To bring the A-12s up to the necessary standard required to participate in the envisaged missions, a two-point plan was developed, and both Phase I and Phase II were to begin simultaneously on March 1, 1965. Phase I focused on increasing the aircraft’s speed envelope out from Mach 2.9 to Mach 3.05; Phase II concentrated on providing Oxcart with the capability to undertake three air refuelings during the course of a mission and an element, codenamed Supermarket, related to improvements in the A-12’s ECM system. As an interim, on August 5, 1965, the Director of the National Security Agency, Gen Marshall S. Carter, directed that Skylark was to achieve emergency operational readiness by November 5. Should security considerations dictate, any contingency sorties would have to be executed below the optimum capability of the A-12 — nearer to Mach 2.8. In order to meet this tight timeframe, the Oxcarts would have to deploy without their full ECM suite; but despite all the difficulties, a limited Skylark capability was ready on the prescribed date. In the event, these Cuban contingencies were never implemented: on September 15, 1966, the 303 Committee voted not to commit Oxcart to Cuban reconnaissance missions, on the basis that it could disturb the prevailing political calm. Instead, a more critical situation developing in Southeast Asia took priority.
Black Shield
On March 22, 1965, Brig Gen Jack Ledford, Director of the CIA’s Office of Special Activities, briefed Deputy Secretary of Defense Cyrus Vance on Project Black Shield — the planned deployment of Oxcart to Okinawa, in response to the increased SA-2 threat facing U-2s and Firebee drone reconnaissance vehicles. Secretary Vance was willing to make $3.7 million available to provide support facilities at Kadena AB, which were to be ready by the fall of 1965. On June 3, 1965, Secretary of Defense McNamara consulted with the Under Secretary of the Air Force on the build-up of SA-2 missile sites around Hanoi and the possibility of substituting A-12s for the vulnerable U-2s on recce flights over the North Vietnamese capital. He was informed that Black Shield could operate over Vietnam as soon as adequate aircraft performance was validated.
On November 20, 1965, Bill Park completed the final stage of Project Silver Javelin, the Oxcart validation process, with a maximum-endurance flight of six hours and 20 minutes, during which time he demonstrated sustained speeds above Mach 3.2 at altitudes approaching 90,000ft. Four A-12s were selected for Black Shield operations, Kelly Johnson taking personal responsibility for ensuring that the aircraft were completely “squawk-free.” On December 2, 1965, the highly secretive 303 Committee received a formal proposal to deploy Oxcart operations to the Far East. The proposal was quickly rejected, but the Committee agreed that all steps should be taken to develop a quick-reaction capability for deploying the A-12 reconnaissance system within a 21-day period anytime after January 1, 1966.
Throughout 1966, numerous requests were made to the 303 Committee to implement the Black Shield Operations Order, but all requests were turned down. A difference of opinion had arisen between two important governmental factions that advised the Committee: the CIA, the Joint Services Committee, and the President’s Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board favored the deployment; but Alexis Johnson of the State Department, Robert McNamara and Cyrus Vance of the Defense Department opposed it.
Whilst the political wrangling continued, mission plans and tactics were prepared to ready the operational “package” for deployment should the Black Shield plan be executed. Deployment timing was further cut from 21 to 11 days, and the Okinawa-based maintenance facility was stocked with support equipment. To further underwrite the A-12’s capability to carry out long-range reconnaissance missions, Bill Park completed another nonstop sortie, this time of 10,200 miles in just over six hours on December 21, 1966. But misfortune struck the program again on January 5, 1967, when, due to a faulty fuel gauge, Article 125 was lost some 70 miles short of Area 51. The CIA pilot Walt Ray ejected safely, but tragically was unable to gain seat-separation and was killed on impact with the ground.
In May 1967, the National Security Council was briefed that North Vietnam was about to receive surface-to-surface ballistic missiles. Such a serious escalation of the conflict would certainly require hard evidence to substantiate such a claim; consequently President Johnson was briefed on the threat. DCI Richard Helms again proposed that the 303 Committee authorize deployment of Oxcart, as it was ideally equipped to carry out such a surveillance task on the grounds of having both superior speed and altitude to U-2s and pilotless drones, as well as a better camera. President Johnson approved the plan and in mid-May an airlift was begun to establish Black Shield at Kadena AB.
At 0800hrs on May 22, 1967, Mele Vojvodich departed from Area 51 in Article 131 and headed west across California for his first refueling. Having topped-off, he accelerated to high Mach toward the next Air Refueling Control Point near Hawaii. A third rendezvous took place near Wake Island to ensure that he had enough reserve fuel to divert from an intended landing at Kadena AB to either Kunsan AB in South Korea or Clark AFB in the Philippines, should the weather over Okinawa deteriorate. When Vojvodich arrived at Kadena AB, however, the weather was fine and he let down for a successful landing after an uneventful flight of just over six hours’ duration.
Two days later, Jack Layton set out to repeat Vojvodich’s flight in Article 127 (60-6930); and Jack Weeks followed in Article 129 (60-6932) on May 26. However, due to INS and radio problems, Weeks was forced to divert into Wake Island. An Oxcart maintenance team arrived in a KC-135 from Okinawa the following day to prepare Article 129 for the final “hop” to Kadena AB. After completing the journey, Weeks’ aircraft was soon declared fit for operational service along with Articles 127 and 131. As a result, the Detachment was declared ready for operations on May 29 and, following a weather reconnaissance flight the day after, it was determined that conditions over North Vietnam were ideal for an A-12 photo-run.