Early 60s, France joined the club of the great nuclear powers. This program, set up in the greatest secrecy since 1957, did not fail to attract the attention of the US gouvernment, which sought to pierce the secret of the French bomb.
Initially confined to the depths of the Sahara, the tests continued from 1965 onwards in Polynesia, a godsend for the American government which decided to set up an incredible high-altitude espionage mission.
At that time, a handful of CIA U-2s were modified to the U-2G standard, by reinforcing the landing gear and adding a landing hook, to enable them to operate from an aircraft carrier.
A test campaign was conducted at the end of 1963, which revealed that the exercise was extremely dangerous and many attempts failed.
Despite the high risk of accident, the decision was taken in May 1964 to launch the "Fish-Hawk" mission with the objective of reconnaissance of the construction site of the future French test zone on Mururoa atoll.
The USS Ranger was designated to carry out this mission, it left Hawaii at the beginning of May 1964 with an escort reduced to a minimum and on board two U-2Gs kept below decks in the greatest secrecy. Only half of the crew was on board. During all the operation the bridge is forbidden to all the crew members to avoid the leaks.
After a week of navigation to avoid detection, the USS Ranger was positioned 800 miles off French Polynesia. The weather conditions were good on May 19, 1964, during an 8-hour window, calm wind allowing to recover the plane and no clouds between the ground and 70 000 ft.
Only the pilot, the members of the CIA, and a restricted personnel are authorized to see the aircraft. All other crew members must remain below deck. Photographs of the U-2 are forbidden.
The mission was a complete success, taking pictures of the French military test site without being detected, the U-2 landed safely after more than 8 hours of flight. The images taken were sent directly to Rochester, New York for analysis.
The pilots have been qualified on aircraft carriers for almost 10 years. To date, this is the only known operational carrier-based U-2 surveillance mission.
This information was declassified by the U.S. Navy and CIA in 2003, although significant portions of the CIA documentation remain undisclosed.