Approved for Release: 2013/06/25
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Secret NOFORN
Chapter 3
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the Soviet Union’s submarine construction program. Mission 2013’s route also overflew a number of major military airfields to make an inventory of the new Bison jet-engine heavy bomber.²⁵
The second overflight, on the following day, continued the search for Bison bombers. Pilot Carmine Vito’s route was similar but somewhat to the south of Stockman’s and also flew farther east, more than 200 kilometers past Moscow. Although the Soviet capital was almost completely hidden by clouds, the A-2 camera with haze filters took some usable photographs of the city. These turned out to be the only U-2 photographs of Moscow because no other mission was sent over the Soviet capital. Among the key targets photographed during mission 2014 were the Fili airframe plant, where the Bison was being built; the bomber arsenal at Ramenskoye, where the Bisons were tested; the Kaliningrad missile plant; and the Khimki rocket-engine plant.²⁶
When Allen Dulles returned to work on Thursday, 5 July 1956, he asked Bissell if any overflights had taken place during the Independence Day holiday. One had been made on the fourth and another just that morning, Bissell replied. (Because of the six-hour time difference, the 5 July flight was safely back in Wiesbaden by the time Dulles spoke to Bissell.) When Dulles asked the routes of these missions, Bissell told him that they had overflown both Moscow and Leningrad. “Oh my Lord,” Dulles exclaimed, “do you think that was wise the first time?” “Allen,” Bissell replied, “the first is the safest.”²⁷
President Eisenhower also wanted to know the results of the 4 and 5 July flights, but his principal concern was whether there had been any indication that either flight had been discovered or tracked by radar. Eisenhower told Colonel Goodpaster “to advise Mr. Allen
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²⁵ National Photographic Interpretation Center: The Years of Project HTAUTOMAT, 1956-1958, Directorate of Science and Technology Historical Series NPIC-3, December 1974, 6 vols. (hereafter cited as NPIC History), vol. 1, p. 20 (S); Mission folder 2013 (4 July 1956), OSA records, job 67-B-328, box 7 (TS Codeword). Note on mission numbers: each proposed mission received a number, but not all of these missions were flown.
²⁶ NPIC History, vol. 1, p. 21 (S); Mission folder 2014 (5 July 1956), OSA records, job 67-B-328, box 7 (TS Codeword).
²⁷ Bissell interview by Welzenbach (S).
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Secret
Approved for Release: 2013/06/25