CHIGOE AIRCRAFT TESTING IN LAOS <SANITIZED> BACKGROUND AND OPTIONS

• Document Type: FOIA
• Collection: FOIA Collection
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): 05752610
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: U
• Document Page Count: 5
• Document Creation Date: March 9, 2023
• Document Release Date: February 10, 2021
• Case Number: F-2011-01575
• Publication Date: October 25, 1966

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2 5 OCT 1966
MIORANDUM FOR: Chief, Far East Division, DD/P
11111.110.V
THROUGH:
SUBJECT:
RMELA1-71C :
Acting Deputy Director for Science and Technology
Deputy Director for Plans
CHIGOE Aircraft Testing in Laos
Background and Options
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1. Summari. Numerous opportunities will dst for the emhlov-
ment of the CHIGOE aircraft on AgencYaasignmeats in Laos
during the first half of 1967. This memorandum describes the schedule
for deployment and utilization of CHIGOE, and sets out the minimal
ground rules, now in force, which define its official and unofficial
status in various situations. With this background, the options for
Agency utilization are outlined.
2. Schedule. The CHIGOE aircraft is currently going into the US
flight testing Phase of development. Its USN-USMC flight crew is now
taking over from the contractor various functions of maintenallrel pilot-
ing, test and evaluation, and security Deployment to Tan Son Whut,
South Viet Nam, will take plere in January 1967, and SEA operations
will continue for 4 to 6 months thereafter. At that time the CHIGOE
task group will be comprised of the element described below.
3. Assets: - one P2V aircraft, modified for independent night
reconnaissance and attack at low altitudes
- multilateral flight crew, ground maintenan e crew, and
mission planning staff
- civilian technical representatives to maintain special
sensory and navigation equipment
� special marking ordnance for the delineation of targets
Identified by CHIGOE and -passed to on-station tactical air-
craft for immediate attack
- minimal sensor system spares, for L. to 6 months operation
- minimal aircraft snares, with anprooriate priority for addi-
tional support from 'normal USN sources.
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- Minimal special ground support equipment required for
sensor maintenance.
4. Personnel:
- approx. 10 specially trained USN and USNE officers, cleared
Agency SECRET, who are the principals of the flight Craw. The
, senior USN officer is also the overt Military detachment
commander.
5.
- two USAF officers, cleared Agency SECRET, who will be
assigned by the Agency Program Manager to maintain opera-
tional 14alor4 with overt militarY intelligence units and
headquarters in South Viet Nam, and to aid in military
mission planning
- approx. 30 USN and USAF enlisted maintenance and support
personnel who have been additionally trained in the special
sensory, navigation, and communications/ECM equipment on
board. Their clearances will be DOD SECRET.
- two to four civilian technical representatives, cleared
Agency SECRET, for maintenance of the more sophisticated
electronic and optical equipment
- the Agency Program Manager and/or other designated ORD
officers who will coordinate
and who will, through the military detachment commander,
exercise overall program authority
co
- a small number of interim DOD observers, Agency-cleared,
who are nominated by cooperating DOD elements to gRin CHIGOE
experience for follawon DOD program and to assist in the joint
evaluation of CHIGOE itself.
The
USN detachment 10 currently under .administrative control of Weapons -
Test Unit, Patuxent 'River Naval Air Station. It is anticipated that
it will be attached for support to CTF 1150 Tan Son Nhut, which is ,
4 Naval patrol group concerned primarily with operation MARKET TIME,
The nominal lines of command. will thus be back through CINCPAC to.CNO.
The actual Agency-USN coordination is maintained :through the
ROAISON channel (Reconnaissance, Electronic Warfare, and Special Operations)
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which exists through a series of project offices in all major com-
ponents of USN, and which works closely with the Intelligence Community.
The CHIGOE task group has been ass bled jointly with the REWSON Office
in Naval Air System Command, currently commanded by Capt.. M. D. Carmody.
The REWSON offices in Chief Naval Operations and Chief Naval Materiel
are coordinated, and the Agency Program Manager serves as the point of
contact. He is also provided USE individual cover and identification,
as a civilian consultant to REWSON/ASO, which will be maintained
throughout CHIGOE field tests.
The USE cover designation for the CHIGOE project is MUDDY HILL
(ii). This title is also included under the THIN program of USE, which
is a long-range conceptual approach to a night, tactical reconnaissance
and interdiction capability. There is an analogous program in USAF,
called SHEDLIGHT, and our USAF contacts and coordination are me through
this channel as well as by the traditional Agency-USAF means.
6. Physical Cover and Security. The CHIGOE P2V has an external
appearance and configuration which is reasonably distinctive. There
are two external sensor pods which, to a knowledgeable person, would
identify the aircraft as reconnaissance-related. The finish is glossy
black (same as STSPIN). The US narkings ("stars and bars") are miniature
USAF types which can be overpainted quickly. The tail number is smaller
than normal and will be of a low-contrast color, as will all legends and
decals other than the US markings.
The internal configuration is completely distinctive and would,
to a knowledgeable person, reveal at least the overall principles of �
system operation.
All flight and ground personnel will be either active-duty
military types
(e.g. the ORD personnel).
7. Options. The multiple objectives and capabilities of the
CRTGOE program and the joint Agency-USN participation in its "proof-
of-concept" tests allow several options in its application to Agency
problems in SEA. Briefly stated, these are
a. Overt Military eration. The aircraft with USE crew leaves
a U.S. military base and flies to some checkpoint in the military
traffic pattern. There it departs the pattern, overflies the objec-
tive area for reconnaissance only, and subsequently returns to base
through the military pattern. The reconnaissance take is processed
and readout by military or Agency facilities as appropriate, but
only the Agency team members and the key flight personnel are know-
ledgeable of the elements of the mission and its location. Disaster
Plans, E&E� and Rescue are set up through routine military channels.
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DD/P personnel do not interface with other than Azahey members
of the CHIGOE task group, who do the actual mission planning.
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d. Agency Crew. No specific operational
restrictions would apply, but two to three months specialized
training by CED would be required for flight crews already
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fled in P2 aircraft.
8. Next Stens. In the case that options other than la above
(Overt military) are selected or considered likely, it is essential
that initial operational planning begin now, and that such planning
continue through the remainder of the U.S. test period. This will
involve Working sessions between the ORE program personnel and the
appropriate Headquarters, station, and field elements of FE/DD/P. By
the tine of the initial visit of ORE personnel
(Nov. )J4-28) enough mutual background familiarity should be established
so that all those problem areas are identified which will recuire coordin-
ation in the field. ORE will take responsibility for the necessary USN
coordination during December and January.
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In addition, ORD would welcome the opportunity to disseminate
more widely in DD/P specific knowledge of the capabilities and potential
of airborne reconnaissance/delivery systems which are optimised for
tropical regions. CHIGOE is only the first step in the development of
wider national capability, and while CHIGOE itself is an Agency program,
its wider exploitation is currently and exclusively by the military
services, for purely military applications. In its role as an advisor
on future technical needs of the Agency, OR]) takes the position that
those intelligence applications for which the Agency is exclusively
responsible will, sooner or later, absolutely require an Agency recon-
naissance capability along the lines now being established�by CHIGOE.
Whether or not the Agency will have such a capability in time, and of
such performance that its requirements are met in the future, will depend
largely on actions and attitudes taken in the present. The basis for
these actions should be thorough knowledge and careful evaluation of the
best current systems, exemplified by CHIGOE, on the part of all potential
users in the Agency.
ROBERT M. CHAYNAN
Director of Research and Development
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