Changes

===Flight of the RC-135===

===Flight of the RC-135===

'''During the early-morning hours of August 31-September 1, a United States Air Force RC-135 Cobra Ball reconnaissance plane was engaged in a mission to gather electronic intelligence, flying a "racetrack" course at sea off the Kamchatka Peninsula. It was tasked with capturing the telemetry of the [[SS-25]] missile, illegal according to [[Salt ll]] agreements, which the Soviets were to launch that night from Plesetsk in north west Russia to come down in the Klyuchi target range on Kamchatka. For hours the Soviets were aware of this flight, having picked it up on radar while in its inward track (i.e. the track closest to the coastline) before it would disappear from the radar on its outward track.  The racetrack course was repeated several times during the night until KAL 007 arrived on the scene, following closely the inward track of the RC-135; since the jumbo jet did not veer off course as the Soviets expected it to do (assuming they thought it was the RC-135), they had an opportunity to intercept it.'''

During the early-morning hours of August 31-September 1, a United States Air Force RC-135 Cobra Ball reconnaissance plane was engaged in a mission to gather electronic intelligence, flying a "racetrack" course at sea off the Kamchatka Peninsula. It was tasked with capturing the telemetry of the [[SS-25]] missile, illegal according to [[Salt ll]] agreements, which the Soviets were to launch that night from Plesetsk in north west Russia to come down in the Klyuchi target range on Kamchatka. For hours the Soviets were aware of this flight, having picked it up on radar while in its inward track (i.e. the track closest to the coastline) before it would disappear from the radar on its outward track.  The racetrack course was repeated several times during the night until KAL 007 arrived on the scene, following closely the inward track of the RC-135; since the jumbo jet did not veer off course as the Soviets expected it to do (assuming they thought it was the RC-135), they had an opportunity to intercept it.

Whether the RC -135, configured as a Cobra Ball, was able to pick up the "chatter" from Soviet command posts and capture the radar stations "lighting up" one after another tracking the "intruder" aircraft, as an RC-135 configured as a Rivet Joint could, has been contested. If it had been able to do so, it would also have known the reason for the heightened Soviet activity, and could have warned its own immediate command -the Strategic Air Command for the flight crew and the National Security Agency for the Electronic specialists (the "Ravens"), Anchorage Air Traffic Control (which would warn KAL 007), and even the President's Office through initiating a "Critic Report". A Critic report is the highest intelligence report that intelligence agencies can issue. Being sent at Flash precedence, it overrides everything else on the net. A ground station would be unable to override the Critic. The Critic reaches its designated receiver within 10 minutes (often less) - thus the disaster would have been be averted (The KAL 007 Massacre, Franz A. Kadell, Western Goals, Virginia, 1985 pg. 107).

Whether the RC -135, configured as a Cobra Ball, was able to pick up the "chatter" from Soviet command posts and capture the radar stations "lighting up" one after another tracking the "intruder" aircraft, as an RC-135 configured as a Rivet Joint could, has been contested. If it had been able to do so, it would also have known the reason for the heightened Soviet activity, and could have warned its own immediate command -the Strategic Air Command for the flight crew and the National Security Agency for the Electronic specialists (the "Ravens"), Anchorage Air Traffic Control (which would warn KAL 007), and even the President's Office through initiating a "Critic Report". A Critic report is the highest intelligence report that intelligence agencies can issue. Being sent at Flash precedence, it overrides everything else on the net. A ground station would be unable to override the Critic. The Critic reaches its designated receiver within 10 minutes (often less) - thus the disaster would have been be averted (The KAL 007 Massacre, Franz A. Kadell, Western Goals, Virginia, 1985 pg. 107).