Editing Surveillance aircraft (section)

===Cold War===
Spy flights were a source of major contention between the United States and the [[Soviet Union]] during most of the 1960s.<ref name=":3"/> Due to the difficulty of surveillance in the USSR, US policymakers established the [[National Reconnaissance Office]].<ref name=":4">{{Cite web |date=January 2014 |title=Dedication and Sacrifice: National Aerial Reconnaissance in the Cold War |website=U.S. Department of Defense (.gov) |url=https://media.defense.gov/2021/Jul/13/2002761784/-1/-1/0/DEDICATION-SACRIFICE.PDF |access-date=April 11, 2024}}</ref> To combat this difficulty of surveillance, the US military developed the [[Lockheed U-2|U2]]. This aircraft could fly at altitudes of 70,000 feet to avoid detection from [[KGB]] surveillance. The U2 was also equipped with a Hycon 73B camera. This camera was capable of capturing details as small as 2.5 feet wide. In 1962, a U2 captured images that discovered nuclear missiles in [[Cuba]]. These photos would initiate what we know as the [[Cuban Missile Crisis]].

Aerial Reconnaissance was dangerous: Out of 152 cryptologists who died in the [[Cold War]], 64 of them were participating in aerial reconnaissance missions. During the time period of 1945-1977, more than forty reconnaissance aircraft were shot down in the European and Pacific areas.<ref name=":4" />

The [[United States Armed Forces|US Military]] originally used standard aircraft like [[Boeing B-29 Superfortress|B-29s]] for reconnaissance missions. Eventually, variants of the aircraft were designed for reconnaissance, e.g. the [[Lockheed C-130 Hercules|C-130]] and [[Lockheed RC-130 Hercules|RC-130]]. These repurposed aircraft were sometimes referred to as “ferret” aircraft, and intelligence personnel commanding these aircraft were nicknamed “backenders”.<ref name=":4" />

The United States also performed surveillance using repurposed [[Ryan Firebee]] unmanned target drones. Variants of these vehicles, designated the [[Ryan Model 147|Model 147]], could fly for 2500 miles.<ref name=":02">{{Cite journal |last1=Keane, John F |first1=John F. |last2=Carr |first2=Stephen S. |date=2013 |title=A brief history of early unmanned aircraft |url=https://secwww.jhuapl.edu/techdigest/Content/techdigest/pdf/V32-N03/32-03-Keane.pdf |journal=Johns Hopkins APL Technical Digest |volume=32 |issue=3 |pages=558–571}}</ref>

In May 1991, the Department of the Navy reported that at least one UAV was airborne at all times during [[Gulf War|Operation Desert Storm]].<ref>{{Cite web |last=Berenice |date=2012-11-14 |title=UAV evolution – how natural selection directed the drone revolution |url=https://www.army-technology.com/features/featureuav-evolution-natural-selection-drone-revolution/ |access-date=2024-04-12 |website=Army Technology |language=en-US}}</ref>