The document discusses Ramenskoye, a major Soviet military aircraft testing facility located outside Moscow that was an important target for US intelligence collection. The US closely monitored the facility to identify new Soviet aircraft under development. Overhead imagery from U-2 and satellite missions helped reveal aircraft seen at Ramenskoye, including how new bombers were transported from a nearby factory. Detailed reports using imagery enabled analysts to map out buildings and activities at the secretive facility.
The document discusses Ramenskoye, a major Soviet military aircraft testing facility located outside Moscow that was an important target for US intelligence collection. The US closely monitored the facility to identify new Soviet aircraft under development. Overhead imagery from U-2 and satellite missions helped reveal aircraft seen at Ramenskoye, including how new bombers were transported from a nearby factory. Detailed reports using imagery enabled analysts to map out buildings and activities at the secretive facility.
The document discusses Ramenskoye, a major Soviet military aircraft testing facility located outside Moscow that was an important target for US intelligence collection. The US closely monitored the facility to identify new Soviet aircraft under development. Overhead imagery from U-2 and satellite missions helped reveal aircraft seen at Ramenskoye, including how new bombers were transported from a nearby factory. Detailed reports using imagery enabled analysts to map out buildings and activities at the secretive facility.
The document discusses Ramenskoye, a major Soviet military aircraft testing facility located outside Moscow that was an important target for US intelligence collection. The US closely monitored the facility to identify new Soviet aircraft under development. Overhead imagery from U-2 and satellite missions helped reveal aircraft seen at Ramenskoye, including how new bombers were transported from a nearby factory. Detailed reports using imagery enabled analysts to map out buildings and activities at the secretive facility.
A ceremony held on May 30, 2016, What made it important was that it was attaché also reported observing 30 to 35 about 25 miles southeast of the Soviet equivalent of Edwards AFB, Tu-4s; 25 to 30 Il-28 bombers; and 15 Moscow, marked the opening of Calif.: A procession of Soviet military to 20 MiG-15s. Zhukovsky Airport, Moscow’s aircraft appeared there during the early Three years later the US would have an fourth international airport. For decades stages of their development, before they important new asset for monitoring Soviet the facility had been known by a different were produced in large numbers and military activities. On July 5, 1956, CIA pi- name—Ramenskoye—and had been a deployed to Soviet air bases across the lot Carmine Vito took off from Wiesbaden major target of America’s spies. country. (See “Ramenskoye: Past and Pres- Air Base in West Germany on the second ent,” April 2008, p. 48.) US intelligence U-2 mission over Soviet territory. His collection directed against Ramenskoye route took him over East Germany, War- provided a first step in determining the saw, Minsk, and Moscow before heading
The US kept a close watch on the Soviet Union’s
premier air and space testing facility, just outside Moscow. existence and capabilities of new Soviet back. While the Soviet capital was almost military aircraft. completely covered by clouds, two key In 1952, the United States had lim- facilities in the vicinity were available to ited means of gathering intelligence on the spyplane’s cameras. One was the Fili Soviet military developments. The CIA airframe plant, where the Myasishchev-4 did not even open a station in Moscow (Mya-4) bombers, spotted at Ramenskoye until the following year, but even that in 1953 and later designated Bison by US didn’t go well. intelligence, were built. The second was Ramenskoye itself— ULTIMATE FLYAWAY FIELD “the ultimate flyaway field for Bisons Dedicated intelligence overflights of assembled at Fili,” according to an of- Moscow were not possible, and captured ficial history of the CIA’s photographic National Archives photo via GlobalSecurity.org German photography dated back to 1941. interpretation center. The CIA was able to debrief individuals Former CIA photo interpreter Dino with knowledge of the airfield, although A. Brugioni recalled in his book, Eyes sometimes that knowledge was also from in the Sky, that Vito’s mission solved one an earlier decade. puzzle involving Ramenskoye. “We had A late January 1952 agency information wondered,” he wrote, “how the Soviets report focused on the airfield’s runways, could get a Bison bomber out of the Fili the presence of a radar set, and the unsuc- plant because the runway was far too cessful attempts, in 1947, of a pilot to short for such a large plane to take off.” get his four-jet airplane off the ground. He then explained, “We got our answer The US did have one set of intelligence when the images showed a large barge on officers operating in Moscow years be- the Moscow River next to the plant. The fore the CIA arrived—military attachés, Bisons were placed on the barge and fer- who in addition to collecting data during ried to the Ramenskoye test field.” the public Soviet military parades also Vito’s mission would be the first and last conducted their own, less authorized, U-2 flight over Moscow and its vicinity. intelligence gathering activities. The next month ground photography, During a July 30, 1953, visit to Ra- taken from some distance, showed the menskoye, the US air attaché observed construction of several new buildings and photographed an aircraft similar to at Ramenskoye. But in 1960, with the the B-47. The images showed the aircraft first successful Corona mission, the US to be one-and-a-half times larger than the would finally have the means for repeated Tu-4 Bull, the main Soviet bomber. The overhead coverage of any target on Soviet territory. Above left: A photo of the north end of Corona (KH-1 through KH-4B, 1960- the runway at Ramenskoye and a photo 72) would be augmented by the Gambit of a Tu-95 Bear bomber (right), both taken high-resolution spacecraft (KH-7, 1963-67 by a US KH-7 Gambit satellite on May 30, 1967. Left: Ramenskoye, now Zhukovsky and KH-8, 1966-84), and then supplanted Airport, today. by the Hexagon (KH-9, 1971-86) search AIR FORCE Magazine / September 2016 103 system. Finally, electro-optical imagery identifying what could be found at the test the additions, their estimated dimensions arrived in December 1976 with the first center, the report specified locations and and floor space, date of completion, and launch of a Kennen (KH-11) spacecraft. dimensions and noted that a particular short remarks. The document reported Deployment of those spacecraft was the concrete hangar apron was “used mainly removal of a structure that had served as key factor in permitting US intelligence by MiG aircraft” while another was “used environmental protection for an object analysts to produce detailed reports on the mainly by Sukhoi aircraft.” In addition to similar in appearance to the US space flight test center at Ramenskoye, associated examining satellite photography, assorted shuttle’s external fuel tank. The center’s research institutes, and the Soviet aircraft tables, and drawings of specific buildings imagery analysts devoted several para- and spacecraft at the facility. (from different perspectives), the reader graphs to Ramenskoye’s Telemetry Col- Ramenskoye had been of sufficient im- could consult a complete layout of the lection and Processing Center, consisting portance to be listed as one of the highest test center—with each element identified. mainly of two buildings and telemetry priority targets for the August 1960 Corona collection equipment. They commented mission. Seven years later a CIA report NEW CONSTRUCTION on the presence of a “square building of described it as “the most important flight Six years later NPIC produced a report unusual design” with “three large, circular test center in the USSR,” explaining that whose main focus was on construction patterns” on three sides of the building, “all Soviet aircraft under development activity at the test center. It said that over but were uncertain whether the building are usually tested at this center.” The 80,000 square feet of floor space had been was part of the processing center. report also stated that subsequent to its added since September 1971 and ongoing Adjacent to Ramenskoye is an institu- initial identification, the test center had building efforts would add at least another tion established in the early days of So- been photographed on 34 KH-4 and two 211,520 square feet. Also noted was the viet rule. The Central Aerohydrodynamic KH-7 missions. presence of an “eye chart” for spy satel- Institute (TsAGI) was founded on Dec. 1, Declassified National Photographic lites—targets used to test the capabilities 1918. The 1952 CIA information report Interpretation Center (NPIC) reports on of high-resolution overhead photographic had linked Ramenskoye and TsAGI, list- the Ramenskoye Flight Test Center, based reconnaissance systems—some first dis- ing the institute’s location, dimensions, on the product of satellite reconnaissance covered in May 1973. The Siemens stars and security arrangements—including a missions, include those from 1968, 1974, at Ramenskoye and other Soviet facilities guard force of 20 men from the Soviet air and 1981-83. The first of those reports iden- were generally a series of alternative light force. It said 17 German specialists worked tified over 15 different types of assorted and dark spokes radiating from a center there, and “it was believed that jet aircraft structures at the test center—including point, spokes broadening as they became with swept-back wings and high rudder the airfield and its runway, maintenance more distant from the center. assembly were manufactured at the plant.” areas, an air warning and airfield surveil- In November 1982, an NPIC publication A 1967 NPIC report described it as lance radar, visual landing aids, and a on the flight test center reported on new “one of the most important of all the probable aircraft landing area. Along with construction—providing descriptions of installations associated with aerospace USAF photo
Technicians load a camera into a U-2’s
equipment bay. The camera was used on the first U-2 overflight of the Soviet Union on July 4, 1956.
Cameras on a Hexagon KH-9 reconnais-
sance satellite on display in the Cold War Gallery at the National Museum of the US Air Force. USAF photo
104 AIR FORCE Magazine / September 2016
programs in the Soviet Union”—so that and a victim of CIA turncoat Aldrich H. cluded one Bear (Tu-95) and eight Badger its work was closely related to much that Ames. His institute’s work involved the (Tu-16) bombers, seven MiG-25 Foxbat was taking place at Ramenskoye. In the radar systems of the MiG-29, MiG-31, fighters, two Tu-124 passenger airplanes, 1980s, some of its efforts were directed to- and Su-27—just the type of aircraft that and one Tu-144 supersonic transport. ward improving the maneuverability of jet would be among the more important Far more important than an inventory of fighters, including the MiG-29. The report airplanes photographed at Ramenskoye known aircraft at Ramenskoye was provid- provided highlights of the chronological and all likely to have been the subject of ing imagery interpreters and intelligence development of TsAGI from 1941, based study at TsAGI. analysts at the CIA, Defense Intelligence on captured German photography, ground But the most important intelligence Agency, and Air Force Foreign Technology photography from 1947, 1953, and 1956, on Ramenskoye concerned the aircraft Division with their first looks at new Soviet and Corona photography starting in 1962. and spacecraft photographed by the Na- aircraft—aircraft new enough to have no The 1962 images revealed continued tional Reconnaissance Office’s imagery US designation or only a provisional one. expansion of TsAGI, with “significant spacecraft and sometimes the subject of Thus, the 1971 report, relying on both construction observed for the first time,” reports by US attachés. One consequence satellite and ground photography, pointed including four laboratory buildings and an of the reconnaissance effort directed at out a jet transport with a high wing and aircraft engine test facility. Later imagery Ramenskoye was the occasional inventory “underslung jet engines similar to those on made it “evident that during 1965 ... TsAGI of aircraft, including aircraft well-known the Lockheed C-141” as well as a tail with was in the initial [phase] of another large- to US intelligence, at the test center. a T configuration. The aircraft’s first flight scale expansion program.” The report went had occurred only a month before, and its on to identify 95 different elements of the BEARS, BADGERS, FOXBATS description and history matched what the institute, state their probable functions, A Corona/KH-4A mission in August US Intelligence Community would even- and give their estimated dimensions along 1964 allowed imagery interpreters to tually refer to as the Ilyushin-76 Candid. with occasional comments. There was the report on the presence of a variety of But at the time it was simply identified as standard line drawing of the full layout of aircraft at the site, although the resolution “a new Soviet four-engine jet transport.” the institute, showing the locations and of the images apparently made it difficult It probably received, as was standard shapes of each building and a key that to distinguish some aircraft from others. practice for newly identified aircraft and described their purpose. A 1971 report, based on higher resolu- spacecraft at Ramenskoye, a designa- Intelligence about what was going on tion KH-4B imagery, noted the presence tion consisting of RAM, followed by a inside TsAGI may have also come to the and precise numbers of an assortment of letter. In January 1980, NPIC reported United States from 1979 through 1985 fighters, bombers, transports, intelligence, on observations of the fuselage of a from CIA asset Adolf G. Tolkachev, the and other aircraft at different areas of Ra- “probable” RAM-K aircraft, an airplane; chief designer of Phazotron, the Scientific menskoye. In one of those areas, imagery it would become better known as the Research Institute for Radio Engineering interpreters concluded that the aircraft in- Su-27 Flanker.
A Department of Defense illustration of a
Soviet Buran space shuttle transported atop a Myasishchev M-4 Bison bomber. In December 1984, the US obtained imag- ery showing two Soviet space shuttles, although only one was capable of an outer space journey.
DOD illustration
AIR FORCE Magazine / September 2016 105
An aircraft design undergoes testing at the Central Aerohydrodynamic Institute’s T-101 wind tunnel. Adjacent to Ramen- skoye, the testing facility was one of the most important aerospace installations in the Soviet Union.
outer space journey. Exploitation group
analysts listed assorted details about the shuttles, including the apparent pres- ence of tankers—one of them possibly transferring fuel. They observed that “the Central Aerohydrodynamic Institute photo presence of the shuttle in a hangar with facilities to test jet engines lends strong Along with satellite imagery the au- 1982 while subsequent imagery indicated credence to the theory that the Soviet thors had access to ground photography the Soviets had begun flight testing the shuttle will have air-breathing engines obtained when attachés snapped pictures aircraft. CIA weapons analysts said its for endo-atmospheric maneuvering.” of a canvas-covered aircraft fuselage being small fuselage suggested RAM-M “may The analysts reported that one of towed on Moscow’s Garden Ring Road, have been designed to carry high-density, the shuttles had two blisters on either part of a convoy that included Militsiya relatively low-volume payloads such as side of the fuselage. They had not been cars and motorcycles, trucks, and other photographic reconnaissance equipment previously seen on the shuttle when it vehicles that took up four lanes of the road. and electronics” and that “RAM-M could was photographed at Ramenskoye and Further analysis indicated the images were be used for the same type missions as “might be attachment points or air scoops probably of a RAM-K fuselage. the U-2.” The airplane entered service for air-breathing engines.” Eventually, Among the aircraft with provisional in 1982 and would be known to US it would become clear that while train- designations noticed at the test cen- intelligence as the Myasishchev-55 or ing versions used in atmospheric flight ter—although only briefly—in a May Mystic. As estimated, it was as a high- had such engines, the operational Buran 1981 NPIC study of Ramenskoye were altitude reconnaissance platform. spacecraft did not. the RAM-J and RAM-L. Those fighter In any case, it was almost four years aircraft became better known as the AIR-BREATHING SHUTTLE later, November 1988, before the un- Su-25 and MiG-29. Initial identification In addition to fighters and reconnais- manned spaceplane made its only flight. of the MiG-29 was due to observation sance aircraft, bombers and spacecraft The importance attached to Ramen- while it was being towed through the test were spotted at Ramenskoye during the skoye, resulting in repeated coverage by center’s east parking area and the ability early 1980s. US reconnaissance satellites and atten- of interpreters to correlate those images The May 1981 report stated the pres- tion from attachés, was a reflection of with an aircraft that was always under ence of Backfire B and modified Backfire its status as the most important Soviet canvas cover when US satellites took its B aircraft at Ramenskoye—and noted the flight test center. In some cases satellite picture. The canvas covering had finally differences between the two, including imagery showed objects concealed under come off the RAM-K/Su-27, which had nose attitude. canvas coverings—part of the extensive been seen without its shroud in time to Sometime in 1981, the Blackjack Soviet denial and deception efforts. In be included in the study. Also noted was bomber, initially designated RAM-P, other cases, imagery interpreters could a Badger with Aeroflot markings that was photographed at the test center, say much more about the aircraft or the analysts said “may have been modi- prior to its initial flight in December. The spacecraft based on high-resolution im- fied to support high-ranking officials/ discovery was, according to a November ages of aircraft that were in plain view. officers”—the type of airplane closely 1982 NPIC report, “the most significant Not all of the initial conclusions monitored by US intelligence agencies observation at the FTC during the period would prove correct, but the process since its movements were often signs of [covered by the report].” Those bomb- of developing accurate descriptions of impending military tests or other events. ers, capable of carrying between 12 and the existence and capabilities of Soviet In August 1981, KH-11 imagery 24 cruise missiles as well as different military aircraft often began by watch- resulted in a one-page report titled types of bombs, would begin reaching ing what was happening at the premier “New Prototype Aircraft.” Designated Long-Range Aviation units in May 1987. Soviet air and space test center—rely- RAM-M, it was covered by a “loose In December 1984, analysts received ing on both US technical and human non-formfitting canvas,” but the analysts imagery showing two Soviet Buran intelligence assets. As a result, what were still able to conclude that the air- (Snowstorm) space shuttles—although happened at Ramenskoye often did not plane appeared to have a dropped nose no more than one would be capable of an stay at Ramenskoye. ✪ and high-visibility bubble canopy. Other characteristics estimated were its overall Jeffrey T. Richelson is a senior fellow and consultant with the National Security length (66 feet) and wingspan (49 feet). Archive in Washington, D.C., and author of nine books on intelligence and military It was first photographed in fully as- topics. His most recent article for Air Force Magazine, “The Grounded Spies,” ap- sembled form at Ramenskoye in January peared in December 2014. 106 AIR FORCE Magazine / September 2016