ENCYCLOPEDIA OF Espionage, Intelligence, and Security Volume ...

Basque Fatherland and LibertyPresident Dwight D. Eisenhower gave approval for theU.S. Air Force to launch 516 camera-carrying balloonsover Eastern Europe, the Soviet Union, and the People’sRepublic of China.GENETRIX proved a disaster in several regards. Only34 balloons—about 7% of the total—survived and producedusable, useful images. Worse than the poor returnratio was the public-relations opportunity that the projectprovided to the communist bloc, which protested U.S.spying and used information on GENETRIX for propagandapurposes.Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) officials called onthe air force to halt GENETRIX, which it did in February1956. At the time, the CIA was planning the launch of U-2overflights, and they feared that GENETRIX would turnEisenhower against the concept of overflights. Additionally,they were concerned that the program might negativelyaffect an effort by the Free Europe Committee, a CIAfront based in West Germany, to drop propaganda leafletsover Eastern Europe.The failure of GENETRIX concealed several successes.The images of the Soviet Union it did produce providedthe best available record between World War II and theadvent of the U-2 reconnaissance plane and later satellites.Additionally, the high-flying balloons, which averagedan altitude of 45,800 feet (13,960 m), provided dataon wind currents that helped scientists determine the bestflight paths for the U-2.Finally, the most curious benefit of GENETRIX wasthe fact that a steel bar that secured the envelope, cameras,and ballasting equipment happened to measure 2.99feet (91 cm)—exactly the same size as the wavelength ofSoviet radar known as TOKEN to NATO (North AtlanticTreaty Organization) forces. Because it resonated whenTOKEN pulses hit it, the bar helped NATO radar operatorslocate previously unknown radar installations. This, too,aided the U-2 project.Balloon reconnaissance today. The navy, which had continuedits balloon program until 1962, attempted to revive itin the 1980s, but Congress cut off all funding in 1989. Yet,the usefulness of balloons and blimps for surveillance isfar from exhausted. Their virtual invisibility with regard toradar has reinvigorated interest in blimps on the part ofthe U.S. Department of Defense, which has discussedplans to use airships as radar platforms in a larger StrategicAir Initiative.Meanwhile, the air force employs aerostats, or unmanned,aerodynamically shaped blimps tethered by asingle cable, in its Tethered Aerostat Radar System, acounter-narcotics surveillance program along the U.S.-Mexico border. Aerostats offer a number of advantages,including enormous detection range and coverage. Typicallyoccupying an altitude of about 15,000 feet (4,500 m),an aerostat can cover 185 square miles (480 sq km) andtrack smaller, lower-flying aircraft such as those used bydrug smugglers. They can operate virtually without breakat low cost, and need come down only for routine maintenanceand severe weather. It is calculated that an aerostatcan provide surveillance at a cost about 5% as great as thatof an airplane. Kept aloft by helium, a highly non-reactivegas, they also have a considerably accident free record ofoperation.❚ FURTHER READING:BOOKS:Brugioni, Dino A. From Balloons to Blackbirds: Reconnaissance,Surveillance, and Imagery Intelligence: How ItEvolved. McLean, VA: Association of Former IntelligenceOfficers, 1993.Evans, Charles M. The War of the Aeronauts: A History ofBallooning during the Civil War. Mechanicsburg, PA:Stackpole Books, 2002.Lebow, Eileen F. A Grandstand Seat: The American BalloonService in World War I. Westport, CT: Praeger,1998.Peebles, Curtis. The Moby Dick Project: ReconnaissanceBalloons over Russia. Washington, D.C.: SmithsonianInstitution Press, 1991.PERIODICALS:Fanton, Ben. “View from above the Battlefield.” America’sCivil War 14, no. 4 (September 2001): 22–28.Nahum, Hazi, and Sheike Marom. “Aerostat-Borne Systemsfor Defense and Homeland Security.” MilitaryTechnology 26, no. 8 (August 2002): 102–108.ELECTRONIC:U.S. Centennial of Flight. (March 13, 2003).SEE ALSOCivil War, Espionage and IntelligenceReconnaissanceU-2 Spy PlaneWorld War IBasque Fatherland andLiberty (ETA)The ETA was founded in 1959 with the aim of establishingan independent homeland based on Marxist principles inthe northern Spanish Provinces of Vizcaya, Guipuzcoa,Alava, and Navarra, and the southwestern French Departmentsof Labourd, Basse-Navarra, and Soule. The BasqueFatherland and Liberty (ETA) group also operates as, or isknown as Euzkadi Ta Askatasuna.94 Encyclopedia of Espionage, Intelligence, and Security