and conducted two training ights from
Mildenhall. Having gained a wealth of
information about operating within the
constricted airspace of northern Europe,
with its uniquely challenging high-altitude
meteorological conditions, the SR-71
returned to Beale a week later.
Further NATO exercises involving
SR-71 participation from Mildenhall took
place in September 1976 and January- Meanwhile, the JCS directed SAC
to deploy a mobile processing center
(MPC) to Mildenhall to support in-theater
SR-71 missions. The unit consisted of 24
shipping-container-like vans that had
been held in storage at Beale. On May 16,
1977, 958 touched down at the Su olk
base. Having completed a training sortie
on May 18, it ew an operational sortie
co-ordinated with an RC-135 over the
Barents Sea. During such missions, the
SR-71 served to stimulate the electronic
signals environment, and with the RC-135
standing-o the ELINT recorders of
both aircraft ‘hoovered up’ vast amounts
of information, enabling analysts to
establish the Soviet electronic order of
battle (EOB). This would assist in planning
ingress and egress routes for NATO strike
aircraft were a con ict to break out. A
second ops mission followed over the
West/East Germany border, along the
so-called ‘bu er zone’. Both ights were
outstandingly successful and 958 returned
to Beale on May 31.
SAC’s increased presence in Europe was
grounded in the changing nature of the
Soviet/Warsaw Pact threat facing NATO.
From the mid-1970s, B-52s and their
supporting tankers periodically deployed
to England to train in-theater, ready to
perform a wartime tactical mission. It
followed, therefore, that if B-52s were
tasked to y a mission similar to those
they had own in Vietnam, the U-2R and
SR-71 would again be required to provide
complementary pre-strike and bomb
damage assessment (BDA) imagery in
addition to signals intelligence (SIGINT)
warning information. This intelligence
was vital to both NATO air forces and
their armies.Boomer patrol
A fundamental change in Soviet
naval tactics, brought about by their
commissioning of long-range ‘Delta’ and
later ‘Typhoon’-class nuclear-powered
ballistic missile submarines, led to US Navy
interest in the SR-71’s HRR capabilities.
These new SSBMs, or ‘boomers’, based in
ice-free ports along the Barents Sea coast,
were capable of ring nuclear missiles
over the North Pole against US targets well
inland of the eastern seaboard.
By 1979, the now three-times-per-year
SR-71 deployments to the UK increased
in duration to three weeks and on March
31 the 9th SRW established a joint U-2R/
SR-71 detachment designated Det 4 at
Mildenhall. On April 30, 1982, 974 stayed
in the UK for nearly eight months, and
by 1983 deployment overlaps of several
weeks began to occur.
Test and evaluation aircraft 955
deployed to Mildenhall via the Barents
Sea on July 9, 1983, wearing the false
serial number 962 to avoid unwanted
closer inspection by ‘non-cleared eyes’.
The aircraft was equipped with thethe disposition of Arab forces (and Soviet
equipment) in the region, which was
then made available to the Israelis.
The ights continued after the October
26 cease re, as ghting didn’t end until
January 18, 1974. Mission four into the
region nished with a pre-planned
recovery into Seymour Johnson AFB,
South Carolina, from where all further
ights were conducted to avoid the harsh
New York winter. PHOTINT generated by
the ights provided vital information to
US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger’s
team during delicately balanced
withdrawal negotiations. Expanded talks
would eventually lead to the hugely
signi cant Camp David Accords being
signed on September 17, 1978.Northern exposure
As America’s war in Vietnam drew to its
end, annual funding for the number of
operational SR-71s, known as primary
authorized aircraft (PAA), was cut to match
a slashed defense budget. Consequently,
the number of SR-71s based at Kadena
was reduced from four to three in June- This dropped to two in May 1982,
and when 974 was lost on April 21, 1989,
following an in- ight engine failure, it
wasn’t replaced. Just one SR-71 (962)
was left at Det 1 until the program was
canceled and it was returned to Beale nine
months later.
Conversely, expansion of Soviet ground
and naval forces had a profound in uence
on future SR-71 operations, especially
within Europe. On April 20, 1976, two
KC-135Qs and 972 returned to the UK
Below: With the
co-operation
of Beale’s base
commander,
Lockheed
photographer
Eric Schulzinger
composed and
took this historic
masterpiece in
February 1990.
The SR-71 at
the back is the
hybrid SR-71C
pilot trainer.
Lockheed MartinOn February 1, 1996, aircraft 971 participated
in exercise ‘Red Flag’; on June 14 that year,
while being fl own by Ed Schnieder and Blair
Bozek, the ASARS-1 datalink was demonstrated
successfully. Jim Ross/NASAhttp://www.combataircraft.net // April 2018 107
100-109 SR-71 Skunk C.indd 107 16/02/2018 10:13