FOIA Microwaves: Declassified Microwave & SIGINT Documents
Synopsis
Declassified NSA, CIA and Army FOIA releases on microwave weaponry, radio-frequency technology, SIGINT/COMINT history and non-lethal weapons — 47 documents with page-by-page viewers.
FOIAmicrowave weaponsdirected energyNSACIASIGINTCOMINTdeclassified documentsnon-lethal weaponsCryptologcommunications securityradio intelligence
Documents on microwave weaponry for US government history — declassified NSA/CSS, CIA and Army releases obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, gathered here in one reading room. The set runs from the Radio Laws of the United States and the Communications Act of 1934 through Army Security Agency annual histories, the German radio-intelligence studies of Albert Praun, NSA's Cryptolog and The Next Wave journals, Sigint technical primers on antennas and the radio-frequency spectrum, British–US communications-security conferences, a Ford Library memo on Soviet interception of Washington microwave links, a 1976 press clipping on the Soviet microwave bombardment of the U.S. Embassy in Moscow, and the Army's Bioeffects of Selected Non-Lethal Weapons.
Every document below opens in its own page-by-page viewer, with the raw PDF one click away. The collection began with the NSA/CSS FOIA reading-room search that the original page linked:
Featured document
The document the original page opened with: the 1972 compilation of the Radio Laws of the United States, released by NSA in 2015.
Document library
Covers of ten documents from the collection — click any cover to open its viewer.
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All 47 documents from the original list that are archived on this site, in the order the original page listed them. Titles come from the old page's link text where it gave one, otherwise from each document's own cover page.
| Document | Title / subject | Pages | Viewer | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 41786959082600 | Radio Laws of the United States — 1972 edition, compiled by Gilman G. Udell, U.S. Government Printing Office (NSA release, 2015) | 173 | Open viewer | |
| TNW-17-1 | The Next Wave, Vol. 17 No. 1 (2008) — NSA's review of emerging technologies: telephone security, veiled biometrics, format wars in recording history | 32 | Open viewer | |
| 41748999078819 | German Radio Intelligence, by Albert Praun (former Lt. Gen.) — Dept. of the Army, Office of the Chief of Military History, MS No. P-038; includes NSA memo and comments on the report | 294 | Open viewer | |
| 41753169079241 | Mechanization in Support of COMINT — Phase II, October 1954 | 186 | Open viewer | |
| 41748549078781 | German Radio Intelligence, by Albert Praun — abridged copy of MS No. P-038 (a secret version, slightly expanded, exists under the same title) | 267 | Open viewer | |
| cryptolog_73 | Cryptolog, Vol. IX No. 10, October 1982 | 32 | Open viewer | |
| asa-and-subordinate-units-history-1962 | U.S. Army Security Agency — Annual Historical Summary, Fiscal Year 1962 (ASA and subordinate units) | 61 | Open viewer | |
| nara_release_listing_may2011 | Listing of NSA documents released to NARA, 2011 (accession titles) | 10 | Open viewer | |
| national-cryptologic-museum-library-catalog | National Cryptologic Museum — library catalog | 726 | Open viewer | |
| TNW-20-1 | The Next Wave, Vol. 20 No. 1 — 20th anniversary issue: 20 years of emerging technology, what's next? | 36 | Open viewer | |
| cryptolog_72 | Cryptolog, Vol. IX No. 9, September 1982 | 32 | Open viewer | |
| 41712139075147 | The Potentialities of COMINT for Strategic Warning — the Robertson Report | 84 | Open viewer | |
| Bioeffects_of_Selected_Non-Lethal_Weapons | Bioeffects of Selected Non-Lethal Weapons — U.S. Army Intelligence and Security Command FOIA release, December 2006 | 20 | Open viewer | |
| 41718449075776 | Air Intelligence Estimate — Directorate of Intelligence, Headquarters United States Air Force | 93 | Open viewer | |
| cryptolog_120 | Cryptolog, Vol. XVIII, 1991 1st issue — "Joint: the future of intelligence?", "The Digital Dragon" | 36 | Open viewer | |
| new-concept-computing | A new concept in computing — explanatory paper on von Neumann's 1954 computing-scheme patent | 10 | Open viewer | |
| cryptolog_82 | Cryptolog, Vol. X No. 9, September 1983 | 32 | Open viewer | |
| sigint_tech_III | Sigint Technical Primer III — the radio-frequency spectrum and communications modes | 4 | Open viewer | |
| cryptolog_57 | Cryptolog, Vol. VI No. 10, October 1979 | 23 | Open viewer | |
| NSA-OH-31-80-sheck | NSA oral history OH-31-80 — Eugene Sheck, K Group staff officer during the 1967 USS Liberty incident (interviewed 11 August 1980) | 65 | Open viewer | |
| 19740815_1970_Doc_FordLibrary_Memo | Ford Library memo, NSDM 266 — Soviet interception of U.S. government telephone conversations carried on Washington-area microwave links | 15 | Open viewer | |
| 41774259081336 | CIFAX cipher-facsimile equipment table, LCS (53)/N/R — function, crypto principle and development or production status of AFSAX and Mountebank systems | 79 | Open viewer | |
| cryptolog_83 | Cryptolog, Vol. X No. 10, October 1983 — crisis management; Soviet military goals and arms-limitation negotiations; Telecom 83 | 24 | Open viewer | |
| 41758849079797 | "Second Period" lecture — "Don't learn your COMSEC laws by accident" | 47 | Open viewer | |
| 41757009079614 | Report to the British and U.S. Chiefs of Staff by the British/U.S. Communication Security Exploratory Conference — combined assault codes, tactical systems, merchant-ship telegraphic systems | 14 | Open viewer | |
| Eugene_Fubini | Eugene G. Fubini — obituary notice for the physicist and Defense Department official who shaped NSA operations | 2 | Open viewer | |
| major_comsec_challenge | A Major COMSEC Challenge: Secure Voice | 5 | Open viewer | |
| cryptolog_97 | Cryptolog, Vol. XII Nos. 6–8 — NSA's initiative on secure voice telephone | 16 | Open viewer | |
| asa-1961 | U.S. Army Security Agency — Annual Historical Summary, Fiscal Year 1961 | 52 | Open viewer | |
| sigint_tech_I | Sigint Technical Primer I — Antennas: how they work and what the different types can do (Jacob Gurin) | 7 | Open viewer | |
| 41750639078982 | RADAC R/PR 2 — report by the Research and Development Advisory Council to the Director, NSA, and the Director's decision of 19 July 1955 | 6 | Open viewer | |
| 41756329079550 | British–United States Communications Security Conference, October 1950 — minutes and reports | 187 | Open viewer | |
| cryptolog_74 | Cryptolog, Vol. IX No. 11, November 1982 — Central Research and the paper blob; COMSEC challenges | 32 | Open viewer | |
| 42293539133200 | Cryptologia, "a quarterly journal devoted to all aspects of cryptology" — extract reviewing books on the NSA and WWII codebreaking | 4 | Open viewer | |
| TNW-20-2 | The Next Wave, Vol. 20 No. 2 — beyond digital: the future of advanced computing (Roadrunner, Graph500) | 46 | Open viewer | |
| cryptolog_107 | Cryptolog, 1987 2nd issue | 36 | Open viewer | |
| dining_at_nsa | Cryptologic Almanac 50th Anniversary Series — "Dining at NSA" | 5 | Open viewer | |
| 41707059074637 | Army Security Agency report on the 1947 IRE National Convention — radar, FM reception, television, electronic digital computers, pulse-time communication | 8 | Open viewer | |
| cryptolog_65 | Cryptolog, Vol. IX No. 1, January 1982 — HF: the rebirth; video encryption (EASCON 81) | 31 | Open viewer | |
| limits_forecasting | Dealing with the Future: The Limits of Forecasting | 19 | Open viewer | |
| TNW-21-3 | The Next Wave, Vol. 21 No. 3 (2017) — mobile telecommunications technology | 28 | Open viewer | |
| 41774489081357 | Memorandum for members of the U.S. delegation, UK/US COMSEC Conference, September 1953 — UK paper on the status of UK cryptographic equipment | 13 | Open viewer | |
| nsa-technology-transfer-program | NSA Technology Transfer Program — NSA Patent Portfolio, Office of Research & Technology Applications | 51 | Open viewer | |
| CIA-RDP88B01125R000300120041-6 | CIA reading-room clipping, Washington Star, 22 November 1976 — "Soviets Study Microwaves as Weapon": Soviet microwave bombardment of the U.S. Embassy in Moscow | 1 | Open viewer | |
| 41758709079784 | "Third Period" lecture slides, 26 April 1960 — history of cipher devices from the Alberti disk to Wheatstone and Bazeries | 45 | Open viewer | |
| sherman-the-first-americans | The First Americans: The 1941 US Codebreaking Mission to Bletchley Park — David J. Sherman, Center for Cryptologic History Special Series Vol. 12 (2016) | 64 | Open viewer | |
| 41786769082578 | The Communications Act of 1934 with amendments and index thereto — recapped to January 1969 | 174 | Open viewer |
Not yet archived locally
These links from the original list are not yet in the local archive; they point to the Wayback Machine copies of the original files.
- lightning — archived copy of the original link
- nsa-oh-1994-32-moody — archived copy of the original link
- work_against_tide — archived copy of the original link
- Communications_Security — archived copy of the original link
- 19760405_1970_Doc_FordLibrary_Memo — archived copy of the original link
- Doc31 — archived copy of the original link
Browse the full FOIA gallery, including releases not on the original list: /pdfs/FIOA/
References
- NSA/CSS FOIA search: "microwave" — search.usa.gov
- Original page: dailydialectics.com/FOIA/FOIA_microwave.php — Wayback Machine, 27 July 2023
- FOIA document gallery on this site
Related: EMF Studies · Microwaves & Viruses · Surface Wave Military Tech
