Spycraft - Melton [114]
From the first testing, the transmitter and battery components proved both reliable and functional. The microphones required several adjustments, in part because prior to the requirement, magnetic microphones were designed to withstand drop impacts only, a significantly lower stress than a bullet impact. Eventually, the microphones and other components proved consistently durable when the projectile traveled at approximately 500 miles per hour over distances up to 50 yards. The microphones picked up sounds of a portable radio sitting next to the plywood target and transmitted quality audio up to 250 feet.
In the next round of field tests, the “audio bullets” were fired into live trees to simulate an operational scenario. Once fired into the tree, two people seated nearby carried on a conversation at normal voice levels. Surprisingly, audio quality was poor compared to the plywood tests. Analysis showed no damage to the device, but the live tree wood proved different from plywood. Tree fibers when hit by the projectiles formed cones similar to the design of an echo-free anechoic chamber and swallowed up the audio.
Additional analysis determined that if the transmitter’s size was increased, the necessary audio amplification could be attained. This would require, however, a larger bullet, increased firing noise, and a redesign of the weapon itself. The hole in the tree would also become larger and more noticeable. In the end, the DDP judged the value of the potential information insufficient to justify TSD’s cost in time and dollars for additional development and the bullet bug was filed away.
While the project did not result in an audio “silver bullet” to bug the Soviets, technologies for high-reliability miniature microphones did emerge. Based on data obtained from the tests, TSD produced a series of very small microphones that could withstand high impact and high heat stress. This new generation of rugged microphones could endure rough handling, be installed in almost any wet or dry material, and perform at near zero failure rates regardless of where they were buried. Commercially, the research and design effort by the contractor produced shockproof microphones that enabled the size of hearing aids to shrink along with improving the microphones’ performance in varied temperature and high moisture environments.
Animals as well as technology played starring roles in the quest to prove that any target could be “hit.” When CIA operatives sought a means to penetrate the private meetings of an Asian head of state, reports reached Headquarters that during the target’s long strategy sessions with his aides, cats wandered in and out of the meeting area. Feral cats were common to the region and generally ignored. Whether the concept of an “Acoustic kitty” came from a case officer or a tech is lost to memory, but the idea launched a research project that generated unwarranted ridicule and accusations after public disclosure.4
In fact, absent from the Acoustic kitty project were both cruelty and mutated, grotesque creatures from horror movies.5 From the beginning, the techs recognized that the concept, undertaken jointly between OTS and the Office of Research and Development, fell into the high-risk category. At the time, embedding electronics inside animals or people was not a routine medical procedure.
The implant could not affect any of the natural movements of the cat nor could the cat