Taiwan, but in late 1960s the USAF agreed to share complete sets of mission photos and help Taiwan set up a photo development and interpretation unit at Taoyuan.
On 9 September 1962, the first loss occurred when the PRC downed a U-2 near Nanchang; the pilot Chen Huai died in a PRC hospital.[13] The U.S. denied PRC accusations of involvement in the ROC flights, noting that the previous Eisenhower administration had sold the U-2s to ROC. This was a cover story, however as the CIA maintained Detachment H’s U-2s and replaced them as necessary, and CIA pilots from Detachment G began using Detachment H’s unmarked U-2 for flights over North Vietnam in February 1962.[14]
The demand for intelligence on the Chinese nuclear program grew but so did the number of PRC SAM sites and use of the Fan Song radar, and ROC overflights became more dangerous. Two more ROC U-2s were shot down, one on 1 November 1963 over Jiangxi and one on 7 July 1964 over Fujian,[13] and ROC demanded improved electronic countermeasures (ECM) equipment. Detachment H’s U-2s had the System XII radar detector but not the sophisticated System XIII radar jammer, because the United States Department of Defense feared its loss to the PRC. The need for intelligence on the Chinese nuclear program was so great that the Defense Department agreed to install improved ECM equipment, but insisted that pilots not turn System XIII on until System XII detected FAN SONG. After another ROC U-2 was lost in circumstances that remain classified as of July 2013, ROC refused to conduct further overflights unless its pilots could use System XIII whenever over the PRC.
After the People’s Republic of China conducted its third nuclear test on 9 May 1966, the US was eager to obtain information on the Chinese capabilities. To this end, the CIA initiated a program, code named Tabasco, to develop a sensor pod that could be dropped into the Taklamakan Desert, near the Chinese nuclear test site. The pod was intended to deploy an antenna after landing and radio back data to the US SIGINT station at Shulinkou Taiwan. After a year of testing in the US, the pod was ready. Two pilots of the 35th squadron were trained in the dropping of the pod. On 7 May 1967, a ROCAF U-2 (article 383) flown by Spike Chuang took off from Takhli Royal Thai Air Force Base with a sensor pod under each wing.[15] The aircraft successfully released the pods at the target, near the Lop Nur Nuclear Weapons Test Base, but no data were received from the pods. This was unfortunate, as the People’s Republic of China conducted a test of its first thermonuclear device in Test No. 6 on 17 June 1967. A second U-2 mission was flown to the area by a Black Cat squadron U-2 flown by Bill Chang on 31 August 1967. This U-2 carried a recorder and an interrogator in an attempt to contact the pods. This mission was unsuccessful, as nothing was heard from the pods. This set the stage for Operation Heavy Tea, conducted by the Black Bat Squadron.[16]
In 1968, the ROC U-2C/F/G fleet was replaced with the newer U-2R. However, with the overwhelming threats from SA-2 missiles and MiG-21 interceptors, along with the rapprochement between the US and the PRC, the ROC U-2 squadron stopped entering Chinese airspace, and instead only conducted electronic surveillance plus photo reconnaissance missions with new Long-Range Oblique Reconnaissance (LOROP) cameras on the U-2R while flying over international waters. The last U-2 aircraft mission over mainland China took place on 16 March 1968. After that, all missions had the U-2 aircraft fly outside a buffer zone at least 20 nautical miles (37 km) around China.
During his visit to China in 1972, US President Richard Nixon promised the Chinese authorities to cease all reconnaissance missions near and over China, though this was also made practical because US photo satellites by 1972 were able to provide better overhead images without risking losing aircraft and pilots, or provoking international incidents. The last 35th Squadron mission was flown by Sungchou “Mike” Chiu on 24 May 1974.[17]
By the end of ROC’s U-2 operations, a total of 19 U-2C/F/G/R aircraft had been operated by the 35th Squadron from 1959 to 1974.[18] The squadron flew a total of about 220 missions,[19] with about half over mainland China, resulting in five aircraft shot down, with three fatalities and two pilots captured; one aircraft lost while performing an operational mission off the Chinese coast, with the pilot killed; and another seven aircraft lost in training with six pilots killed.[18][20] On 29 July 1974, the two remaining U-2R aircraft in ROC possession were flown from Taoyuan Air Base in Taiwan to Edwards AFB, California, US, and turned over to the USAF.[21][22][23][24]
Members after retirement
After his retirement, Col. Lu Xiliang (盧錫良) and his family immigrated to Los Angeles in 1986, where he became an ardent activist for ROCAF POWs’ rights, particularly the right of POWs to return to Taiwan to reunite with their families after imprisonment in mainland China. Colonel Lu died on December 15, 2008.
In addition to Lu Xiliang, another six former-members of the squadron eventually settled in the US, including Zhuang Renliang (莊人亮), Wang Taiyou (王太佑) in Los Angeles, Yeh Changti in Texas, Hua Xijun (華錫鈞) in Maryland, and the deputy squadron commander Yang Shiju (楊世駒) in Las Vegas.
List of ROC U-2 aircraft lost
U-2C 56-6691 wreckage (shot down on 10 January 1965) on display at the Military Museum of the Chinese People’s Revolution, Beijing
Shot down over mainland China
September 9, 1962: U-2C N.378 - Major Chen Huai (killed)[25]
November 1, 1963: U-2C N.355 - Major Yeh Changti (captured, released in 1982), shot down by Yue Zhenghua and his Second Battalion[25]
July 7, 1964: U-2G N.362 - Lt. Colonel Lee Nanpin (killed), shot down over Fujian by Yue Zhenghua and his Second Battalion[25]
January 10, 1965: U-2C N.358 - Major Chang Liyi (captured, released in 1982), shot down over Baotou by Wang Lin and his First Battalion[25]
September 8, 1967: U-2C[26] N.373 - Captain Huang Jungpei (killed), shot down over Jiaxing by Xia Cunfeng and the 14th Battalion, first success by a Chinese-made surface-to-air missile[25]
Lost due to technical failure during operational missions
May 16, 1969: model and number unknown - Major Chang Hsieh (killed)[25]
Lost during training missions
March 19, 1961: U-2C N.351 - Major Chih Yaohua (killed)
March 23, 1964: U-2F N.356 - Captain Liang Tehpei (killed)
October 22, 1965: U-2A N.352 - Major Wang Chengwen (killed)
February 17, 1966: U-2F N.372 - Captain Wu Tsaishi (killed)
March 22, 1966: model and number unknown - Captain Fan Hungdi (survived)
June 21, 1966: U-2C N.384 - Major Yu Chingchang (killed)
November 24, 1970: U-2R N.057 - Major Huang Chihsien (killed)
“U S Navy ‘Unknowingly’ Tried Shooting Down A ‘Spy Balloon’ Before Realizing They Were Firing At Planet Venus.”
I hope they missed. We don’t need war with Venus.
“We don’t need war with Venus.”
Then we’d lose our supply of Venetian blinds.
The USAF was still flying the U2’s, TR’s, and SR’s and the main bases used were Beale and Osan after 1974. They had others that were still classified at that time like Diego Garcia and some bases in England. I left Beale in 1984 and both were still in use through the First SRS and the 9th SRW.
The cost is the reason for the SR retirement, on paper, and the U2 is even cheaper to fly than it’s proposed replacement the RQ-4. There are currently known to be about 30 U2’s in use.
The SR never really had a job as it was originally being built as a fighter bomber. But it was so fast, it ran over it’s own munitions after they were fired. To give the reader an idea how fast and high the SR flew, 90K+ and mach 4+, if they were going to drop a device on Moscow the SR would have to turn it loose over the Bering Sea and it would have to fly all the way across Russia to hit the target. That fine but right after takeoff and moderate altitude the SR needed refueling to continue its mission. KC’s were used at Beale. JP-7 ain’t cheap.
Some of the space suits for the SR and U2 aircraft were stored at the PTSD at Beale and borrowed for space shots by NASA.
wy69
I think the Russians shot down the U-2 with a missile that could reach a very high altitude that we didn’t know about.
One more in the name of love.
Thanks for the feedback.
Beale was an amazing airbase only about and hour’s drive from Sacramento.
Robert Heinlein made a good case for it not being a shoot down but a forced landing maybe because of engine problems in his book Expanded Universe.🤔
What was your unit? I was there from 81 - 87. I worked in the block house. A lot of TDYs.
“Beale was an amazing airbase only about and hour’s drive from Sacramento.”
I PCSed back to that area to Mather in 1985 and was one of the last 15 families off when they closed it. Dealt a lot with the non-existent bull pin and WSA. I could tell you some real funny stories about the closure there and the over running of civilians that clawed their way into control. I guess Rancho Cordova has rebounded after the loss a little but it almost went to a ghost town for a while.
wy69
Only recently have the pilots that were lost on those overflights honored for their bravery on those top secret missions.
“I guess Rancho Cordova has rebounded after the loss a little but it almost went to a ghost town for a while.”
The closing of Beale impacted many smaller/medium cities, miles away from Beale.
My funniest and most memorable story about Beale happened at the N. California Ocean coast.
My sons and I were Coastal deer hunting and my older son and I had crossed a little creek, and my youngest son was in the middle of the creek when a plane broke the sound barrier as it left coastal Cali heading west.
The youngest son actually ducked so low he ended up in the creek over the top of his boots and got very wet and cold.
The oldest son saw the plane and called it as a SR71.
Our youngest son can laugh decades later.
I went to one of the actual air shows at Beale they had and the SR was there for the public to see at a distance. They took it off to go to Minot and did a low level fly over at a couple of hundred feet at low speeds with the gear down trying not to stall the thing. There was a gas can about 10 yards away from us when the thing went over and the can was vibrating on the ground and circling. Used to be fun to watch the things take off at night with the cone flames on the engines and we could feel the power of the takeoff in housing. My Lord they are powerful.
wy69
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