Approved for Release: 2013/06/25
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Secret NOFORN
Chapter 6
304
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hoped that the A-12’s passage would provoke Soviet air defense personnel to activate the Tallinn system radars in order to track the swift OXCART aircraft. As the A-12 made its dash down the Baltic, its Type-I camera would be filming the entire south coast. If Agency analysts were correct in their assumption that the Tallinn system was designed to counter high-altitude aircraft at long ranges, then the OXCART would be in jeopardy during this dash down the Baltic. Nevertheless, Agency weapons experts believed that the A-12 aircraft’s speed and suite of electronic countermeasures would keep it safe from the standard Soviet surface-to-air missile installations.
While the A-12 was conducting its high-speed dash along the Baltic coast of Eastern Europe, the U-2 would be flying farther out to sea, safely beyond the range of all Soviet SAMs. The U-2 would be able to collect the Tallinn radar installation’s ELINT emanations.
Agency and Defense Department officials supported the proposed mission, but Secretary of State Dean Rusk strongly opposed it and the 303 Committee never forwarded the proposal to President Johnson.⁵⁹ The Tallinn radar installation remained of great interest to the intelligence community, and in the late 1960s the CIA attempted to develop a small, unmanned reconnaissance aircraft that could photograph Tallinn and other coastal areas. The project (AQUILINE) was abandoned in 1971 (see appendix E).
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FIRST A-12 DEPLOYMENT: OPERATION BLACK SHIELD
Although the Tallinn mission was still being considered in May 1967, another possible employment for the OXCART came under discussion. This time the proposal was for OXCART to collect tactical rather than strategic intelligence. The cause was apprehension in Washington about the possible undetected introduction of surface-to-surface missiles into North Vietnam. When President Johnson asked for a proposal on the matter, the CIA suggested that the OXCART be used. While the State and Defense Departments were still examining the proposal’s political risks, DCI Richard Helms
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⁵⁹ Memorandum for DDCI R. L. Taylor from C. E. Duckett, DDS&T, “Collection of Photo and ELINT Data on Tallinn Sites Utilizing the OXCART and the U-2,” 4 May 1967, DS&T records (TS Codeword).
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Secret
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Approved for Release: 2013/06/25