Reading Room

MK-CHIRON

CONTROL: SPECIAL GROUP ONLY

19 April 1956

SUBJECT: Progress Report for the Period Ending 31 March 1956

TO: The Special Group of the National Security Council, Through

The undersigned forwards the present report in accordance with the standing direction that the Director of MK-CHIRON render an account of the program’s progress at intervals to be determined by this Office. The present report is the second such rendered since the constitution of the program, the first having been the brief verbal account given at the meeting of 14 December 1955.

The undersigned will, in the present report, address four matters: the state of the apparatus and the technical work; the operational use to which the apparatus has been put; the security of the program; and the contemplated activity of the period to come. The report is brief in deference to the standing instruction that matters of detail be reserved for verbal exposition.

THE APPARATUS AND THE TECHNICAL WORK

The apparatus has been the subject of continuous technical investigation throughout the period under report. The technical work has been directed by Dr. Lorenz, of whom this Office has spoken to the Special Group on previous occasions. The work has confirmed the principal findings reported to the Special Group at the December meeting, has extended those findings in certain respects, and has disclosed certain further phenomena of which the Special Group will wish to be apprised.

In summary: the apparatus is now confirmed as operating along two distinct vectors, which the technical group designates as rearward and forward. The rearward vector translates articles to coordinates antecedent to the moment of dispatch. The forward vector translates articles to coordinates subsequent to the moment of dispatch. The two vectors exhibit phenomena which are, in a sense the technical group is at pains to be precise about, inverse to one another. Articles dispatched rearward return degraded. Articles dispatched forward return improved. The improvement is not metaphorical. The articles are physically of a higher specification upon their return than upon their dispatch.

The technical implications of the foregoing are considerable and continue to be the subject of investigation. The strategic implications, in this Office’s judgment, are equally considerable. The undersigned would offer the following preliminary characterizations, which are submitted with the understanding that they exceed the technical evidence presently available.

The forward vector may afford the United States a capability of unprecedented kind in respect of the development of materiel of advanced specification. Articles dispatched forward and returned are, in effect, articles upon which a period of refinement has been performed by an agency this Office is not in a position to characterize. The cost of the refinement, in our terms, is the time the articles spend in transit, which is to say, no cost. The implications for the development of weapons systems, of aircraft, of materials of advanced character, are evident.

The rearward vector continues to afford the United States a capability of action against the agency referred to in the program’s documents and against such other targets as the program may identify. This capability remains the principal operational concern of the program.

THE OPERATIONAL USE TO WHICH THE APPARATUS HAS BEEN PUT

The apparatus has, in the period under report, been employed principally in bench trials of small scale, for the purposes of characterizing its operation along both vectors. Two field trials were conducted in the period preceding the constitution of the program; no field trials have been conducted since. The technical group has recommended, and the undersigned concurs, that a field trial in the forward direction be undertaken in the spring or summer of the present year. The proposed test article is a small aircraft of advanced design, to be obtained through . The proposed displacement is two years forward. The contemplated outcome of the trial is the recovery of the aircraft in such state as the forward refinement will have produced, and the assessment of the result for its implications for the development of follow-on aircraft of substantially advanced specification.

The undersigned wishes to draw the Special Group’s particular attention to the following matter. The forward field trial, if it succeeds upon the terms here described, will produce an aircraft of capabilities exceeding those of any aircraft presently in service in the United States or known to be in development by any foreign power. The undersigned considers that the matter of the disposition of the aircraft, once produced, will require the attention of the Special Group in due course. The aircraft cannot be employed in service without revealing the fact of its existence, and the fact of its existence is a fact this Office considers ought not to be revealed at the present stage of the program’s development.

THE SECURITY OF THE PROGRAM

The compartmentation of the program is presently as established by the directive of 24 October 1955 and the subsequent control arrangements. The program presently comprises personnel read in to its full substance, with a further personnel read in to such partial particulars as their duties require. The undersigned considers the compartmentation adequate to the present stage and proposes no modification.

The cover story applied to the program — that it is concerned with the development of capability against the principal adversary of the United States — has been maintained without disturbance. The undersigned reports that the cover story has, in certain respects, become substantially serviceable in the period under report. The undersigned will say no more upon the matter in writing.

THE CONTEMPLATED ACTIVITY OF THE PERIOD TO COME

The undersigned anticipates that the period from the present date to the end of the calendar year will be principally occupied by the forward field trial referred to above, by such follow-on trials as the result of that trial may suggest, and by such rearward operations as the technical group considers warranted in the light of the developing understanding of the apparatus. The undersigned does not anticipate that field operations in the rearward direction will be conducted at the same tempo as that of the operations of 1955. The technical group has advised that the rearward direction is to be addressed with greater caution than was applied to the trials of last year, and the undersigned has accepted that advice.

The undersigned would observe, in closing, that the program has, in the eighteen months since its inception, accomplished work which the undersigned considers to be of historic character. The Special Group will form its own view of the matter upon the basis of the present report and of such verbal exposition as the Special Group may require. The undersigned is at the Special Group’s disposal.

W. SEATON

Director, MK-CHIRON