WHY U.S. PLANES PATROL RED FRONTIERS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP83-01022R000100200014-7
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 12, 2016
• Document Release Date: February 26, 2002
• Sequence Number: 14
• Publication Date: February 20, 1954
• Content Type: MAGAZINE

STATINTL
Approved For Release 2002/05/07 : CIA-RDP83-02R000100200014-7
U. S. News & World Report
Watching for "Pint Blow"-
WHY U. S. PLANES
PATROL RED FRONTIERS
JitYF
U. S. aircraft, flying the Soviet- of the U. S. surveillance system as
operates at ~~r,escrrt,
Turkish. border, are only one , Povt~rfril rc io Itstcuing push', al-
part of a gigantic but little- eadY surround the Soviet Union n, con"-,
tant operation, day and night. Tht?sc "cars
known defense mission. not only record what is said by fixed sta-
Mission: to keep constant to a tions, but even pick up short-distance ra-
on Soviet forces, detect the first dio communications between mobile units
X of the Red Army in the field thousands of
sign of any preparations for sur- miles from the Western "cars."
prise attack. a Giant radar screens, capable of tin
objects in motion up to 3.5011
i
ti
n
ng
t po
More than planes are involved
miles away, are constantly scanning
Elaborate radar, other electroni , the Soviet Union front the U. S. ,md
STAT49 ~t from bases in Allied countries.
4do s are alert to pick
g 1 6 e U. S. patrol planes, loaded v1 ith
up any move by Russia. electronic "listening;" and " witching
attacked and shot down an unarmed
S. transport plane, killing 17 U. S.
it Force personnel, these questions
'crc raisedi Why are unarmed U. S.
lanes flying even close to the Soviet
orders? What's the mystery about U. S.
ICtivities in these danger areas?
Data thus gat ccrec are unnC e
into cyaloation and tracking Sys
terns. The results are transmitte.
in a matter o seconds to U. S. de-
fense headquarters.
Concrete bas . for two B-MEWS
sites were poured at Clear, Alaska,
and at T?hitle, Greenland, in the
Arctic summer 1958. 'te 1
towers already are under construc-
tion. Power plants, towers and
buildings alone will cost 189 mil-
lion dollars for three stations, apart
from Te cost of electronic equip-
ment. The third station may be ,
located in Northern Scotland.
Electronic "missiiecpt5'fL
A host of electronic e
The answer is that there is no
carriers already are operational and
may be used in the U. S. effort to
keep a watch on the ballistic mis-
siles of the Soviet Union. Most are
under heavy wraps of official se-
ported successful tests of a "snoop-
er" drone, designated the SD-3.
This pilotless plater is just 15 feet
lung. s itlr a Whet[ span of 11 feet.
* )w's, luc'erd s%ith electronic
Crecy.
The U. S. Army recently
ht 1'-? - d-- ,...-._.. Corp de.rc?es for
r us mac , no Approved For Release 2002/05/07 : CIA-RDP83-01022R000100200014-7
U. S NEWS A. WORLD REPORT. Feb
n the Soviet borders. In today s
angerous world, this country has
mnounced that it will accept the
first blow" rather than attack if
var threatens. That blow, if suc-
'essfully delivered, could destroy
nucl' of the U. S.
Billions for detection. Survival
thus depends upon being able to
discover what a potential enemy
capable of delivering such a blow
s planning. So the United States
is putting billions of dollars into
radar and her ele tro ,kc . "eyes
and cars" as a first line of defense
against a surprise attack by the
Soviet Union.
What the U. S. is seeking with its
air patrols, its sensitive radar and
radio-detection equipment now sur-
rounding Russia is something less
thanj90 minutes' warning of any/
Soviet intercontinental ballistic mis-
sile fired at the U. S. or its allies.
This would be time enough to get
U. S. bombers into the air and U. S.
missiles off launching pads for re-
taliatory nuclear strikes.
1 h w can be re xrrttil
ystery at all about U. S. activities
close to the Soviet frontier. It 5'.ts on(
of these planes which U. S. .fir Force
experts now are convinced was d libcr-
ately lured into Soviet Armenia au (I
shot down, though unarmed, best Sep-
tember 2.
air and on the ground in many parts of
the world are keeping a watch o
station similar to Cape Canaveral, Flori-
da, and on other areas where the Soviet
Union is operating or building missile-
launching bases for intercontinental bal-
listic missiles.
r In addition, the U. S. is ,peeling un
the construction of the Ballistic Missile
Early Warning System known as
This system, which will cost
,it least 250 million dollars, is to augment
the existing Distant Early Warning
out on an operational basis less than two
% t'ors ago, cost 600 million dollars. But
DEW Line's 58 stations can provide
information only on aircraft, not ICBM's,
are alrcad obsolete.
f
h
l
ore
ere
t
ahu
~I TL
B-\I I:WS is to have t tr S
''eyes ;. id cars"-stations about 1,000
miles apart- capable of picking up the
11;1111 ching of the big missiles :3 500 mile.
a~yay. '[lte radar ct ni ment for -MEW
stations is mounts on 16-story towers
 Approved For Release 2002/05/07 : CIA-RDP83-04.G22R000100200014-7
Allow,
U. S. News & World Report
[continued]
some such drones may be used for bordcr-
patrol work in the future to avoid loss of
Prime objects of the U. S. electronic,
:watch on the Soviet union, of course, are
the Red ICBM's, which, Soviet leaders
boast, can hit "anR tartlet niyWliere iii
ICBM's and even initcrincdiate rang
on lannclt-
l
i energy
generate sic
missilesing that they can be detcc?tctl for thou-
sands of miles by V. S. equiputcnt.
In addition, these missiles leave be-
ing war, can be used in the "cold war" s
job of watching the Soviet Union. But
designed for battlefield use in a shoot
device.
There is no word that the "snooper,
login. It ba.. t,a....... . ....... ... ... o--- --
can he equipped with a self-destructive; F,lectrennagnc'tic cnrrt;5 is the chit-
WHY U. S. PLANES PATROL RED FRONTIERS
ground and air observation, it weighs
less than half a ton. The "snooper" is
launched by rocket motors from a mobile!
trailer and is capable of fast, low-lcve~
hind the,,, a\itil of ionized gases.fThis
ty,either by a direct hit of missiles
equipped to "home" on the attacking
ICBM or by exploding a nuclear missile
high in the air in the path of the attacker.
This last method would create across the
path of the attacking ICBM a nuclear
"
and destroy
oven" which would "cook
it.
In 1964 as today, however, U. S. de-
leoses will be totally dependent on get-
ting an early warning of Soviet missile
lan,,chings directed at targets in the
Western world. Normal intelligence
haimels involving agents are far too
slostiv for the job. Only "electronic espio-
nage," according to defense experts, can
becti iiunle in the U. S. on the radar and
'ctllur instruments required for "early
w,oning?' systems. Early in 1957, for ex-
ample, the General Electric Company,
working with the U. S. Air Force and the
Turkish Government, set un a coherent
(detection radar system at Samsun, a
-l',ukish port on the Black Sea. This sys-
tm, developed by the Lincoln Labora-
tory of the Massachusetts Institute of
RADAR STATIONS and other electronic
trots-help give the U. S. its first line of
?autsport plane which was shot doves by
oviet jet fighters Last ScpPltfnl? r in So
let Armenia was equipped for elect nutic
surveillance" .cork, but it was under
rders to stay in Turkel. A si ec?k later
h~ j1~S_Air 1 ctrc_c e,yt ;,,other )ianc?.,on
it saint route to try to ascertain what
life even if the --snooper" is drawn lift,
oviet territor\
- - -rt--- .............. r ! ? ,lit
tad happc?nc?d.
'l'ilt second plane discovered that Rus
w the firs
1 orce officials said, which dtv
Georgia and Soviet Armenia were put
into operation on the same frequency as
the beam from the Turkish tower at the
1 ral)zglt,,. air base, overpowering this
hearer. It was a Soviet trap, U. S. Air
sian directional beams out of Sovie
V. S.-planc mto...Soviet. territory E16-,
1 fro,,, f~w
+
trooie "snoopers." controlk
ic
l
'
% "
~~
;;
.1
JZr,nux
(
att
Aped For R
equipment-including that in air pa-
defense against a Red missile attack
trail, once it missile is spotted in the air,
permits till electronic "eyes" not only to
trace the missile back to its base but to
give data which will determine the target
s and cats. entirely pos-
sible, U. S. experts report, for the Soviet
"decoys." The rocket casing itself. ex-
perts say, can be exploded at sonic point
in flight, causing large fragments to break
tiway from the warhead and to follow
courses of their own. Such fragments
would be larger than the warhead,
though not as heavy. In addition, Soviet
missile rien could seek to confuse watch-
ers, on attack by setting off several
ICBM's simtdtauro,usls
By 190.1tar- t'.S rioF'tt t6 ha1L_-i
a.rat.+ 4- wiy anrf 'fit
tr~ rte,.-....
Technology, had a I,000-mule wale ing
anti listening range. As the Samsun sys-
tem began operations, however, tile
(hnnmut,e Digital Radar (ODIR) Sys-
tent was developed at Columbia Univer-
sity. It extends U. S. radar range to wall
over 3,500 miles. y )
The ODIR svstenk, said to be installed
already in the Turkish listening post,
(reds data into computers and then into
1110i-speed teletypewriters which can be
looked up with the U. S. Air Force Con-
tinental Defense headquarters in Colo-
rado Springs, Colorado. Similarly, Air
Force commanders in the U. S. can, at
the flip of a switch, talk to combat cony
Records of squeaks. A year ago the
British uragazine "Isis," published in Ox-
ford, reported: "All along the frontier
between East and West, from Iraq to the
Baltic, perhaps farther, are monitoring
;,stations, manned largely by national serv-
cemen trained in Morse or Russian,
vidly recording the least squeak from
ussian transmitters-ships, tanks, aero-
lanes, troops and control stations.
For that report of "electronic espio-
nage" two Oxford students were arrested
port. rowevcr, re 'S:~Covcrn-mcrs
itself has released much information on
the Allied effort to reach into Soviet ter-
ritory with rlec?tronic "eyes and ears" to
guard ag.+nrct ? Soviet sneak attack on
the Vi [END]