Soviet SS-9 testing and expanding anti-ballistic missile fields in the late 1960s prompted United States Air Force intelligence to revisit unexplained radar returns clustering above Minuteman silos. Project Physics formed at the Foreign Technology Division, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, to model lift, acceleration, and thermal signatures inconsistent with known aircraft or ballistic trajectories.
Methodology
Analysts merged phased-array radar tracks, balloon calibration data, and NORAD space surveillance catalog entries, then applied entry-vehicle boundary-layer equations to estimate material strength and propulsion requirements. The study concluded that several objects executed maneuvers generating instantaneous accelerations exceeding 30 g without observable plasma envelopes, contradicting conventional re-entry physics.1
Influence on later programs
Project Physics findings circulated to the 1970s Advanced Concepts Division and resurfaced during the 2008 Advanced Aerospace Weapon System Applications Program, informing Defense Intelligence Reference Document topics on inertial mass reduction and magneto-aerodynamic propulsion.
References
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USAF Foreign Technology Division Report FTD-PHYS-70-12, "Anomalous Target Motion Analysis," declassified 2003-05-14. ↩