A-12 Oxcart: The CIA’s Fast Mach 3 Spy Plane (And Almost Fighter?)
Story by Brent M. Eastwood • Yesterday 10:05 AM
The Soviets wouldn’t be able to stop it. The idea: take the CIA’s A-12 Oxcart spy plane and convert it into a bomber or fighter. These were concepts the U.S. Air Force was taking seriously in 1961 after the Vienna Summit between President John F. Kennedy and the Soviet Union’s Premier Nikita Khrushchev. The idea came from vaunted Air Force vice chief of staff Curtis LeMay. LeMay thought the Oxcart could penetrate deeply into the Soviet Union and that it would not be discovered during its bombing run.
The Possibility of World War Three Necessitates Invention
LeMay, like many in the U.S. military, was obsessed with what World War Three would look like. Air Force war planners were racking their brains trying to find an edge over the Soviets. LeMay wanted more firepower and survivability after a nuclear exchange. And he had his eye on the CIA’s A-12 Oxcart. This could be the platform for a bomber that could fly over Moscow and maybe eliminate the Kremlin in one mission. LeMay also thought that another seat could be added to the A-12 for a reconnaissance officer to conduct bomb damage assessment if the United States ever launched nuclear weapons at the Soviet Union.
What About a New Fighter Based on the A-12?
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/a-12-oxcart-the-cia-s-fast-mach-3-spy-plane-and-almost-fighter/ar-AA15h2yb?ocid=msedgntp&cvid=92fba3797b574b27b1fa7158bb2fb74c
