Editing Lockheed U-2 (section)

===United Kingdom===
Bissell suggested bringing the British into the program to increase the number of overflights. Prime Minister [[Harold Macmillan]] agreed with the plan, and four RAF officers were sent to Laughlin Air Force Base in Texas for training in May 1958. On 8 July, the senior British pilot, [[Squadron Leader]] Christopher H. Walker, was killed when his U-2 malfunctioned and crashed near Wayside, Texas. This was the first death involving the U-2, and the circumstances were not disclosed for over 50 years. Another pilot was quickly selected and sent to replace Walker. After training, the group of RAF U-2 pilots arrived in Turkey in November 1958, shortly after the CIA's Detachment B from Adana provided valuable intelligence during the [[1958 Lebanon crisis]] with both the United States and United Kingdom involvement. Since the September 1956 disclosure of Mediterranean photographs, the United Kingdom had received U-2 intelligence, except during the Suez Crisis. The CIA and Eisenhower viewed using British pilots as a way of increasing [[plausible deniability]] for the flights. The CIA also saw British participation as a way of obtaining additional Soviet overflights that the president would not authorize. The United Kingdom gained the ability to target flights toward areas of the world the United States was less interested in, and possibly avoid another Suez-like interruption of U-2 photographs.<ref name="lashmar19970126"/>{{sfn|Pedlow|Welzenbach|1992|pp=152–156, 181}}

Although the RAF unit operated as part of Detachment B, the UK formally received title to the U-2s their pilots would fly, and Eisenhower wrote to Macmillan that because of the separate lines of authority, the nations were conducting "two complementary programs rather than a joint one".{{sfn|Pedlow|Welzenbach|1992|p=156}} A secret [[Secret Intelligence Service|MI6]] bank account paid the RAF pilots, whose cover was employment with the [[Meteorological Office]]. While most British flights occurred over the Middle East during the two years the UK program existed, two missions over Soviet sites were very successful.{{r|lashmar19970126}} The first targeted two missile test ranges, three nuclear complexes, and a large segment of railway in one of the test range areas. Operational ballistic missile sites were considered most likely close to railways but none were found.{{sfn|Brugioni|2010|pp=343, 378}} A second flight had as its main target the long-range bomber airfield at Saratov/Engels. The number of [[Myasishchev M-4|Bison]] long-range aircraft counted on the airfield settled the "[[bomber gap]]" controversy. Other targets were a missile test center and aircraft, aircraft engine and missile production plants. A new bomber with two engines at the base of the fin, the [[Tupolev Tu-22]], was discovered at one of the aircraft plants.{{sfn|Brugioni|2010|p=344}} Like Eisenhower, Macmillan personally approved the Soviet overflights.<ref name="lashmar19970126"/> The British direct involvement in overflights ended after the May 1960 U-2 downing incident; although four pilots remained stationed in California until 1974, the CIA's official history of the program stated that "RAF pilots never again conducted another overflight in an Agency U-2."{{sfn|Pedlow|Welzenbach|1992|pp=156–157, 181}} In 1960 and 1961 the first four pilots received the [[Air Force Cross (United Kingdom)|Air Force Cross]], but their U-2 experience remained secret.<ref name="lashmar19970126"/>