Approved for Release: 2013/06/25
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Secret NOFORN
Chapter 1
3
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Interrogation of returning Germans offered only fragmentary information, and this source could not be expected to last much longer. As a result, in the late 1940s, the US Air Force and Navy began trying to obtain aerial photography of the Soviet Union. The main Air Force effort involved Boeing RB-47 aircraft (the reconnaissance version of the B-47 jet-propelled medium bomber) equipped with cameras and electronic “ferret” equipment that enabled aircrews to detect tracking by Soviet radars. At that time the Soviet Union had not yet completely ringed its borders with radars, and much of the interior also lacked radar coverage. Thus, when the RB-47s found a gap in the air-warning network, they would dart inland to take photographs of any accessible targets. These “penetration photography” flights (called SENSINT—sensitive intelligence—missions) occurred along the northern and Pacific coasts of Russia. One RB-47 aircraft even managed to fly 450 miles inland and photograph the city of Igarka in Siberia. Such intrusions brought protests from Moscow but no Soviet military response.³
In 1950 there was a major change in Soviet policy. Air defense units became very aggressive in defending their airspace, attacking all aircraft that came near the borders of the Soviet Union. On 8 April 1950, Soviet fighters shot down a US Navy Privateer patrol aircraft over the Baltic Sea. Following the outbreak of the Korean war in June 1950, the Soviet Union extended its “severe air defense policy” to the Far East. In the autumn of 1951, Soviet aircraft downed a twin-engine US Navy Neptune bomber near Vladivostok. An RB-29 lost in the Sea of Japan on 13 June 1952 was probably also a victim of Soviet fighters. The United States was not the only country affected by the new aggressive Soviet air defense policy; Britain and Turkey also reported attacks on their planes.⁴
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¹ A. L. George, *Case Studies of Actual and Alleged Overflights, 1930-1953*, Rand Study RM-1349 (Santa Monica: Rand, 1955) (S). Arthur S. Lundahl and Dino Brugioni, interview by Donald E. Welzenbach, tape recording, Washington, DC, 14 December 1983 (TS Codeword). Recordings, transcripts, and notes for the interviews conducted for this study are on file at the DCI History Staff.
⁴ Jeffrey Richelson states on page 121 of *American Espionage and the Soviet Target* (New York: Morrow, 1987) that “the first recorded attack by Soviet air defense forces, in this case fighters, occurred on October 22, 1949.” In this incident, however, Soviet fighters did not attempt to hit the US aircraft; they merely fired warning shots. The real change in Soviet policy did not occur until the April 1950 downing of the US Navy Privateer. George, *Case Studies*, pp. 1-2, 6, 9-16 (S).
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Secret
Approved for Release: 2013/06/25