Editing Francis Gary Powers (section)

===Reconnaissance mission===
[[File:RIAN archive 35172 Powers Wears Special Pressure Suit.jpg|thumb|Powers in 1960, wearing his special [[pressure suit]] for [[Stratosphere|stratospher]]ic flying]] 
The primary mission of the U-2s was to overfly the Soviet Union. Soviet intelligence had been aware of encroaching U-2 flights at least since 1958 if not earlier{{sfn|Powers|Gentry|2004|pp=47, 59}} but lacked effective countermeasures until 1960.<ref>{{Cite news|title = Fifty Years Later, Gary Powers and U-2 Spy Plane Incident Remembered |url = http://www.rferl.org/content/Fifty_Years_Later_Gary_Powers_and_U2_Spy_Plane_Incident_Remembered/2029269.html |newspaper = RadioFreeEurope/RadioLiberty |date = April 30, 2010|access-date = November 16, 2015|first = Vladimir|last = Abarinov}}</ref> On May 1, 1960, Powers' U-2A, ''56-6693'', departed from a military airbase in [[Peshawar]], [[Pakistan]],{{sfn|Powers|Gentry|2004|p=53}} with support from the U.S. Air Station at [[Badaber]] ([[Peshawar Air Station]]). This was to be the first attempt "to fly all the way across the Soviet Union ... but it was considered worth the gamble. The planned route would take us deeper into Russia than we had ever gone, while traversing important targets never before photographed." - Francis Gary Powers{{sfn|Powers|Gentry|2004|pp=53–54}}