American U-2, Cold War Era Spy Plane Flies Last Optical Bar Camera Mission

The U.S. Air Force’s high-altitude, all-weather reconnaissance aircraft, the U-2 Dragon Lady, recently flew Beale Air Force Base’s last Optical Bar Camera (OBC) mission.

The OBC mission, which captures daylight acquisition of high-altitude photographs, will transition to forward operating locations supported by the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency. This move allows processors to consolidate film closer to mission-required reconnaissance collection.

“This event closes a decades-long chapter for Beale AFB and film processing, and it opens another chapter into the digital world,” said Adam Marigliani, Collins Aerospace engineering support specialist.

Collins Aerospace works alongside Beale AFB’s 9th Intelligence Squadron to download OBC imagery from global U-2 missions in support of Air Force objectives.

The OBC mission operated out of Beale AFB for close to 52 years, with the first U-2 OBC deploying from Beale AFB in 1974. Pulled from the SR-71, the OBC was modified and flight-tested to support the U-2 platform, replacing the long-standing IRIS sensor. While the IRIS’s 24-inch focal length provided widespread coverage, the OBC’s 30-inch focal length allowed for significantly greater resolution.

The OBC deployed to support various missions, including Hurricane Katrina relief, the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station incident, as well as operations Enduring Freedom, Iraqi Freedom, and Combined Joint Task Force Horn of Africa.

When operating over Afghanistan, the U-2 imaged the entire country every 90 days and units across the Department of Defense used the OBC’s imagery to plan operations.