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The U-2 made its first flight in August 1955. In October, the U-2 photographed the Soviet military installing offensive missiles in Cuba. (U.S. Air Force photo)
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U-2 and the Cuban Missile Crisis
Posted 10/30/2009
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After high-altitude reconnaissance flights over Cuba in October 1962, Maj. Rudolf Anderson returned with pictures of ballistic missile sites and nuclear storage facilities under construction. President John F. Kennedy addressed the nation Oct. 22 and six tense days followed. While negotiations between the two superpowers were still under way, Major Anderson attempted another reconnaissance run and his U-2 was shot down and he was killed.
Because of the classified nature of his work, Major Anderson belonged to a select group of unheralded and unrecognized reconnaissance pilots. By personal direction of the president, Major Anderson was posthumously awarded the first Air Force Cross. At the time, the Bronze Star was the highest combat decoration that could be made for Cold War action. He was also posthumously awarded the Purple Heart and the Cheney Award.
Air Force U-2 pilots of Strategic Air Command's 4080th Strategic Reconnaissance Wing flying out of Laughlin Air Force Base, Texas, played a major role in preventing a global war. In the summer of 1962, shipments of people and equipment from the USSR to Cuba increased dramatically. Despite Premier Nikita S. Khrushchev's denial, President Kennedy directed SAC to begin U-2 high-altitude reconnaissance flights over the island. The U-2 flights were made by Major Anderson and Maj. Richard S. Heyser. Later, flights were flown by RF-101s.
Major Anderson lost his life on Oct. 27, 1962, when his U-2 aircraft was shot down by a SA-2 missile during a photo reconnaissance run. Anderson was a Greenville, S.C., native and was a graduate of Clemson University before joining the Air Force.
Built in complete secrecy by Kelly Johnson and the Lockheed Skunk Works, the original U-2A first flew in August 1955. Early flights over the Soviet Union in the late 1950s provided the president and other U.S. decision makers with key intelligence on Soviet military capability. In October 1962, the U-2 photographed the buildup of Soviet offensive nuclear missiles in Cuba, touching off the Cuban Missile Crisis. In more recent times, the U-2 has provided intelligence during operations in Korea, the Balkans, Afghanistan, and Iraq. When requested, the U-2 also provides peacetime reconnaissance in support of disaster relief from floods, earthquakes, and forest fires and supports search and rescue operations.
The U-2R, first flown in 1967, was 40 percent larger and more capable than the original aircraft. A tactical reconnaissance version, the TR-1A, first flew in August 1981 and was structurally identical to the U-2R. The last U-2 and TR-1 aircraft were delivered in October 1989; in 1992 all TR-1s and U-2s were designated as U-2Rs. Since 1994, $1.7 billion has been invested to modernize the U-2 airframe and sensors. These upgrades also included the transition to the GE F118-101 engine which resulted in the re-designation of all Air Force U-2 aircraft to the U-2S.
U-2s are home based at the 9th Reconnaissance Wing, Beale Air Force Base, California, but are rotated to operational detachments worldwide. U-2 pilots are trained at Beale using five two-seat aircraft designated as TU-2S before deploying for operational missions.
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