Trust But Verify ...

rk wrote:

The Buran had been detected only by chance; the Soviets did not realize
the KH-11 was a reconnaissance satellite. Whenever a KH-9 satellite had
overflown the test center where the Buran was being built, activities had
been suspended and the Buran covered by netting ...


I sort of doubt that they wouldn't know that KH-11 was a recon sat, both
it's orbital path and altitude would have differentiated it from a
ferret satellite, plus they would have taken photos of it in orbit, and
it would have looked different from a SIGINT or RORSAT.


Clearly Buran was not a copy of the US Shuttle.

You are joking, aren't you? Even they finally admitted they had ripped
the shuttle off in the same way they ripped the B-29 off as the Tu-4,
though Buran wasn't as exact of a coy as the Tu-4 was.
Speaking of Soviet copies, the Su-25 "Frogfoot" ground attack aircraft:
http://avia.russian.ee/pictures/russia/su-25.gif
...and the Northrop A-9, the competition to the A-10:
http://avia.russian.ee/pictures/usa/northrop_a-9.gif
As to other Soviet/Russian copies, ever see something that looks like
this before?:
http://207.151.154.167/catalog/image...8/12155757.jpg
http://207.151.154.167/catalog/image...8/12155808.jpg
http://207.151.154.167/catalog/image...8/12155821.jpg
This is the Myasishchev M-67 LK-M high altitude recon plane design;
given this and the A-9, I'd say that Northrop had a mole or two on its
payroll.

So I am curious about the
rest of the book and perhaps a good topic for some, er, discussion.

That would be one way to put it. :-)

Pat