A series of radar and visual contacts near the Atlantic Fleet Weapons Range off Puerto Rico on 16, 17, 18, 19 and 24 November 1964, documented in PURSUE Release 05 records CIA-UAP-D022 and CIA-UAP-D023. The release filenames carry 1965, which is the date of the CIA paperwork, not of the events.
CIA-UAP-D023, undated briefing notes prepared for a Mr Walter N. Elder, carries the tactical account. On 19 November the destroyer USS Gyatt tracked a contact in excess of 3,800 knots while working an F-8 Crusader at 35,000 feet. The object slowed and settled at the fighter’s nine o’clock about nine miles out; the pilot selected afterburner and closed; at about five miles the object accelerated away in a 20 degree climb. It remained on the Gyatt’s radar for twenty-one minutes and closed on the fighter again from astern to four miles during the return to Roosevelt Roads. The pilot observed it in full moonlight and identified it as a delta shaped object about the size of a jet fighter, estimating speed in excess of Mach 3. On 24 November the range held a second high-speed high-altitude target that pulled away from another Crusader at Mach .99 and 45,000 feet.
CIA-UAP-D022 is the compartmented follow-through, handled via BYEMAN Control System under project OXCART. A memorandum of 1 February 1965 from Jack C. Ledford records that CINCLANTFLT had been told the object was identified as a YF-12A and that CIA believed it had convinced the Office of Naval Intelligence otherwise, and tasks a scientific analysis of the Navy radar film. Donald F. Chamberlain’s reply of 11 February concluded that there was no high-altitude ultra-high-speed object on 19 November, that the object was probably a delta-wing fighter with better climb performance than the F-8C at 50,000 feet, and that the other contacts appear to be unidentified aircraft. It raised, with no evidence either way, MiG-21 reconnaissance based in Cuba.
Connections
PURSUE · Central Intelligence Agency · BYEMAN Control System · U-2 and OXCART Overflights · Delta Configuration · U.S. Navy