Mission Possible - Covert Strobe

Mission Possible - Covert Strobe is my latest article in a series of post delving into the speculative black-ops world of weather modification.

Any weather modification program worth the time, and money expended on its development would need to justify the expenditure upon it.

Making any such program a mulitasking work horse would be a sensible goal from both a practical, and economic standpoint.

Superimposing an intelligence gathering role upon a weather modification program would seems likely.

In my latest weather modification related article, Turning Day Into Night One Second A Time I mention the use of strobe lights deployed upon air recon missions during world war two.

During nightime air-recon missions these intensely bright photo-strobes (super-strobes) replaced phosphorus flares (but not entirely).

Flares were attached to parachutes and tossed out of aircraft prior to allied bombing missions. The flares allowed nighttime photography of targets during the target selection phase of bombing missions.

Such flares are still used to illuminate ground areas as they are difficult to shoot down, and can drift over specific areas of interest for up to a half hour. As we'll soon see once a technology has proven itself useful in intelligence collection it is rarely eliminated from an arsenal - even if it is little known of, or rarely if ever mentioned.

As world war two came to an end the U.S. rapidly shifted it's focus on fighting the Cold War. Before the development of ICBMs allied bombers played the critical role as the means of delivering nuclear bombs upon the Soviet Union.

The team which developed super-strobes during World War II also played an important role in the development of the Atomic Bomb. Super-strobes have remained classified along with any other important intelligence gathering technology, and methodology in the U.S. spy arsenal.

Whatever became of these powerful strobes? Did their development, and deployment end shortly after World War II, or perhaps with the deminishing role of strategic bombers during the Cold War?

Obviously any aircraft in the midst of a clear sky deploying (i.e., flashing) a super bright super-strobe would readily identify its position thus making use of such a device impractical (or it would seem).

If super-strobes remain in the U.S. spy arsenal then in what capacity?

What possible air-recon role could the super-strobe find in the current era of look down radar, and infra-red imaging?

Is there any way to hide a super bright flash of light? And if there is, what advantage could doing so lend to the collection of intelligence?

I'll attempt to answer those questions in my coming article,

Lightning or Super-Strobe?