Since the early 1960s the US Air Force has carefully tracked ballistic missile test launches. Dr Kevin Wright examines the airborne element of this major intelligence collection effort that uses the Boeing RC-135s codenamed Cobra Ball.
During the Cold War the Kura warhead test range on the huge, largely desolate Kamchatka Peninsula in the Soviet Far East was the standard aim point for hundreds of missile tests. It is an area of approximately 38 sq miles (98.4km2) with the nearest settlement being Klyuchi. Construction started in 1955 of six monitoring posts to record missile warhead re-entry. The first use of the range for this was on August 21, 1957 when an R-7 missile launched from Tyuratam (today’s Baikonur), 3,940 miles (6,339km) away in Kazakhstan, broke up prematurely just prior to re-entry.
To determine Soviet missile capabilities US intelligence operations concentrated on the inhospitable Aleutian Islands, close to the Russian Far East coastline. One island, Shemya, was ideally located as a base for US reconnaissance aircraft. Still incredibly remote, it is less than six sq miles (15½km2) in size and regularly affected by severe, rapidly changeable weather. The 10,000ft (3,048m) runway domina…
