In the fifties of the last century, against the backdrop of the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union, in the face of the Soviet Union's escalation of various secrecy measures, the United States urgently needed to open up new ways of intelligence gathering.
For this reason, the US Air Force held that high-altitude reconnaissance planes were the most secure and economical plan at that time; on the one hand, high-altitude reconnaissance planes had enough power and space to carry all kinds of reconnaissance equipment; On the other hand, reconnaissance planes flying at an altitude of more than 20,000 meters could easily evade the cruising of Soviet fighters.
In the end, the design of the Lockheed Weasel plant won the project. At the end of 1954, the project was officially designated U-2, and the U.S. Air Force signed an order for up to 50 U-2s at one time.
In the middle of 1955, the No. 1 U-2 officially flew test, and the subsequent U-2 flew in the British Lykenheath, which also attracted a lot of international attention.
But in the end, the US Air Force slapped itself in the face with real actions. In 1956, the U-2 reconnaissance aircraft carried out its first "actual combat operation", in the face of the Soviet Union's powerful air defense network and secrecy measures, the U-2 failed to invade the Soviet airspace as expected, but also carried out a comprehensive reconnaissance of the Soviet Union's periphery, this operation can be said to be "half successful".
A month later, the U-2 successfully invaded Soviet airspace, from Berlin, Germany, through Leningrad and back to the base in West Germany, the whole reconnaissance process lasted more than 8 hours, and since then, the U-2 has become a sharp weapon for the US Air Force to "hang out" in the airspace of other countries.
In fact, the Soviet air defense network at that time found traces of the U-2 reconnaissance aircraft several times, but its fighters and missiles were limited by range and flight altitude, and could not pose a substantial threat to the U-2 at all, and the MiG-17 fighter at that time had a maximum flight altitude of no more than 130,000 meters, while the U-2 flies at an altitude of more than 20,000 meters, or even higher.
At that time, in addition to the Soviet Union, Poland, Hungary, Germany and even China were all countries that the United States U-2 "cared for", but with the development of air defense, the U-2 eventually stepped down from the altar.
In October 1960, the Soviet Union used SAM missiles to shoot down a U-2 reconnaissance plane for the first time, and in 1962, a unit of the Chinese People's Liberation Army also successfully shot down a U-2.
The drama is that from here it was out of control, and the Chinese People's Liberation Army shot down a total of 5 U-2s from 1962 to 1967, becoming the country with the most U-2 shootdowns in the world and becoming a real "U-2 nemesis".
During the more than 60 years of service of the U-2, there were also many improved models, the U-2B was in a "frozen" state, the U-2C was replaced with a new engine, and the minimum flight altitude exceeded 230,000 meters, U-2CT D is a two-seat fighter, U-2G is a carrier-based version, etc.
It can be said that the U-2 family is still one of the main forces of high-altitude reconnaissance in the United States, but with the upgrading of the air defense network and the emergence of "fifth-generation aircraft".The U-2's deterrent effect is decliningIn small-scale asymmetric warfare, it can also play a more critical reconnaissance role.
In addition, the self-defense capability of the U-2 itself is relatively simple, relying almost entirely on its on-board electronic countermeasures system, once the electronic countermeasures fail, it almost means that the U-2 will be shot down; With the current investment in electronic warfare, the self-defense capability of the U-2 seems to be gradually becoming a problem.