Details of the Cuban jets case have been obtained and pieced together by CAUS, including a copy of the widely distributed security specialist statement. The specialist was assigned to a unit of the U.S. Air Force Security Service (AFSS), which was the 6947th Security Squadron centered at Homestead air force base just south of Miami.. The squadron mission is to monitor all Cuban Air Force communications and radar transmissions.
One hundred of the squadron's men are assigned to Detachment A. located at Key West Naval Air Station. This forward base against attack from Cuba is on Chica Key a tropical island in the Florida Keys. just east of Key West and about 97 miles from the nearest Cuban coastline, to the south. Several such squadron units are scattered geographically to enable direction-finding equipment to locate fixed or mobile land-based radar sites and communications centers and to plot aircraft movements from flight transmissions.
One day in March, 1967, the Spanish-speaking intercept operators of Detachment A heard Cuban air defense radar controllers report an unidentified "bogey" approaching Cuba from the northeast. When the UFO entered Cuban air space at a height of about 10,000 meters (about 33, 000 feet) and speed of nearly Mach 1 (nearly 660 mph). two MiG-21 jet fighters were scrambled to meet it.
(MiG stands for Soviet aircraft designers Mikoyan and Gurevich. The single-seat MiG-21UM E76 is the standard top-of-the-line fighter supplied to Soviet bloc countries such as Cuba. It is capable of Mach 2.1, or 1)85 mph, in level flight, service ceiling of 59,000 feet, and combat radius of more than 300 miles on internal fuel.)
The jets were guided to wi thin 5 kilometers (3 miles) of the UFO by Cuban ground-controlled intercept radar personnel. The flight leader radioed that the object was a bright metallic sphere with no visible markings or appendages.
When radio contact failed, Cuban Air Derense Headquarters ordered the flight leader to arm his weapons and destroy the object. The leader reported his radar was locked on the bogey and his missiles were armed. (Missiles probably were K-13A air-to-air types designated by NATO.)
Seconds later the wingman screamed to the ground controller that his leader's jet had exploded. When he regained his composure, the wingman radioed there was no smoke or flame, ,that his leader's MiG-21 had disintegrated. Cuban radar then reported the UFO quickly accelerated and climbed above 30,000 meters (above 98,000 reet). At last report it was heading south-southeast towards South America.
An Intelligence Spot Report was sent to NSA headquarters, since AFSS and its units are under NSA operational control. Such reports are standard practice in cases or aircraf't losses by hostile nations. NSA is required to acknowledge receipt or such reports, but the 6947th's Detachment A did not get one; so it sent a follow up report.
Within hours Detachment A received orders to ship all tapes and pertinent data to NSA and to list the Cuban aircraft loss in squadron riles as due to nequipnent malfunction. At least 15 to 20 people in the detachment were said to be fully informed of the incident.
Presumably, the data sent to NSA included direction-finding measurements that NSA might later combine with other sites' data to triangulate the location and altitude or the MiG-21 flight paths. If the AFSS equipment in Florida was sensitive enough, the UFO could have been tracked by its reflection or the Cuban ground and airborne radars.
There has been numerous cases like this but all are classified Top Secret.