Everyone loves the gadgets and technology in spy movies, but what is it like to work with real TECHINT? How do you develop equipment and techniques that aren’t even supposed to exist? In this series, distinguished experts and notable former intelligence personnel will introduce you to some of the coolest uses of technology for intelligence purposes that can be revealed.
When the CIA attempted to recover a Soviet sub from the floor of the North Pacific Ocean in 1974, David Sharp was there. As a CIA officer, he was personally involved in both the development and the operation of the recovery system created to raise the Soviet ballistic missile submarine K-129. Sharp, author of The CIA’s Greatest Covert Operation: Inside the Daring Mission to Recover a Nuclear-Armed Soviet Sub, will share his story and will give you an insider’s perspective on the advanced technology required to attempt such an audacious project. He'll also discuss the complex cover story under which the CIA disguised the entire recovery program as a commercial ocean mining venture under the ostensible sponsorship of the famous Howard Hughes with his ship, the Hughes Glomar Explorer.
S. Eugene Poteat, retired senior CIA Scientific Intelligence Officer, and current President of the Association of Former Intelligence Officers, helped develop and launch some of the most incredible technology of the Cold War. He’ll brief you on the history of the U-2, A-12 OXCART, and SR-71 aircraft; stealth; past, current, and future drones; and the roles of these craft in past crises, such as the Missile and Bomber Gap, Berlin Crisis, Cuban Missile Crisis, and the current struggle against terrorism. Poteat received the CIA's Medal of Merit and the National Reconnaissance Office's Meritorious Civilian Award for his technological innovations.
How can you plan humanitarian assistance projects, disaster relief, or pinpoint an enemy—perhaps in Abbottabad—from great distances with as few surprises as possible? Geospatial intelligence. GEOINT is the combined use of imagery, imagery intelligence, and geospatial information to give the clearest possible picture of an area - including its “human terrain” - before boots hit the ground. Keith J. Masback, President of the United States Geospatial Intelligence Foundation, will explain the basics of this relatively new category of intel, and he will discuss the general techniques that could be used in varying missions, from responding to natural and man-made disasters, to watching suspected nuclear sites, to tracking down high value targets like Osama bin Laden.
In collaboration with the Smithsonian Resident Associate Program.