CIA: Department of the Air Force memorandum on China’s bomber aircraft buildup

Storyflo Declassified — The Untold Cases · Oct 9, 2026 · 1m

Cold open. This is a declassified Department of the Air Force memorandum on China’s bomber aircraft buildup, dated January tenth, nineteen fifty‑three. It appears in the CIA’s public archive of intelligence assessments and is notable for revealing early U.S. concerns about the threat posed by Soviet‑supplied Chinese bombers. Provenance. The document was released through a Freedom of Information Act request to the Central Intelligence Agency, filed under case number twenty‑two‑F‑B‑I‑001. It was made publicly available on the Black Vault website on March twenty‑first, twenty twenty‑two, and the…