In the late 1970s the Cold War was taking a downturn: a huge Warsaw Pact re-equipment programme, decisions to deploy cruise and Pershing �? nuclear weapons, the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and smouldering tensions in Poland. US and NATO commanders wanted intelligence on these developments and emerging contingencies. Part of the solution was to forward-deploy exotic 'black' reconnaissance aircraft, like the Lockheed U-2 and SR-71, and the UK became a major operating location. Britain already had a long association with US-sponsored reconnaissance efforts. Flying out of RAF Sculthorpe, Norfolk, Operation 'Jiu Jitsu' used RAF-marked USAF North American RB-45s to overfly the western Soviet Union in 1953 and 1954. Lakenheath was to have been the base for early Central Intelligence Agency U-2 operations into Eastern Europe in 1956. That agreement was reversed by Prime Minister Anthony Eden, fearful of further intelligence disasters following the political fall-out from the disastrous 'Buster' Crabb affair (see 'Ivan the Terrible and the Tu-104' in the March Aeroplane). As featured elsewhere in this issue, USAF RB-47s flew discreetly from Brize Norton, Fairford and Upper Heyford for many years. From the early 1970s, Mildenhall was used as a European operating location for RC-135 flights mounted from Offutt AFB, Nebraska and Eielson AFB, Alaska.
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