COST OF AERIAL RECONNAISSANCE

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP79B01709A001700020005-8
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: T
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 16, 2016
• Document Release Date: November 29, 2004
• Sequence Number: 5
• Publication Date: November 19, 1965
• Content Type: MF

Approved For Release 2004/12/13 : CIA-RDP79BO1709AO01700020005-8
I J 25X1
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MEMORANDUM FOR: Chairman, Committee on Overhead Reconnaissance
SUBJECT Cost of Aerial Reconnaissance
REFERENCE COMOR Memorandum to D/BPAM,
of 13 October 1965
1. You requested in the referenced memorandum that COMOR be provided
with a study of the costs involved in reconnaissance by manned aircraft.
I have restricted my analysis to U-2 costs inasmuch as the U-2 is the only
major CIA reconnaissance aircraft currently in operation.
25X1
2. The problem as posed is not subject to easy solution because it
rests on a fallacious assumption. It fails to recognize that the conduct
of an overhead reconnaissance program by its nature included infrastructural
costs which, although variable, are largely independent of the number of
missions. Thus we find that over a three-year period the annual recon-
naissance programs funded by FRO and CIA were as follows:
FY 196+ ........
FY 1965 ........
FY 1966 ........
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The variation from year to year depended largely upon the number of cameras,
airborne electronics and other equipments required to keep the fleet of
U-2's up-to-date. Although the number of missions flown also varied, the 25X1
costs of these flights were not nearly as significant as other basic over-
head and equipment costs. The key to the problem is to acknowledge the
basic cost of maintaining a reconnaissance capability at about
a year and then to compare and evaluate the cost effectiveness
capability versus other ways of obtaining the information. Each additional
mission flown within the program costs a relatively small amount.
3. I have summarized below three methods which might be used to
determine unit mission cost, although I do not believe that any of them sheds
much light on the problem.
25X1
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