Approved for Release: 2013/06/25
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Secret NOFORN
Chapter 6
285
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to reduce expenditures. After much refiguring, project officials decided to decrease the number of deliverable aircraft. Amendment No. 11 to the contract reduced from 12 to 10 the number of A-12s, for a total cost of $161.2 million.²⁷
The cancellation of these two A-12s was offset by an Air Force order for the development of a supersonic interceptor variant of the A-12 to serve as a replacement for the North American F-108A Rapier interceptor project, which had been canceled in late 1960. With the assistance of the Agency’s west coast contracting office, the Air Force entered into an agreement with Lockheed to produce three AF-12 aircraft, based on the A-12 design but modified to carry a second crewman and three air-to-air missiles. This effort was called Project KEDLOCK. The AF-12 (later redesignated the YF-12A) was designed to intercept enemy bombers long before they reached the United States, and initial Air Force plans envisioned a force of up to 100 of these supersonic interceptors. In fact, only three of these planes were built and delivered during the 1963-64 time frame because Secretary of Defense McNamara canceled the program as a cost-cutting measure. The Air Force bore all of the costs of the YF-12A project; CIA was only involved in helping to write “black” contracts.²⁸
Lockheed was not the only OXCART contractor having trouble containing costs; Pratt & Whitney was fighting an even bigger battle. In mid-1961, Pratt & Whitney overruns threatened to halt the entire OXCART project. At the suggestion of Cdr. William Holcomb in the office of the Chief of Naval Materiel, Richard Bissell asked the Navy to assist in funding the J58’s development. After hearing Bissell and Holcomb’s suggestion that the J58 might be used in future Navy aircraft, VAdm. William A. Schoech, Chief of the Navy Materiel Command that had originally financed the J58 engine, authorized the transfer of $38 million in end-of-year funds to the project, thus keeping the OXCART’s head above water.²⁹ As it turned out, the J58 was never used in a Navy aircraft.
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²⁷ *OSA History*, chap. 20, pp. 46-47, 51-55 (TS Codeword): [redacted] “OXCART Story.” p. 10 (S).
²⁸ *OSA History*, chap. 20, pp. 46-47 (TS Codeword).
²⁹ Parangosky interview (S); *OSA History*, chap. 20, p. 55 (TS Codeword). During this period, Kelly Johnson was very disappointed with Pratt & Whitney’s work on the J58, particularly when they shocked him in September 1961 with the news that the engine would be overweight, underpowered, and late. Johnson, “Archangel log,” 11 September 1961.
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Secret
Approved for Release: 2013/06/25