Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!att!cbnews!military
From: ckd%bu-pub.BU.EDU@bu-it.bu.edu (Christopher K Davis)
Newsgroups: sci.military
Subject: U-2 shootdown--not a shootdown? (was Re: B-70)
Message-ID: <10719@cbnews.ATT.COM>
Date: 28 Oct 89 04:22:09 GMT
Sender: military@cbnews.ATT.COM
Lines: 43
Approved: military@att.att.com



From: ckd%bu-pub.BU.EDU@bu-it.bu.edu (Christopher K Davis)
In article <10406@cbnews.ATT.COM>,
military@cbnews.ATT.COM (William B. Thacker) writes:

[about the scrapping of the XB-70]
WBT> Remember when this happened, only a few years after a U-2 was shot
WBT> down over the USSR.  That wasn't really supposed to happen, either.
WBT> But Soviet missile progress outstripped U.S. expectations.  It
WBT> probably didn't to make the same mistake in judgement again.

[mod.note:  A misattribution;  I didn't write this. - Bill ]

>>>>> On 23 Oct 89 23:09:37 GMT, dep@ius3.ius.cs.cmu.edu (David Pugh) said:

DP> Was the U-2 really shot down? I've heard an alternate theory that the
DP> U-2 had either a mechanical problem/structural failure/etc. Arguments
DP> for the later theory included:
DP>     o	No intelligence on the Soviets having a missle capable of
DP> 		downing a U-2.
DP>     o	No other downed U-2s (the US stopped overflights over the
DP> 		USSR, but Soviet clients could have probably gotten the
DP> 		SAM and had lots of opportunity to use it).

DP> (I know the Soviets claimed to shot the U-2 down, but that makes better
DP> press than saying it fell out of the sky. Probably much more acceptable
DP> to Congress-critters too.).

An additional point or two:

Robert Heinlein disbelieved this one, too.  (See _Expanded Universe_ for
details--"PRAVDA means TRUTH" is the portion in question, I believe.)  He
noted that a shootdown from full U-2 altitude, at full U-2 speeds, would
most likely turn the aircraft into Christmas tree tinsel (E = mv**2, and
all that).  Certainly there would be no surviving radio gear (or pilot!).

Can anyone speak to this?  Not knowing the speeds involved, etc, I can't do
the calculation (and this is a late-night response with the library already
closed).  Bill?  Mary?

[DISCLAIMER:
 Boston University holds no official position on this that I know of. :-]