IDENTIFICATION OF SPECIAL PROJECTS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP62B00844R000200080011-3
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: T
• Document Page Count: 4
• Document Creation Date: December 15, 2016
• Document Release Date: March 22, 2004
• Sequence Number: 11
• Publication Date: August 13, 1958
• Content Type: MF

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13 August 1958
MEMORANDUM FOR: Director of Central Intelligence
SUBJECT : Identification of Special Projects
REFERENCE : Memorandum for DCI from SA./PD/DCI dated
12 August 1958 (DPS-3074)
1, This memorandum is for information only. Its purpose is to
identify the special projects referred to in a separate memorandum on the
financing of these projects (DPS-3074). The tasks to be performed under
these several projects were not described in the referenced memorandum
on financing because of their extreme sensitivity and because the recommend-
ations on financing, if approved by you, should be in such a form that it
could be circulated to a number of unwitting individuals within and outside
of the Agency. The five projects therein referred to are identified in the
following paragraphs.
2, CHALICE. This is Project AQUATONE renamed. The activities
comprised in this project include:
Personnel and support of the two CHALICE Detachments over-
seas, the ZI base at Edwards Air Force Base, and almost all
of the Development Projects Staff;
The operation and maintenance of the U-2 aircraft remaining in
possession of the Agency (currently thirteen in number);
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4. GUSTO. This project, which is nearly a year old, consists of
feasibility studies looking toward a successor aircraft to the U-2. The
major expenses that have been incurred have been the costs of work per ed
by the
and the Lockheed Aircraft Corporation. Lockheed has conducted an exten-
sive program involving at least preliminary design of no less than 30 to 40
configurations of aircraft. It has also carried out an extensive program of
model building and of measuring radar reflectivity of models. Lockheed
also built a partial full-scale mock-up of a possible GUSTO aircraft,
I costs have been for model testing and for extensive rada
C
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measurements on the above-mentioned mock-up. Additionally, some funds
have been spent (under subcontract to Lockheed) for studies
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6. CORONA. This name covers all aspects of the program for the
launching of 12tl reconnaissance satellites which will take photography during
their overflights of the Soviet Bloc and will contain provisions for storage
of the exposed film in a capsule which will re-enter, drop in a preselected
ocean impact area and be recovered. This project was approved at the
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was obligate in FY-1958, almost all for prime on r t to Lockheed's
Ballistic Missile Division. Although the total of ~ con_
tamed some reserve over the then available estimate o the Agency's share
of the costs of the program, it now appears that there will be some overrun,
Moreover, ARPA is in grave trouble with its biomedical program and there
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is a real possibility that the Agency will have to pick up certain costs which
were originally planned to be charged to the biomedical program. Finally,
the Agency wilt probably incur some operational costs, for which no firm
estimate is yet available.
7. GENERAL COMMENT. The above outline may help to make
clear both the reason that such large costs for the above projects have mate-
rialized in the last few months, well after the budget for FY-1959 was
presented to Congress, and the difficulty of estimating even at this date
just what the cost of these projects will be. It is understood that activities
of the sort herein described are in no sense exempt from the requirement
for economical administration and the need to restrict our outlays within
reasonable and approved limits. Nevertheless, if CHALICE is to be
continued through the full fiscal year and if CORONA is to be carried through,
there is little room for maneuver in the reduction of their costs. With
respect to feasibility studies, the philosophy of this office has been that the
objective in view is so important, and the cost of exploring technical possi-
bilities is so small a part of the cost of a whole new reconnaissance vehicle,
that any and all promising technical opportunities should be explored with
urgency.
RICHARD M. BISSELL, JR,
Special Assistant to the Director
for Planning and Development
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