Once the overflights began, the A-12 demonstrated an exceptional technical capability. As the scheduled phaseout date neared, concerns were expressed by high officials. Walt Rostow, the president's special assistant, members of the president's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board, the president's Scientific Advisory Committee, and several congressmen all expressed doubts about the phaseout.
In the meantime, SR-71s began arriving at Kadena, starting in early March 1968. The first SR-71 overflight of North Vietnam was made on March 21, 1968. By gradual stages, they took over the Black Shield mission, until the A-12 became the backup to the SR-71. After the final North Korean overflight on May 8, the unit was told to prepare to return home.
Eight days after the final A-12 overflight, Defense Secretary Clark Clifford reaffirmed the phaseout decision. On May 21, President Johnson agreed that the A-12s would be put into storage. The aircraft at Groom Lake would be placed in storage at Palmdale by June 7. The A-12s at Kadena would be restricted to flight safety and pilot proficiency missions; June 8 was selected as the date they would return to the United States.[198]
Virtually on the eve of the return, the A-12 program suffered its final loss. On June 4, 1968, Jack Weeks took off in Article 129 to make a check flight. An engine had been changed, and it had to be tested before the redeployment. Weeks was last heard from when the plane was 520 miles east of Manila. Then all contact was lost. No debris was found, nor was a cause ever determined. An air force press release identified the plane as an SR-71.
A few days later, the final two A-12s returned to Groom Lake. The final A-12 flight was made on June 21, 1968, when Article 131 took off from the Ranch. Frank Murray landed it thirty-five minutes later at Palmdale. The first A-12 to make an overflight, and the last to fly, had its fuel and oil drained. It was then placed in storage. The Oxcart story had ended.[199]
On June 26, 1968, an awards ceremony was held at Groom Lake. Vice Admiral Rufus L. Taylor, deputy director of Central Intelligence, presented the CIA's Intelligence Star for courageous action to Kenneth S. Collins, Ronald J. Layton, Francis J. Murray, Dennis B. Sullivan, Mel Vojvodich, and, posthumously, to Jack C. Weeks, for their roles in the Black Shield missions. Weeks's widow accepted his award. Colonel Hugh C. Slater, commander of the Kadena detachment, and his deputy, Col. Maynard N. Amundson, received the Air Force Legion of Merit. The 1129th Special Activities Squadron and its support units received the U.S. Air Force Out-standing Unit Award. The wives of the pilots were also present and learned for the first time just what their husbands had been doing for the past several years.[200]
Although the Oxcart was gone, its descendant, the SR-71, would continue to fly intelligence missions for the next twenty-two years. It covered trouble spots such as North Vietnam, North Korea, the Mideast, Libya, kept watch on Eastern European borders, and tracked Soviet submarines. Finally, in 1990, the SR-71 was retired. Like the A-12, the reason was cost. The surviving A-12s and SR-71s were originally to be scrapped, but the air force relented, and they were sent to museums.
The A-12 was the most exotic Dark Eagle ever built. No other Black airplane has posed so great an aerodynamic and engineering challenge. The A-12 was the final expression of a trend that had been under way since World War I — aircraft trying to evade air defenses by going higher and faster. This was true of the B-17s and B-29s of World War II. As the Cold War began, B-47s, B-52s, and British V-bombers flew at 50,000 feet and near supersonic speeds. The B-58 raised this to supersonic speeds, while the U-2 could reach altitudes of 70,000-plus feet.
It was the Soviet SA-2 SAM that brought this era to a close. Bombers would now have to attack at low altitudes — a few hundred feet above the ground. The Mach 3 XB-70 was canceled, while the B-58's service life was cut short.
The A-12 was the last of its line. The Oxcart was so much faster, flew so much higher, and had a reduced radar return. The combination of these factors resulted in an airplane that was unstoppable. For so critical a mission, it was possible to justify so expensive and specialized an aircraft.
But there were other trends in Black reconnaissance aircraft.
CHAPTER 4
Alone, Unarmed, Unafraid, and Unmanned
The Model 147 Lightning Bug
Probe him and learn where his strength is abundant and where deficient.
Black reconnaissance aircraft, such as the U-2 or A-12, faced two basic problems. The first was technical — to build an aircraft with altitude and speed performance superior to enemy air defenses. The second proved more difficult — to convince the president that the risks of a plane being lost and the pilot being captured were acceptable. Reconnaissance pilots said they flew their missions, "Alone, Unarmed, Unafraid." During the 1960s and early 1970s, a series of Dark Eagles added "Unmanned" to this motto.
These drones were used to cover targets that were too heavily defended, or too politically sensitive, to risk a manned reconnaissance aircraft.
As with the U-2, the effort began small. In September 1959, Col. Harold L. Wood, chief of the Reconnaissance Division at Air Force Headquarters, and his deputy, Lt. Col. Lloyd M. Ryan, met with Raymond A. Ballweg Jr., vice-president of Hycon Manufacturing Company, which made the U-2s'
cameras. The conversation came around to the risk of manned reconnaissance. Ballweg responded, "Hell, Lloyd, why don't you have us install a camera in a jet target drone? No reason it can't be programmed to do the recon job for you and bring back pictures." Colonels Wood and Ryan asked,
"What drone?" Ballweg explained that Ryan Aeronautical Company built the Q-2C Firebee jet-powered target drone, which might be usable.
Several weeks later, Lieutenant Colonel Ryan made a call to Ryan Aeronautical to suggest a meeting. At first there seemed little interest in a photo reconnaissance Firebee; finally, an agreement was reached for Ryan Aero-83 nautical and Hycon to do a joint study. As with other Black airplane projects, a small group would conduct the effort. On January 21, 1960, Robert R. Schwanhausser was named to head the reconnaissance drone group. He was told to take six or eight people and get started. Schwanhausser was reluctant, saying, "I don't see much future in the reconnaissance drone stuff."
Setting to work, he estimated the Firebee's range could be extended to allow it to make overflights from the Barents Sea, across the Soviet Union, to a recovery in Turkey. With longer wings, the drone could reach altitudes above that of the regular Firebee. The drone would also have a reduced radar return, making it virtually undetectable. Launch would be from either a C-130 transport plane or a ground launcher.[201]
In mid-April 1960, the Reconnaissance Panel of the air staff was briefed on the project. Two weeks later, Powers's U-2 was lost. On July 1, 1960, an RB-47 on an ELINT flight over international waters was shot down — only two of the six-man crew survived, and they were captured.
On July 8, the air force issued a $200,000 contract. Ryan Aeronautical made reflective measurements of one-fourth and one-eighth scale models of the Firebee. These showed the radar return could be reduced by putting a wire screen over the intake, painting the nose with nonconductive paint, and placing radar-absorbing blankets on the sides of the drone.
200
McIninch, "The Oxcart Story," 49, 50. Years later, the SR-71 operations building at Kadena was still known as the "Oxcart" building. After nearly a quarter century in storage, JP-7 fuel was still found in the A-12 tanks when they were disassembled for transfer to museums. The fuel had not evaporated even after all those years.
201
William Wagner,