Aircraft Factfile and Recognition Guide - U-2 Dragon Lady

 

Background

The U-2 provides continuous day or night, high-altitude, all-weather, stand-off surveillance of an area in direct support of U.S. and allied ground and air forces. It provides critical intelligence to decision makers through all phases of conflict, including peacetime indications and warnings, crises, low-intensity conflict and large-scale hostilities. When requested, the U-2 also has provided photographs to the Federal Emergency Management Agency in support of disaster relief.

The U-2 is a single-seat, single-engine, high-altitude, reconnaissance aircraft. Long, wide, straight wings give the U-2 glider-like characteristics. It can carry a variety of sensors and cameras, is an extremely reliable reconnaissance aircraft, and enjoys a high mission completion rate. However, the aircraft can be a difficult aircraft to fly due to its unusual landing characteristics. Because of its high altitude mission, the pilot must wear a full pressure suit.

The product of a remarkable collaboration between the Central Intelligence Agency, the United States Air Force, Lockheed Corporation, and other suppliers, the U-2 collected intelligence that revolutionized American intelligence analysis of the Soviet threat. The Lockheed Skunkworks CL-282 aircraft was approved for production by the CIA, under the code-name AQUATONE, with Richard M. Bissell as the CIA program manager. President Dwight D. Eisenhower authorized Operation OVERFLIGHT -- covert reconnaissance missions over the Soviet Union -- after the Soviets flatly rejected his Open Skies plan, which would have allowed aircraft from both countries to openly overfly each other's territory.

An unusual single-engine aircraft with sailplane-like wings, it was the product of a team headed by Clarence L. "Kelly" Johnson at Lockheed's "Skunk Works" in Burbank, CA. The U-2 made its first flight in August 1955, with famed Lockheed test pilot Tony LeVier, at the controls, and began operational service in 1956.

Members of a unit innocuously designated 2nd Weather Reconnaissance Squadron (Provisional), began to arrive at Adana Air Base in Turkey in August 1956. The extremely sensitive nature of the mission dictated the construction of a secure compound within the base, which did not yet have a perimeter fence. Detachment 10-10 under the Turkey Cover Plan arrive to support a new operation, Project TL-10. The Air Force provided the squadron commander and logistical support, while the Central Intelligence Agency provided the operations officer, pilots, and mission planners. The unit's mission, contrary to its name, had nothing to do with weather. It flew U-2 aircraft at extremely high altitudes to gather photographic imagery and electronic signals for intelligence purposes. The main target of these flights was the Soviet Union.

The American intelligence community would come to rely on this information to assess Soviet technological advances. However, the Soviet Union was not the sole objective of the operation. For instance, in September 1956, Francis Gary Powers flew over the eastern Mediterranean to determine the position of British and French warships poised to assist Israel's invasion of Egypt after Egyptian forces seized the Suez Canal. Other flights followed to gather data on military activity during crises involving Syria, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, and Yemen.

By late 1957, Adana AB (renamed Incirlik AB on 28 February 1958) had become the main U-2 operating location, having absorbed the resources of a unit in Germany. One of the tasks the unit performed involved flying over missile sites in the Soviet Union from forward operating locations at Lahore and Peshawar in Pakistan. For every mission that penetrated Soviet airspace, there was at least one surveillance flight along the border to divert Soviet air defense attention from the intruder. These diversionary flights typically departed Adana AB traveling over Van (in eastern Turkey), Iran, and the southern Caspian Sea to the Pakistan-Afghanistan border; they returned along a similar route. These periphery missions usually collected communications and electronic signals instead of photographic imagery.

The U-2 operation continued at the base for several years in the utmost secrecy, until 1 May 1960. On that morning Gary Powers, then a veteran of 27 missions, took off from Peshawar destined for Bødo, Norway. He was to overfly and photograph two major intercontinental ballistic missile test sites in the Soviet Union en route, one at Sverdlovsk, the other at Plesetsk. Heavy antiaircraft missile concentrations guarded both sites.

Powers took off on time, as did the diversionary flight from Incirlik, and the mission continued as planned until he reached Sverdlovsk. While on the photo run at 67,000 feet, the Soviets launched a volley of 14 SA-2 surface-to-air missiles at Powers' aircraft. Although the SA-2s could not achieve the same altitude as the U-2, the aircraft disintegrated in the shock waves caused by the exploding missiles. Soviet authorities subsequently arrested Powers after he successfully ejected from the plane, and held him on espionage charges for nearly 2 years. The Turkish, Pakistani, and Norwegian governments claimed to have no knowledge of the American U-2 over flights, and shortly afterwards all U-2s and support personnel quietly returned to the United States.

On October 15, 1962, Maj. Richard S. Heyser piloted a U-2 over Cuba to obtain the first photos of Soviet offensive missile sites. Major Rudolph Anderson, Jr. was killed on a similar mission on October 27, 1962, when his U-2 was shot down.

Current models are derived from the original version that made its first flight in August 1955. On Oct. 14, 1962, it was the U-2 that photographed the Soviet military installing offensive missiles in Cuba.

The U-2R, first flown in 1967, is 40 percent larger than the original U-2 designed by Kelly Johnson in the mid fifties. Current U-2R models are being re-engined and will be designated as a U-2S/ST. The Air Force accepted the first U-2S in October, 1994. The last R model trainer will be converted to an S model trainer in 1999.

A tactical reconnaissance version, the TR-1A, first flew in August 1981 and was delivered to the Air Force the next month. Designed for stand-off tactical reconnaissance in Europe, the TR-1 was structurally identical to the U-2R. Operational TR-1A's were used by the 17th Reconnaissance Wing, Royal Air Force Station Alconbury, England, starting in February 1983. The last U-2 and TR-1 aircraft were delivered to the Air Force in October 1989. In 1992 all TR-1s and U-2s were redesignated U-2R.

U-2s are based at Beale Air Force Base, Calif. and support national and tactical requirements from four operational detachments located throughout the world. U-2R/U-2S crew members are trained at Beale using three U-2ST aircraft.

The Air Force plans to keep the U-2 in service through the year 2020. The U-2A was initially currently powered by the 11,200-lb (5,080-kg) static thrust J57-P-37A engine, which was soon replaced by the U-2B's Pratt and Whitney J-75-13B engine, the engine that powered the F-105. The J-75, due to its age, was becoming increasingly difficult and expensive to maintain and operate. Additionally, increased sensor weight and the J-75's high fuel consumption made it difficult to meet 24-hour coverage requirements in wartime tasking. The aircraft has been upgraded with a lighter, more powerful and more fuel-efficient engine (the General Electric F-118-101). The entire fleet was re-engined by 1998. The new engine is cheaper to maintain making the U-2 a more cost effective and responsive reconnaissance platform.

Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition Druyun has directed that a new Defensive System for the U-2 by acquired using the new "Lighting Bolt" acquisition reform initiatives. The Acquisition decision Memorandum (ADM) directed that an ORD be ready for CSAF signature by 31 Dec 95, however, this was unrealistic. AFMC/CC has been designated as the Defense Acquisition Executive. The ADM also directed a preferred systems concept (PSC) be determined. DRF has requested ASC/RA to conduct a study to determine a PSC. The program consists of a reprogrammable Radar Warning Receiver and Jammer capable of detecting and defeating modern threats, cockpit modifications to improve pilot situational awareness, and airframe Infra-Red (I/R) signature reduction. These modifications will greatly increase U-2 survivability, reduce dependence on HVAA and SEAD protection, and greatly increase a CINC's flexibility in employing the U-2.

 As of 1996 the "special" [aka SIGINT] sensors had not been upgraded since 1991 and were in several different configurations. The multi-sensor role of the aircraft was limited because the Advanced Synthetic Aperture Radar System (ASARS) and Senior Year Electro-optical Reconnaissance Systems (SYERS) sensors could not operate simultaneously. And because of older technologies and implementations, geolocation for precision strike targeting was insufficient for required operations.

Thus in 1996 the House Intelligence Committee directed a budget increase of $57 million for critical U-2 sensor upgrades. Of this amount, $10 million was for improving and downsizing the SYERS sensor such that SYERS and ASARS can be flown simultaneously, and to improve geolocational accuracies by adding a Global Positioning System that will superimpose geo-coordinates directly on collected images. The Committee directed that up to $7 million be used for the ASARS Improvement Program (AIP) to ensure this upgrade can be fielded by fiscal year 1998. The remainder of the funding was applied to SENIOR RUBY, SENIOR SPEAR, and SENIOR GLASS commonality upgrades. The Committee directed the Air Force to upgrade the SPEAR/RUBY sensors to the GLASS configuration, and upgrade the SENIOR GLASS systems to an open architecture configuration consistent with an architectural approach approved by the Defense Cryptologic Program manager.

Recognizing the U-2

The U-2 is a very easy aircraft to identify on the ground or in the air. Here's how you can easily identify a U-2:

Wings: High-aspect ratio wings carrying large sensing pods underneath (some variants)
Engines: One jet engine with semicircular intakes on either side of the fuselage between wing leading edge and cockpit.
Fuselage: Long, circular-section fuselage.
Tail: High-aspect flats and high-mounted on the body. Tall fin tall and narrow-chorded.

Specifications

Primary Function: High-altitude reconnaissance 
Contractor: Lockheed Martin Aeronautics
Power Plant: One General Electric F-118-101 engine
Thrust: 17,000 pounds
Length: 63 feet (19.2 meters)
Height: 16 feet (4.8 meters)
Wingspan: 105 feet (32 meters)
Speed: 410+ miles per hour
Maximum Takeoff Weight: 40,000 pounds (18,000 kilograms)
Range: 7,000+ miles (6,090+ nautical miles)
Ceiling: Above 70,000 feet (21,212+ meters)
Crew: One (two in trainer models)
Date Deployed:
    U-2: August 1955
    U-2R: 1967
    U-2S: October 1994

Sources: USAF U-2 Dragon Lady Factfile, Federation of American Sciences

© 2003-2007 Steven Holzinger