Project Dark Gene

Project Dark Gene
Part of Cold War
Date 1960s-1970s Location Iran, Soviet Union Result Assumed discovery of useable intelligence, then superseded and made redundant by the Iranian Revolution.
Belligerents
United States Imperial State of Iran  Saudi Arabia	Soviet Union
Commanders and leaders
Richard Secord Mohammad Reza Pahlavi King Khalid	Nikita Krushchev Leonid Brezhnev Pavel S. Kutakhov
Casualties and losses
USA & Iran IIAF Major Shokouhnia and USAF Colonel John Saunders captured and later released 1 RF-4C, 1 RF-5B, 2 CH-47 confirmed In total, 6 aircraft possibly lost	USSR Captain Gennadii N. Eliseev killed 1 MiG-21

USA & Iran

USSR

Project Dark Gene was an aerial reconnaissance program run by the Central Intelligence Agency and Imperial Iranian Air Force from bases inside Iran against the Soviet Union. The program was run in conjunction with Project Ibex, which was a more traditional ELINT mission. The first operations were during the 1960s with support of Iran's former Shah. Dedicated aircraft, air-bases, and U.S. personnel were stationed at numerous sites in Iran and would regularly fly across the border into the USSR through potential holes in their radar coverage. The intention of the program was to test the effectiveness of Soviet air defence and interception and resulted in one confirmed and possibly more combat losses in engagements with Soviet aircraft.

Direct confrontation between the USA and USSR was occurring or brewing in places like Indochina. Confrontation was usually limited to proxy wars often involving the use of advisers, trainers, and other specialised personnel of the proxy states. After the Korean War the USA undertook a series of direct reconnaissance flights over the Soviet Union, some at the time secret and highly successful and others that resulted in shootdowns and tense diplomacy such as the 1960 U-2 incident. In order to continue gathering intelligence the USA needed to develop more and more sophisticated methods as the Soviet Defence became more advanced. Developments like the SR-71 Blackbird and satellites were fueled by this.

The Shah of Iran, a U.S. ally who had come to power with help from the Central Intelligence Agency, offered to fund military intelligence operations against the USSR as part of the Cold War. The Shah feared the Soviet Union, in particular their relationship with neighbouring rival Iraq. The CIA, Rockwell International, and Iranian businessman Albert Hakim (later involved in the Iran Contra Affair) paid bribes to senior members of the Shah's government and defence establishment to get the funding.

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