Central America
Cuba was considered as an object of exploration since the inception of the project A-12, but for the first time, the bird Kelly Johnson crossed the island of Liberty only in 1978. The crews of the 9th wing worked out flights over Cuba for many years; routine training flight passed on a route: Bill — air space above Atlantic — a turn of a course on a Gulf of Mexico — passage along coast of Cuba — space over Gulf — further through states of Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada — the house, on airbase Bill. It took 3.5-4 hours to get through the giant loop.
The reason for the SR-71 invasion directly into Cuban airspace was the information received from space reconnaissance means about the unloading of MiG-23 fighters in the port of Havana. The Americans suspected that Castro had received not only interceptors but also fighter-bombers MiG-23BN or MiG-27, capable of carrying nuclear weapons. Appearance of strike aircraft in Cuba violated the agreement between Kennedy and Khrushchev to prevent the deployment of offensive weapons systems in Cuba. Information about Might caused great anxiety on Capitol Hill, where on November 16, 1978, a decision was made to conduct reconnaissance flights in order to clarify the information received. “Black Birds” twice flew over the island, their photos confirmed the private and official statements of the representatives of the Soviet Union that only MiG-23 interceptors were sent to Cuba. Nevertheless, SR once again demonstrated its capabilities.
The next series of reconnaissance flights over Cuba is connected with the attempts to disrupt the negotiations on the reduction of offensive arms of the USA and the USSR. In August 1979, in anticipation of ratification of the OSV-1 treaty in the Senate, there appeared data, allegedly received from satellites, on the increase of the Soviet military presence in Cuba. Space reconnaissance information was checked again by SR-71, the flights were carried out on September 28 and 29. On the photos of the camp near Havana, the decoders counted 3000 personnel and forty tanks — a serious threat to the U.S. territory! President Carter correctly assessed the information about the increase in military activity of the Soviet Union in Cuba as a provocation and made a calming statement on American television. A certain concession to the “hawks” was the permission to conduct another reconnaissance flight in the airspace of Cuba.
The Americans marked the 22nd anniversary of the landing of counter-revolutionaries on Play Charon: during the exercise “Solid Shield-83” of the U.S. armed forces in the Central American region on April 26, 1983, a strategic reconnaissance officer passed over the Gulf of Co chinos.
The Nicaraguan revolution set a new goal for strategic intelligence officers. Reason for intelligence, as in the case of the first flights over Cuba, was the data on the arrival in Nicaragua of Soviet fighters, this time — MiG-21. Representatives of Daniel Ortega categorically denied this information, saying that the containers from the Soviet Union arrived “peaceful” helicopters Mi-8. The Americans did not believe or did not want to believe: the first time SR-71 took place over Nicaragua on November 7, 1984, the second flight was made on the 11th of the same month. The information received was not as clear as in the case of the Cuban Miss, at least the dispute over whether Nicaragua had a MiG-21 did not stop, although their heat went down.
There have been numerous media reports of SR-71 flights over the Falkland Islands during the Anglo-Argentine conflict, allegedly with information provided to the British. However, the U.S. Department of Defense has officially stated that no U.S. reconnaissance aircraft appeared in the armed conflict zone during the fighting.
Sometimes strategic reconnaissance aircraft were used exclusively for peaceful purposes. So, in 1975 the crew of the reconnaissance man made a photo of the Alaskan area near Anchorage, where the Cessna-310 plane disappeared, onboard which Senator Hal Bogs was on board. However, the plane was never found. On May 18, 1980, two SR-71s photographed the area of St. Helen's eruption, which greatly facilitated rescue operations in the states of Idaho, Washington, Montana, and Oregon.
