Best Defense

Thomas E. Ricks' daily take on national security.

Things I didn’t know: U.S.-Soviet Cold War shenanigans in Finnish airspace

Two things I learned from one article in the new issue of the Journal of Military History

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Best Defense is in summer re-runs. This item originally appeared on January 13, 2015.

Best Defense is in summer re-runs. This item originally appeared on January 13, 2015.

Two things I learned from one article in the new issue of the Journal of Military History:

–In May 1954, Soviet MiGs and two U.S. RB-47s exchanged fire over Finland. (The B-47 had a 20mm cannon in its tail.)

–In 1968, the CIA planned to fly an A-12 Oxcart through Finnish airspace on a flight plan straight for Leningrad, going nearly 2,000 miles an hour at 78,500 feet. The aircraft would turn before entering Soviet airspace. This was of course a test of Soviet air defenses. It also seems like a good way to start a world war. The article says it isn’t clear if the flight ever took place.

U.S. Air Force

Thomas E. Ricks covered the U.S. military from 1991 to 2008 for the Wall Street Journal and then the Washington Post. He can be reached at ricksblogcomment@gmail.com. Twitter: @tomricks1

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