*DATE: July 1, 1947      TIME:                             CLASS: R/ ground radar

LOCATION:                  SOURCES: AIR 203

Hokkaido                         AF Intel Reports

Japan                               ADC "Air Intelligence Reports"

EVALUATIONS: Project SIGN - unknown

                                Air Intelligence Division, HQ USAF Intel/Office of Naval Intelligence--unknown/Soviet aircraft,

                                Defensive Air Branch, Air Intel Div, HQ USAF Intel - Possible Soviet photographic mission

                                FEAF - Soviet Aircraft

Case Added: Aldrich

Web Reference: AIR 203

page 15

 A a.   On 1 July 1947, a GCA radar at Hacked, Japan picked up an unidentified target at 16 miles, with a speed in excess of 500 mph. This target split into two targets, each estimated to be larger than a P-51.@

INITIAL SUMMARY: Extract from 8 August 1947 MEMORANDUM FOR THE COMMANDING GENERAL, ARMY AIR FORCES from Major General George McDonald, Assistant Chief of Air Staff-2 [Intelligence], Subject: Top Secret Supplement to Daily Activity Report - ACAS-2.  TS Control # 2-258,

(TS) II.  ITEM OF CURRENT INTELLIGENCE INTEREST

               The following information from the Far East Command Teletype Conference, 7 August 1947, is supplementary to a previous item of interest. On 1 July 1947 a GCA operator at Chitose AAB, Hacked, reported that a target traveling at a speed in excess of 600 mph was observed and further that the target made four turns on the scope.  The radius of the turns was one and one-half miles.  The Target heading when contacted was 100 degrees at range of 16 miles north of Chitose AAB.  The target made a 180 degree turn to a heading of 0 (zero) degrees and remained on this heading to a range of 28 miles.  At this point the target turned to the left to a heading of 240 degrees and traveled for a distance of 6 miles.  It then made a 180 degree turn to a heading of 60 degrees.  On this 60 degree heading the target returned to its original point 28 miles north of the Chitose base turned to a heading of 0 (zero) degrees and traveled out of range.

(Evaluation: A-1; Completely reliable - Confirmed by other sources.)

          A-2 COMMENT: This observation of target maneuvers establishes with certainly that the target is not a weather      or other natural phenomenon as we now know natural phenomena.  The only objects that could fit the observed facts      are aircraft.

(Maj Farrier -- Ext 71095)

Extract from AAir Intelligence Reports@ for January 1948, the publication of the Air Defense Command, page A7 of E@:

        [Far East Air Force (FEAF) comment:] A....A radar sighting of an unidentified high speed target was made by the       GCA station at Chitose AAB on 1 July 1947.

         AIf assessment of this sighting [Fukuoka 26 August 1947] as a possible Soviet jet aircraft is correct the location of        the sighting would make North Korea its most logical base.  The only report received which might indicate the basing       of Soviet high speed aircraft in North Korea is an F-3 report of a new type Soviet aircraft observed at Haeju airfield.          In the case of the Chitose sighting, southern Sakhalin was considered to be the target=s most logical base.@

NOTES:   The Defensive Air Branch, Air Intelligence Division, HQ USAF Intelligence in Memorandum for the Assistant Chief of Staff  - 2, Subject: Radar Pick-ups of High Speed Targets in the Far East, dated 26 September 1947 concluded that this sighting might be Soviet aircraft on a photographic mission.