Unless otherwise stated, all articles were written by Bruce Williamson
Contact me: webmaster@spyflight.co.uk
So what exactly is a ‘Spyflight’ and this is not meant to be an emotive term for the activity undertaken, it is simply the easiest and most recognisable. Perhaps it would be simpler to divide this broad description into two specific categories an ‘overflight’ and ‘border flight’. The most appropriate definition of an ‘overflight’ was given by R.Cargill Hall in his article ‘The Truth About Military Reconnaissance Flights over Russia before the U-2’ published in the Spring 1997 edition of the Journal of Military History:
A ‘border flight’ can be defined as:
'An overt or covert flight along the boundaries, but clear of, the territory of another state for the purposes of obtaining photographic and/or electronic information'.
Throughout the cold war the USAF referred to these sorties as the Peacetime Airborne Reconnaissance Program (PARPRO). As well as describing all post WW2 reconnaissance aircraft, their roles, equipment, UAV's and a look at what the future might hold, this website has another, more specific aim.
It looks back at Cold War aerial reconnaissance and aims to provide:
All of the information on this site has been obtained from public sources and is freely available to anyone willing to spend the time digging around through books, magazine articles and on occasions, de-classified files. If you’re looking for secret details on classified sorties that are still subject to the UK Official Secrets Act, you’ll have to look elsewhere. Nevertheless, there should be sufficient detail in these pages to attract the attention of anyone with an interest in military aviation in general and reconnaissance activity in particular.
It would be completely remiss of me not to freely acknowledge the considerable assistance provided by the following:
Paul Lashmar author of ‘Spyflights of the Cold War’ for permission to quote freely from his excellent book and the loan of various photographs. Paul's book was the original inspiration for the site.
Chris Pocock author of ‘Dragon Lady’, ‘The U-2 Spyplane - towards the unknown’ and 50 Years of the U-2 - the complete illustrated history of the 'Dragon Lady' for permission to quote from all three publications, for the loan of background material, photographs and finally for his encouragement and advice.
Gary Wann a friend and colleague of many years standing and website developer who updated the site using Rapidweaver.
As the Second World War drew to a close, before the widespread introduction of radar, victorious RAF and US Army aircraft routinely engaged in overflights across various countries. Very few of these flights were specifically gathering information on potential adversaries, instead the ex-wartime aircrew simply chose to fly the most direct route, much as they had done during the war. Although national boundaries were generally respected, this did little to deter overflights if intelligence gathering was required and there was little if any opposition from the countries targeted. At the cessation of hostilities the victorious wartime alliance between the Soviet Union and the other Western Allies soon deteriorated into outright hostility.
ACC - Air Combat Command
ADF - Automatic Direction Finding
ADP - Advanced Development Projects
AFB - Air Force Base
AFCS - Automatic Flight Control System
AOG - Air Operations Group
ANS - Astro-internal Navigation System
AOR - Area of Responsibility
ASARS - Advanced Synthetic Aperture Radar System
ATO - Air Tasking Order
ATREL - Air Transportable Reconnaissance Exploitation Laboratory
AWACS - Airborne Warning amd Control System
BAC - British Aircraft Corporation
BDA - Battle Damage Assessment
CINCSAC - Commander in Chief Strategic Air Command
COMINT - Communications Intelligence- -Technical and intelligence information derived from foreign communications by other than the intended recipients.
DAO - Directorate of Air Operations
DCI - Director of Central Intellegence
DISUM - Daily Intelligence Summary
ELINT - Electronic Intelligence -- Technical and intelligence information derived from foreign non-communications electromagnetic radiations emanating from other than nuclear detonations or radioactive sources.
EW - Electronic Warfare -- Military action involving the use of electromagnetic energy to determine, exploit, reduce or prevent hostile use of the electromagnetic spectrum and action which retains friendly use of electromagnetic spectrum.
There are three divisions of electronic warfare:
EOB - Electronic Order of Battle
Ferret - An aircraft, ship, or vehicle especially equipped for the detection, location, and analyzing of electromagnetic radiation. (JCS Pub 1, p. 143) 2. In 1949, the term was defined as "aircraft specifically modified to perform electronic reconnaissance only." '
GCI - Ground Controlled Intercept - Controller that guides interceptor aircraft to an air target using ground radar stations.
GLO - Ground Liaison Officer
IA - Imagery Analyst
IR - Infra Red
IRIS - Intelligence Reconnaissance Imagery System
IRLS - Infra Red Line Scan
JARIC - Joint Air Reconnaissance Intelligence Centre
LORAN - Long Range Navigational Aide - uses beacons to vector destination.
Mi - Abbreviation for aircraft designed by Vladimir Myasishchev, Soviet Union.
MiG - Abreviation for aircraft designed by the Mikoyan/ Gurevich team, Soviet Union.
MISREP - Mission Report
MIT - Massachussets Institute of Technology, Cambridge Mass.
MOD - Ministry of Defence
NCA - National Command Authority
NRO - National Reconnaissance Office
NSA - National Security Agency
OCU - Operational Conversion Unit
PARPRO - Peacetime Aerial Reconnaissance Programme
PI - Photographic Interpreter
PR - Photographic Reconniassance
PRU - Photographic Reconnaissance Unit
RAND - Research think tank - from initials for Research and Development - originally set up 1946 to service Air Force but gradually widened remit.
RECCEXREP - Reconnaissance Exploitation Report
RIC - Reconnaissance Intelligence Centre
SAC - Strategic Air Command
SAR - Synthetic Aperture Radar
SHORAN - Short Range Navigational Air - uses beacons to vector destination.
SIGINT - Signals Intelligence -- A category of intelligence information comprising all communications intelligence, electronics intelligence, and telemetry intelligence.
SIOP - Single Intergrated Operational Plan
SLIR - Sideways Looking Infra Red
SLR - Slide Looking Radar
SQINTO - Squadron Intelligence Officer
SRC - Strategic Reconnaissance Centre
SRW - Strategic Reconnaissance Wing - Usually three squadron in USAF Wing.
SYERS - Senior Year Electro-optical Reconnaissance System
TIRRS - Tornado Infra Red Reconnaissance System
TREF - Transportable Reconnaissance Exploitation Facility
TU - Abbreviation for aircraft designed by Andrei N. Tupolev, Soviet Union.
ULTRA - codename for breaking of German radio codes during WW2
USAAF - United States Army Air Force (1941-47)
USAF - United States Air Force (post 1947)
USN - United States Navy