Original subtitles

Griffin: We are basically the eyes and ears

Of the decision makers of our country.

Narrator: For over half a century

The u-2 dragon lady has flown

At the edge of the earth's atmosphere

Blurring the line between "pilot" and "astronaut".

Wilson: High altitude takes a toll on the human body.

Narrator: Developed in secret...

Pocock: The cia was not going to let this opportunity pass it by.

Narrator: ...And revealed to the world by scandal.

Grant: Suddenly, it comes out

That we've been flying over the soviet union for years.

Narrator: This is an inside look

At america's most notorious spy plane.

And how the u-2 transformed from a cold war flight risk...

Oleson: You're hanging on for dear life after takeoff.

Narrator: ...To a modern day dragon.

♪ ♪

Narrator: 2001: Operation southern watch.

The united states and its allies

Control the airspace over southern iraq,

But saddam hussein's forces fight back on the ground.

The iraqis move their radar and surface to air missiles

Almost daily to avoid detection.

To monitor their movements,

The united states relies on

One of its most legendary aircraft: The u-2.

It's been the world's top high-flying spy plane

Across six decades.

Griffin: Behind me is the venerable u-2 dragon lady.

We call it the dragon lady because up high she's a lady

And down low it can be like wrestling with a dragon.

Narrator: The u-2 is built for just one thing:

High altitude reconnaissance.

Griffin: What that means is

We're getting images and intelligence

That we beam down in near real time.

We are basically the eyes and ears

Of the decision makers of our country.

So the products that we create go all the way up the chain

And regularly reach the president's desk.

Narrator: Today's version of the dragon lady

Has a slender frame that's 63 feet long.

Her wings stretch to 105 feet.

She's lean: Barely 16,000 pounds.

To keep her weight down, she has just one engine

Capable of producing 17,000 pounds of thrust.

Griffin: It's optimized for high altitude efficiency and power.

It's part of the reason that we are able to

Get up all the way to 70,000 feet and above.

Narrator: 70,000 feet; that's thirteen miles above the earth.

Right at the edge of the stratosphere.

Griffin: When you're flying the u-2

The only guys higher than you

Are the guys that are up on the international space station.

Narrator: October 2001: Prince sultan air base, saudi arabia.

A u-2 pilot prepares to fly over iraq

In search of hostile missiles.

Olesen: We had a pretty big operation going

To discover all the violations

That saddam hussein was committing.

Lieutenant colonel jeff olesen was a u-2 pilot for 10 years.

Olesen: That began to have a toll on saddam hussein.

He wanted a u-2 pilot dead or alive.

He wanted to drag that guy or girl

Through the streets of baghdad for all the world to see.

Narrator: Olesen has flown dozens of missions,

But today is different.

Three hours into the flight, he notices something is wrong.

Olesen: My fuel flow indicator kind of dipped down

And that's never happened before.

I thought oh, well, it was a glitch.

About a minute later it flickered again,

But this time a little lower,

And the engine just starts to kind of die a little bit.

Narrator: Thirteen miles above enemy territory

Is no place to lose your only engine.

Changing settings may solve the problem.

Olesen flicks a switch in hopes of a quick fix.

[alert sound]

Olesen: All hell broke loose.

The engine began to violently grind to this halt.

It was grinding so hard that it took the plane and shook it.

My head was shaking like a rag doll in the cockpit.

I just knew, this was bad.

Narrator: Olesen quickly switches back

To his original setting.

Olesen: Everything got a little more peaceful,

And it was flying normal again,

Except I couldn't engage the autopilot.

Narrator: Autopilot regulates

One of the u-2's most crucial features: Speed.

At 70,000 feet, there's only seven miles per hour

Separating the u-2s maximum speed

And a low-speed stall of the aircraft.

Olesen: If you get a little bit over speed,

The tail just comes off the plane.

If you get a little bit under speed you stall.

Olesen: I'm having to concentrate

Just to stay within that window.

I can't get outside of that

Or the plane is going to come down.

Narrator: No pilot can maintain

Such a high level of concentration for long.

Olesen has to get down to a lower altitude fast.

Olesen: The airplane is a different airplane

Below 50,000 feet.

Down there you really don't have to worry about

That narrow margin of airspeed that you have to maintain.

Narrator: The only problem:

Flying lower makes his u-2 an easy target for enemy missiles.

Olesen: The lower I got the more vulnerable I got.

And the last thing I really wanted to do

Was meet saddam hussein.

He had made it very clear what he was going to do

If he ever got a hold of one of the u-2 pilots.

Narrator: Olesen does some mental math to figure out

How far it is to the nearest friendly border.

Olesen: I realized, okay, I'm going to egress iraq,

That's my first concern.

The second concern then is, where am I going to land?

Narrator: Flying the u-2 isn't easy.

Landing her is even harder.

It's considered to be the most difficult plane to land

In the air force arsenal.

That's why u-2s can't just land anywhere.

Griffin: There are tons of things that can go wrong

While you're landing the u-2.

The giant wings create lift.

Additionally, we have a giant motor creating a lot of thrust,

So the combination of the lift from the wings

And the thrust from the motor,

This thing just doesn't want to land.

Narrator: The u-2's landing gear doesn't help.

It has just two sets of wheels laid out like a bicycle.

Griffin: The reason that we have tandem wheels

Is strictly to save weight.

Every pound that we have on the jet

Is a foot lower of our max altitude.

Narrator: Making a safe landing demands not just one pilot, but two.

The second one waits on the ground.

The second pilot is called a "mobile officer."

He follows the plane in a chase car,

Driving up to 100 miles per hour.

For the chase car, position is everything:

Three car lengths behind and slightly to the side

To avoid the wash of the u-2's engine.

The mobile officer is an extra set of eyes for the pilot.

As the u-2 flies over the runway,

He gives the pilot adjustments.

Male: (over the radio) 6, 5, 4, 3 --

Let it down a little -- at 4, 3, 2...

Narrator: The reason:

To land the plane, the pilot has to stall it

Exactly two feet from the ground.

Griffin: It literally falls out of the sky.

If you stall the aircraft higher than two feet,

The aircraft can fall to the ground and break the jet,

Hurt you, obviously, or break the sensors.

Narrator: As it slows down, it leans on one side

With one wingtip scraping the ground.

The ground crew installs "pogos" under each wing

To hold them level as the u-2 moves to the hangar.

Griffin: It might be the hardest airplane to land ever created.

Narrator: Over iraq, olesen scrambles to determine

Where he can land his struggling plane.

Olesen: I knew I needed to go to an airfield

In kuwait called al jabar.

We briefed every day that that's where we would land

If we had some kind of a problem.

So, that was going to be where I would attempt

To land the airplane.

Narrator: 40 miles out, olesen radios forward

To let the air controllers know he's heading in.

Olesen: I reported in as a u.S. Aircraft, emergency,

I've got an engine malfunction

And I'm arriving at your airfield to land.

Narrator: Air controllers respond --

Olesen is welcome, but there's just one catch:

U-2s don't normally live at this base.

So they don't have the one thing crucial

To a safe landing: A chase car.

Olesen: I knew I didn't have a chase car.

But the fate of that airplane and me

Were tied together at that point.

I was going to get that plane down.

Narrator: Over kuwait, lieutenant colonel jeffrey olesen

And his u-2 approach al jabar air base.

The u-2 usually lands with assistance,

This time, olesen has to go it alone.

Olesen: I had made it out of iraq,

And I thought, wouldn't that be bad if I got here finally

To a runway and then messed it up?

Narrator: He carefully guides his struggling aircraft

Toward the ground.

The multi-million dollar plane demands a perfect landing.

Olesen: Landing the u-2 is a feat.

You're trying to land something

That is aerodynamically unstable and unpredictable.

Narrator: Olesen begins his final approach.

He guides the aircraft over the runway,

Getting a feel for where he'll force the aircraft to stall.

Without the chase car's guidance, it's tough.

At two feet, he stalls the aircraft.

It's a perfect landing.

An investigation reveals the problem:

A piece of the fuel control unit was made incorrectly,

By just 1/1000th of an inch.

The mission highlights the sensitivity of the u-2

And how it can test the skills of even the best pilots.

Olesen: The u-2 pulls the best out of you every time.

Your skills are tested.

And it challenges you

And pulls out the aviator in you every ride.

Narrator: Nothing about the u-2 has ever been easy.

It was originally designed to perform

A nearly impossible mission during the cold war.

August 1953, kazakhstan:

The soviet union reveals its new and devastating weapon:

[explosion]

The hydrogen bomb.

It's twenty-six times more powerful

Than the bomb dropped on hiroshima.

[explosions]

The test sends an ominous sign to the pentagon:

The soviets are preparing for all-out nuclear war.

Pocock: The soviets seemed to be much more advanced

Than u.S. Intelligence had estimated.

Narrator: Chris pocock has authored four books

On the history of the u-2.

Pocock: It was known that the soviets

Had bombers and nuclear weapons.

The question was

Did they have enough bombers to pose a significant threat?

The u.S. Was worried about surprise attack.

Narrator: The iron curtain between east and west

Is firmly in place.

U.S. Spies struggle to peek behind it.

Pocock: The traditional means were spies on the ground,

But the soviets made that very difficult

And entire huge areas of the soviet hinterland

Were a complete unknown.

It was clear to u.S. Policy makers

That this situation was untenable.

The question was how to address it.

Narrator: Washington, dc, the pentagon.

The air force decides if it can't get into the soviet union,

It will go over it.

They start an initiative: Project bald eagle.

Grant: The primary goal of bald eagle

Was to build a high-flying spy plane

That could take crisp pictures

Of real soviet military capabilities.

Narrator: Rebecca grant is one of the foremost civilian experts

On air force history and aircraft.

Grant: At the time, the only good choice

For high-flying planes is the bomber arsenal.

Narrator: The air force's highest-flying bomber

Is the b-57 canberra.

It can fly to 48,000 feet.

But just months before the canberra enters u.S. Service,

The air force learns that it may already be obsolete.

Grant: The royal air force in britain

Flew a canberra over the soviet union,

Trying to bring back intelligence.

Soviet defenses almost shot the bomber down.

Narrator: The air force is concerned.

Soviet radar technology is farther along than they thought.

To avoid detection,

They need a plane that can fly higher

Than anything the soviets can muster.

Grant: This high-flying spy plane

Was completely unprecedented in the aeronautical world.

Nothing like this had been designed before.

♪ ♪

Narrator: The air force reaches out to three contractors:

Bell, martin, and fairchild.

Pocock: The air force selected companies

That they thought would make this design a priority

Rather than the bigger companies

That were already enjoying substantial air force contracts.

Narrator: News travels fast. Lockheed's kelly johnson

Also wants in on the secret spy plane.

Johnson heads lockheed's advanced development projects.

Codenamed: Skunk works.

Grant: They were known as a highly innovative shop.

They just went straight to the design board,

And right to the production line to build.

Narrator: In March 1954,

He presents a plan for an unconventional aircraft

Called the cl-282.

It's like nothing the air force has even seen.

Grant: It was a super-glider sail plane,

Using a small engine that could reach nearly 70,000 feet.

Narrator: The air force considers the lockheed design,

But decides to go with the safe bet:

A modified version of the b-57 it's already flying.

Grant: It couldn't fly as high, but it had two engines,

It was a more rugged design, already proven.

They were not keen to take the risk on the cl-282.

Narrator: The air force has its spy plane.

But president eisenhower isn't willing to play it safe.

Wilson: President eisenhower was concerned

With the increasing sophistication

Of the soviet union.

Narrator: Colonel chuck wilson was a u-2 pilot,

Commander, and pentagon official for 25 years.

Wilson: He convened a group of experts

To take a look at the problem of a surprise attack.

Grant: They looked at a number of different systems,

And among them was

How to accomplish high-altitude reconnaissance.

They loved the idea of the cl-282.

Narrator: The panel suggests a new buyer

For the lockheed design: The cia.

The only problem:

A cia-run aircraft intrudes on air force territory.

Pocock: The air force wasn't at all happy

At this new strategic over flight mission

Being taken away from them.

Narrator: Finally, a compromise:

The air force supplies pilots and training.

The cia foots the bill

And determines the spy plane's missions.

Grant: The contract was done secretly,

The cia took over all the management

And kelly johnson effectively started working

For the cia to build this plane.

They should have called it "r-something,"

For reconnaissance,

But instead simply called it the "u-2,"

A utility designation,

To cloak its real mission from prying eyes.

Narrator: August 1955, area 51: Groom lake, nevada.

The spy plane is ready to make its debut.

Pocock: It was decided to test fly this airplane

In the most secure and secret conditions possible.

This whole area was off limits

To unauthorized personnel for miles around

And so it was a good site to test fly an airplane.

♪ ♪

Narrator: The new spy plane rolls out of the hangar.

Wilson: Long wings, a sleek fuselage,

And they weren't too sure exactly

What they were getting into until they actually flew it.

Narrator: High altitude flight means more

Than just getting a plane in the air.

It's also about keeping the pilot alive.

Wilson: He's going to be in

A very hazardous physiological environment.

Above 50,000 feet you might as well be on the moon.

Narrator: Pilots wear a $300,000 dollar space suit,

Designed to shield them

From life-threatening atmospheric pressure.

Male: All right, sir, do you need any final adjustments?

Wilson: If our pilot was exposed to the pressures above 50,000 feet

His body would burst, his blood would boil.

Narrator: U-2 pilots must undergo

A complicated pre-flight procedure;

Performing a detailed physical

And pre-breathing pure oxygen for more than an hour.

Wilson: The reason to pre-breathe 100% oxygen

Is to get the nitrogen out of the blood stream.

Narrator: Any nitrogen in the blood puts the pilot at risk

For decompression sickness.

One loose tube and he can go unconscious at altitude.

The pilot remains hooked to oxygen

All the way to the u-2 cockpit where the real mission begins.

♪ ♪

At groom lake, the u-2 taxis onto the runway.

In just a few hundred feet it lifts into the air.

Pocock: Take off of a u-2 is always a spectacular sight.

As soon it's lifted off the runway

It ascends at a very high rate.

♪ ♪

Narrator: In just weeks the new plane reaches 70,000 feet,

Higher than any airplane in history.

Now, it's time to see what the soviets are hiding.

Grant: The cia knew the u-2 could perform in flight,

But the only way to prove it was to fly behind the iron curtain.

Narrator: July 4th, 1956:

Wiesbaden air base, west germany.

The u-2 embarks on its first soviet over flight.

Destination: Leningrad.

Pocock: The first priority was to determine

Whether the soviets had deployed bombers.

If the u.S. Had seen evidence of large soviet bomber deployments,

Then it would have to boost

Its own air defenses protecting north america.

Narrator: The u.S. Bets the u-2's camera can do something

No other camera is capable of:

Shoot useable film at 70,000 feet.

To do this, it relies on a 3-foot lens --

Sharp enough to provide

Over 2,500 lines of resolution per inch of film.

The camera snaps up to 4,000 images,

Enough to photograph the entire route from berlin to leningrad:

Over 2,200 miles.

The flight successfully returns.

Cia technicians pore over the images.

The reality of the arms race comes into focus.

Grant: U-2 imagery was able to show that the soviet union

Had far fewer bombers than they claimed.

The u.S. Was still ahead.

Narrator: But a closer look reveals a new problem,

The soviets know that the u-2s are there.

Pocock: The cia could see fighter interceptors

Rising beneath them. That meant that the soviets

Were tracking these flights on radar.

Grant: The photo-interpreters found that

The little dots on the photo imagery

Were mig-15s and mig-17s,

Trying to track and attack the u-2.

Luckily, the u-2's high altitude abilities protected it.

Narrator: Soviet diplomats quietly demand

That the u.S. Stop the flights.

Six days later

Eisenhower suspends u-2 flights over the soviet union.

But it isn't long before temptation

To spy on the soviets is too great to resist.

Narrator: August 1957, soviet premier nikita khrushchev

Ups the cold-war ante with a new weapon:

An intercontinental ballistic missile.

It's nuclear armed and designed to reach u.S. Shores.

Grant: To the public, it's a huge crisis.

The cia is desperate to know exactly how many there are,

And what kind of threat they represent.

So eisenhower green-lights just a handful more of u-2 flights.

Narrator: Lockheed engineers upgrade the u-2

With a new anti-radar technology.

They're hopeful that these flights will be harder to track.

Grant: Eisenhower knows how risky it is,

But the cia assures him they need the intelligence

And they believe the u-2 flights were top priority.

Narrator: The flights reveal several soviet launch sites.

But the upgrades aren't working.

Soviet radar sees the u-2s,

But they're still just out of reach.

In 1958 eisenhower gets nervous

And stops the flights again.

Grant: He was trying to negotiate on arms control

And he knew that the u-2 flights

Could provoke the soviet union to the point that

Khrushchev would break off all negotiations.

Narrator: In July, the two nations take a giant step.

Khrushchev visits the u.S. On a good-will tour.

Grant: The khrushchev tour was a big success.

And it led to khrushchev's agreement

To meet with eisenhower

And other leaders again for a summit in paris

To finally conclude decisive arms control agreements.

Narrator: A nuclear drawdown appears to be on the horizon,

But the u.S. Decides it needs

Just a few more looks behind the curtain.

A misstep that will put the u-2

In front page headlines around the globe.

♪ ♪

May 1, 1960: Peshawar, pakistan.

Two weeks before the paris peace summit.

U-2 pilot gary powers heads out

On a top-secret mission over the soviet union.

If all goes well,

Powers will land in norway nine hours later,

With crucial intelligence on soviet missile installations.

Four hours into the flight,

Powers' spy plane is rocked by a barrage of soviet missiles.

Days later, khrushchev goes public and announces

That soviet sa-2 missiles have shot down an american u-2.

Grant: The u-2 is on the ground. Powers is missing.

And suddenly, it's revealed the americans have been flying

Over the soviet union for years.

Narrator: The u.S. Quickly concocts a story:

The u-2 was tracking weather patterns.

Grant: They don't expect the delicate u-2

To survive being shot down.

And frankly, they expected the pilot won't live either.

Narrator: Miraculously, powers did manage to bail out.

And landed in the center of a major diplomatic crisis.

The u.S. Cover story quickly unravels.

The soviets have the wreckage of the top-secret airplane

And they also have its pilot.

Pocock: The plane was in pieces, but the pilot was intact,

And so they were able to put him on trial,

And extract maximum propaganda value.

Narrator: Powers is convicted of espionage

And sentenced to 10 years in prison.

[applause]

Peace talks collapse.

Relations between the superpowers take a nose dive.

Not long after,

Another u-2 incident causes nuclear tensions to escalate.

August, 1962:

The soviets deliver nuclear missiles to cuba,

Just 90 miles from u.S. Shores.

Grant: There is no doubt that a rocket

Can hit america from cuba.

President kennedy needs consistent

Around the clock intelligence.

Narrator: Kennedy decides to change strategy.

He hands some of the u-2 flights over to the u.S. Air force.

Grant: It's the air force's job to figure out

Exactly how quickly the soviet union

Is building up their capability in cuba.

Narrator: Now if a u-2 is shot down,

It's no longer an act of failed cia espionage.

It will be a direct act of war.

U-2 flights reveal nuclear weapons storage sites,

Twenty two nuclear bombers and nine nuclear missile sites.

President kennedy: Within the past week,

Unmistakable evidence has established the fact

That a series of offensive missile sites

Is now in preparation on that imprisoned island.

♪ ♪

Narrator: Americans prepare for nuclear armageddon.

The u-2s fly on high alert.

Watching and waiting for the nuclear sites to become active.

♪ ♪

October 27th: Mccoy air force base, florida.

Major rudolf anderson takes off in a u-2 bound for cuba.

The cubans track him,

But they've been ordered not to shoot by the soviet union.

Khrushchev doesn't want to risk an all-out nuclear war.

Missile operators on the ground don't get the message.

Anderson's u-2 is blown out of the sky.

Anderson dies on impact. It is seen as a deliberate act of war.

Grant: The united states and the soviet union

Lurched towards nuclear war.

And the u-2 is at the forefront of this crisis.

Narrator: Nuclear war is imminent,

But at the eleventh hour,

Khrushchev and kennedy make a deal.

The soviets withdraw the missiles from cuba

And the u.S. Removes its own missiles

From sites near the soviet union.

By now, the u-2's reconnaissance value is clear,

But the air force wonders:

Is their spy plane too easy a target?

Pocock: Whenever surface-to-air missiles

Were going to be deployed in the future,

The u-2 could not fly close to them.

Grant: It's time to think about a potential u-2 replacement.

Narrator: December 22, 1964: Palmdale, california.

Lockheed rolls out the u-2's successor: The sr-71 blackbird.

A special paint allows it to absorb enemy radar signals

Making it difficult to detect.

It flies more than three times the speed of sound,

Nearly six times as fast as the u-2.

Combined with altitudes of over 80,000 feet,

The blackbird is not an easy target.

Grant: The idea behind the sr-71

Was that it would be fast enough,

As well as high enough to outrun surface to air missiles.

Narrator: The air force is sold.

It issues a contract for 31 blackbirds.

The u-2 seems to be on its way out the door.

♪ ♪

Narrator: 1966: The u-2 dragon lady is about to be eclipsed

By the sr-71 blackbird.

Speed and altitude make the sr-71 a formidable opponent.

But the u-2 has one key advantage

Over its hot-rod rival: Flying time.

The sr-71 flies two hours before it needs fuel.

The u-2 flies for over ten.

In 1967, lockheed adds more reasons

To keep the u-2 flying high.

Pocock: Kelly johnson designed a new version of the u-2: U-2r.

The wingspan increased from 80 feet to 100 feet;

The fuselage enlarged so that it could accommodate new sensors.

Grant: All of these upgrades

Make the u-2 ready for more missions

If only they can find a place where it's still useful.

Narrator: The u-2r finds that place in vietnam.

♪ ♪

Vietnam is a dangerous place for american airmen.

In just two years, the vietcong shoot down

Over 300 american aircraft

Using their soviet-made surface to air missile, the sa2.

Furr: They were doing a fine job of intercepting

And shooting down aircraft.

Narrator: Colonel frank 'fuzzy' furr

Was with the 99th strategic reconnaissance squadron

During the vietnam war.

Furr: The missiles they used had great guidance

And they would move their missile sites

To confuse where we thought their sites were.

Narrator: U.S. Intelligence struggles

To anticipate the vietcong's tactics.

Their fast, high-flying blackbird can't quite keep up.

Furr: The sr-71s were doing a super job

Of collecting the imagery,

But it was not a real time intelligence-gathering platform.

It had to be brought back to an area,

Downloaded from the airplane.

By the time the images make it back,

The missiles have already moved.

The u.S. Doesn't need delayed photos,

It needs real-time intelligence.

Engineers work hard behind the scenes.

In 1971, they come up with a sensor

That gathers audio intelligence,

Recording enemy chatter as it's emitted.

The sensor has to be high to survey

The widest possible area.

But it also can't move too fast, ruling out the sr-71.

The air force's solution:

Put the sensor up on the slower flying,

Newly buffed-up u-2r.

Furr: The u-2 didn't pass through

Like the sr-71 did and was gone.

It stayed in the area for 8 to 10 to 12 hours

And was able to collect and then provide

That information in real time.

Pocock: The u-2 became a signals intelligence gathering airplane

As much as it was an imagery gathering airplane.

This was the beginning of a revolution

In airborne intelligence gathering.

Narrator: The new sensor sits in a compartment

Behind the cockpit taking the place of its camera.

At 70,000 feet it can collect enemy chatter

From up to three hundred miles away.

A data-link in the u-2's tail sends the intercepted chatter

To american analysts positioned within a 300-mile line of sight.

Furr: The positions were actually manned by people

Who could receive these vietnamese,

Chinese or russian communications,

Translate those into english,

And provide that intelligence in real time.

Narrator: Intelligence specialists alert bombers

To what the enemy is saying.

Grant: By having that information

It can be passed back to a ground station

And then passed on to other aircraft in flight.

So it's useful to pilots

Who are already airborne on their bombing missions.

Narrator: The upgrades give the u-2 a new sense of purpose.

In 1979 the lockheed production line,

Originally slated to close, is re-opened.

Furr: The real time capability that was proven during vietnam,

Pushed the u-2 into being a very much sought after platform

For real time intelligence.

Narrator: The growing u-2 fleet is smarter.

Twenty-four foot super-pods on the wings

Detect exactly when and where

Enemy missile radar becomes active.

In an interchangeable nose,

Either a radar or an advanced imaging sensor.

Both producing high resolution imagery in near-real time.

No more waiting for wet film.

Analysts can tap into the u-2s birds-eye view as it flies.

Grant: The u-2 is no longer just taking pictures.

It can pick up a blip that a sam site is active

And then use its camera to get a fix on that sam site,

Identify what it is and what it's doing.

And this becomes very important

When iraq invades kuwait in 1990.

The u-2 will play a starring role in operation desert storm.

Narrator: In 1991 u-2s thrive over the skies of iraq.

Providing 50% of all imagery intelligence for the war.

In 1992, the air force installs a new data-link fin on its back,

Known as senior spur.

It uses a satellite to transmit u-2 imagery

Anywhere in the world,

A room full of analysts in the u.S.

Can now watch a fight unfold on the ground, half a world away.

Holmgren: You might be looking at an image

In the pacific one day,

And then switch over to afghanistan the next day,

And then in central or south america.

Narrator: These advances provide friendly troops

With non-stop coverage from above

And just when they need it the most.

2012: Afghanistan:

America is at war with the taliban.

[gun shot]

Ambushes on u.S. Troops are frequent and deadly.

U.S. Forces need around the clock surveillance.

For that, they look to the u-2.

Smith: You'll just dwell in one area,

And your sensors are just soaking stuff up the whole time.

Lt. Col. Matthew smith is a u-2 pilot

With the 9th operational support squadron.

Smith: We're just kind of sitting in the background monitoring;

We're not going to interfere with them unless we need to.

Narrator: Over afghanistan,

Something in the radio chatter catches smith's attention.

Smith: I was listening to a convoy type force

And I started to hear some chatter of,

They're having vehicle problems.

So now you know somebody's mission

Isn't going the way it's supposed to go.

Narrator: 7,000 miles away in california,

Analysts at beale air force base

Use the u-2's sensors to scan for enemy chatter.

Smith: There's some discussion of some planning.

People are preparing for an attack of some sort.

And it turned out the attack was against our guys

Having the problem in the convoy.

Narrator: The u-2's imagery reveals

A group of taliban soldiers

Just moments from ambushing the unsuspecting convoy.

The team must intervene fast

Or coalition troops may be finished

Before they know what hit them.

♪ ♪

Narrator: High above afghanistan,

U-2 pilot lt. Col. Smith listens in on a stranded convoy

About to be ambushed by taliban soldiers.

Smith: You're listening to the situation unfold.

They don't know that you're there.

They don't know there's bad guys around the corner.

Narrator: 7,000 miles away,

Analysts see enemy forces moving in.

They let smith know and the u-2 pilot radios down

To the troops to warn them of the impending attack.

Smith: It's like the voice of god comes down, like,

Who are you? How are you on my radio?

And you just say, hey, I'm here. I'm watching,

What I'm telling you is get ready for an attack, lock down.

Narrator: Smith scans through his radio frequencies

Searching for help.

He picks up two f-18 fighters nearby.

Smith: I key the same microphone button and I talk to the f-18s.

They're weaponized, they're ready, they got good gas.

Narrator: The f-18s are only minutes away,

But on his radio smith hears what he's been dreading.

Smith: You can hear the guys on the ground getting shot at.

You can hear the gunfire.

You can hear the emotion in their voice.

Narrator: Just moments later, the fighters come roaring in

Taking out enemy forces in a single flyby.

The troops are safe.

Thanks to a near-invisible force 70,000 feet above them.

Smith: Troops in contact often won't know what you did

Behind the scenes to stack the odds in their favor.

There can be many hundreds of people

Listening to that mission,

And all those folks focused on doing

What they can to support you.

Narrator: The u-2 is more advanced than it has ever been,

But the aging spy plane is about

To face its fiercest competitor yet.

♪ ♪

The northrup grumman rq-4 global hawk.

An unmanned, highly capable, high-altitude drone.

The global hawk can fly at 60,000 feet for over 30 hours.

But it's missing the one thing

The air force cherishes the most: A pilot.

Wilson: A human being in a u-2

Can be easily dynamically re-tasked.

He might have prepped up for one mission,

But after takeoff he might have a mission change

And have to adapt immediately.

♪ ♪

Narrator: The last u-2 rolled off the assembly line in 1989.

The 33 that remain are a far cry from the original design.

Wilson: The u-2 is not your father's oldsmobile.

The u-2 is a very sophisticated reconnaissance system.

They've been re-engined.

They have the most sophisticated array of sensors known to man.

Narrator: The pentagon has reported plans

To retire the u-2 by 2019 making way for the global hawk.

But the smart money is on the u-2 remaining in the fleet

For many years to come.

Grant: There are pros and cons to each,

But what the air force has realized

Is that it needs both systems.

♪ ♪

Narrator: The u-2: For over sixty years it's flown high,

Uncovering enemy secrets in an ever-changing world.

Olesen: Ever since the cold war, the u-2's been there to get that

Critical national intelligence in a timely fashion.

Narrator: It's become one of the most reliable

Reconnaissance platforms in the skies today,

Flying nearly 17,000 hours a year.

Grant: The u-2 is now flying twice as many hours

As it was 20 years ago.

It's never been more in demand.

Narrator: Demanding the very best

From some of the world's most experienced pilots.

Wilson: Every aspect from taxiing, to take off,

To conducting the mission,

And bringing it in for a landing is tough.

♪ ♪

Narrator: Whenever threats arise abroad,

Or troops need guidance from above,

The u-2 is their spy in the sky.