Aquiline: The CIA's Bird Drone Program (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9781934840931)

In the late 1960s and early 1970s the CIA built unmanned drones disguised to resemble birds that were intended to fly missions over denied areas including in Cuba, the Barents Sea, China, and Vietnam. The Aquiline drones were based at Area 51. This collection of declassified memoranda gives a fascinating insiders' view of the program.

The document provides a comprehensive overview of the Aquiline project, which involves the development and operation of covert drone vehicles for intelligence collection purposes. It discusses various aspects of the project, including requirements, logistics, procurement procedures, security measures, personnel manning, operational procedures, budgeting, objectives, system development, payloads, operational costs, research and development studies, and program management. The document also mentions the involvement of different offices and departments within the CIA, as well as collaboration with external contractors. It emphasizes the need for secrecy and the use of advanced technologies for data analysis.

This annotated edition illustrates the capabilities of the AI Lab for Book-Lovers to add context and ease-of-use to manuscripts. It includes five types of abstracts, building from simplest to more complex: TLDR (one word), ELI5, TLDR (vanilla), Scientific Style, and Action Items; three essays to increase viewpoint diversity: Grounds for Dissent; Red Team Critique; and MAGA Perspective; and Nutshell Summaries for each page; and Notable Passages.

AQUILINE is a restrictive access involving a small powered glider capable of flying thousands of miles, emplacing devices, interrogating previously emplaced devices, and performing special reconnaissance or collection missions. It will present bird-like radar, acoustic and visual signatures designed to blend with the natural signal environment; Possessing a range in excess of 1000 miles, it will be capable in its advanced form of hovering-over-targets for as long as 120 days.

it is agreed that the program will be known (at Area 51) by the unclassified nickname Project M277. In this manner, the R50 prototype program name AQUILINE can be slowly phased out and the new operational program name AZAN5 established once the flight test phase is completed. ... Project AQUILINE will be known by the classified SECRET operational designator RECHARTER within OSA areas of responsibility... The objectives, state-of-art achievements, and mission purposes of Project RECHARTER will be controlled at the TOP SECRET level.

A major difficulty in the emplacement concept has been the need for the 'mother ship' to execute the penetration and drop at a high altitude in order to avoid detection and/or interception. Black box payloads designed for emplacement in this manner tended to be large and heavy -- a few hundred pounds not being unusual. Discussions by ORD with other offices within the Agency (OSA, OSP, FMSAC, OSI, OEL, and other potential users within the clandestine services) gave substance to the developing AQUILINE concept. It was agreed that low altitude drops of small, lightweight, low power solid state sensors would have a high probability of surviving the emplacement. Indeed, the same qualities could decrease the probability of detection of the black box once emplaced."

The initial AOC goal will be round-trip missions against coastal areas in Cuba, the Barents Sea, China, and Vietnam. Reconnaissance and ferret-type missions could provide low altitude imagery, ELINT and SIGINT. Feasibility of these objectives were studied in a simulated operational test against Tallinn.