Flashes in the Dark Volume 2: USAF Nuclear Espionage in Argentina, 1960-1966

Flashes in the Dark explores one of the least known aspects of Cold War military history: the secret aerial missions carried out in Argentina by the United States Air Force. Leveraging over twenty years of research across archives, photographs, and eyewitness accounts, the series reveals how, under the guise of meteorological and scientific work, the USAF conducted clandestine operations on Argentine soil and in its airspace—often without the knowledge of local authorities.

Flashes in the Dark Volume 2 continues the story of the US nuclear espionage operations mounted from Argentina, beginning with the intensification of Lockheed WU-2A and Martin NB-57B missions from Ezeiza Airport, outside Buenos Aires, in 1960. Tasked with capturing samples of radioactive particles from the atmosphere, these reconnaissance aircraft provided vital intelligence on the progress of French and Soviet nuclear tests.

Later, Volume 2 charts the establishment of a permanent US reconnaissance detachment at El Plumerillo Airport in Mendoza in 1966, heralding the arrival of the highly modified Martin/General Dynamics RB-57F to Argentina. Nicknamed ‘tired ducks’ by onlooking Argentine Air Force personnel, these remarkable aircraft and their crews flew constant missions surveilling the French tests in the South Pacific, braving fallout and the hazards of stratospheric flying. Along the way, Volume 2 also covers the wider regional context of the Cold War, including Argentina’s involvement in the Cuban Missile Crisis, as well as the peculiar events of the Transtage incident.

Drawing on extensive research, author Gustavo Marón pieces together the notes of an extraordinary symphony performed for fifteen years in Argentina—without anyone being able to hear it.