Skip to content

CIA-UAP-003, The Central Intelligence Agency and Overhead Reconnaissance; The U-2 and OXCART Programs, 1954-1974

UNCLASSIFIED // RECORD RELEASE 3 · 2026-06-12
PDF CIA INCIDENT 1954-1974

CIA-UAP-003, The Central Intelligence Agency and Overhead Reconnaissance; The U-2 and OXCART Programs, 1954-1974

This CIA History Staff document chronicles the complete history of the U-2 and OXCART (A-12) high-altitude reconnaissance aircraft programs from 1954 to 1974, detailing their development, operations over the Soviet Union and other targets worldwide, the famous downing of Francis Gary Powers in 1960, organizational reforms following that incident, and the eventual transfer of operations from CIA to Air Force control. A more redacted version of this document has been available on CIA's public website.

loading viewer…
DECRYPTING TRANSMISSION
PDF · 44.26 MB CIA-UAP-003, The Central Intelligence Agency and Overhead Reconnaissance; The U-2 and OXCART Programs, 1954-1974 open in new tab ↗

Download

Metadata

Slug
cia-uap-003-the-central-intelligence-agency-and-overhead-reconnaissance-the-u-2-and-oxcart-programs-1954-1974
Release
release_3 (2026-06-12)
Agency
CIA
Type
pdf
Incident date
1954-1974
Content-Type
application/pdf
Size
44.26 MB
sha256
3a11822b45f559acc6063304bdbf16977a21dc86ca3a7a743c1a60e40f98b8d1
Upstream
https://www.war.gov/medialink/ufo/061226/release_03/documents/CIA-UAP-003-THE_CENTRAL_INTELLIGENCE_AGENCY_AND_OVERHEAD_RECONNAISSANCE-THE_U-2_AND_OXCART_PROGRAMS_1954-1974.pdf

More from CIA