Titanium procurement during the Cold War was so vital to the US’ goal of defeating the Soviet Union that it had to secretly buy the metal from the very country it sought to vanquish.
It was 1960 and Washington needed spy planes that could avoid detection in Soviet airspace by flying at extremely high altitudes.
To make what would become the vaunted SR-71 Blackbird, Lockheed knew it had to build a light plane, but one that was strong enough to hold extra fuel to give it expansive range. The only metal that would do the job was titanium. The only place to get titanium in the needed quantities was the Soviet Union.
The US worked through Third World countries and fake companies and finally was able to ship the rutile ore to the US to build the SR-71.
The US worked through Third World countries and fake companies and finally was able to ship the rutile ore to the US to build the SR-71.
One of the bogus operations mentioned titanium because they needed it for pizza ovens. And Russians easily believed that the US needed titanium for thousands of pizza ovens.
https://theaviationgeekclub.com/in-the-early-1960s-soviet-union-sold-titanium-to-the-us-believing-they-needed-it-for-pizza-ovens-but-instead-they-used-it-to-build-the-iconic-sr-71-blackbird-mach-3-spy-plane/
The fastest pizza oven ever made.
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