CIA U-2 and OXCART History (1954–1974) – PURSUE Files

The CIA History Staff’s account of its U-2 and A-12 OXCART spy-plane programs, released as context for 1950s and 1960s UFO reports

⚠ Note on validity: This is a history of secret aircraft, not a UAP report. Its relevance is that these high-flying planes were mistaken for UFOs, a point the CIA itself made in 1997.

CIA U-2 & OXCART history
Agency	CIA History Staff
Programs	U-2 (from 1955); A-12 OXCART (1962–1968)
Dates covered	1954 – 1974
Released	Release 03 (June 12, 2026)
Files	1 (PDF)
Previously public?	Yes — a more redacted version has been on CIA’s website since 1998
Official releaseReference

The Central Intelligence Agency and Overhead Reconnaissance is the CIA History Staff’s detailed account of the U-2 and A-12 OXCART programs from 1954 to 1974: their development, overflights of the Soviet Union, the downing of Francis Gary Powers in 1960, and the eventual handover to the Air Force. PURSUE Release 03 republished it with fewer redactions.^[1]

The records

CIA-UAP-003, The Central Intelligence Agency and Overhead Reconnaissance; The U-2 and OXCART Programs, 1954-1974

Open CIA-UAP-003 (PDF) on war.gov →

This CIA History Staff document chronicles the complete history of the U-2 and OXCART (A-12) high-altitude reconnaissance aircraft programs from 1954 to 1974, detailing their development, operations over the Soviet Union and other targets worldwide, the famous downing of Francis Gary Powers in 1960, organizational reforms following that incident, and the eventual transfer of operations from CIA to Air Force control. A more redacted version of this document has been available on CIA’s public website.
— Official PURSUE description

Analysis

Connection to UFOs. In 1997, CIA historian Gerald Haines wrote that U-2 and OXCART flights accounted for “more than half of all UFO reports from the late 1950s through the 1960s,” because airline pilots and the public were not used to seeing aircraft at 60,000–90,000 ft glinting in the sun after dark on the ground. He also wrote that the Air Force’s Project Blue Book quietly checked reports against U-2 flight logs but did not reveal the explanation. Some researchers argue Haines overstated the share.^[2]

New or previously released? Previously released in redacted form in 1998; PURSUE adds less-redacted pages.

Released files

PURSUE ID	Title	Type
CIA-UAP-003	The Central Intelligence Agency and Overhead Reconnaissance; The U-2 and OXCART Programs, 1954-1974	PDF

References

^ U.S. Department of War (2026). PURSUE Release 03 (June 12, 2026): CIA-UAP-003, with official descriptions. war.gov/ufo.
^ Haines, G. K. (1997). “CIA’s Role in the Study of UFOs, 1947–90.” Studies in Intelligence, 1(1).

Source: U.S. Department of War, PURSUE (Presidential Unsealing and Reporting System for UAP Encounters), war.gov/ufo. Official records are U.S. government works in the public domain; summaries and analysis on this page are by UFO UAP Wiki.