Minor correction: When this image was made available to the public (IIRC during a US congressional committee), it was explicitly stated that a NTM "other than the KH-11" had obtained it. This strongly suggests it's a KH-8 photo (KH-9 would be unlikely to image in this detail).
THREAD 🧵: In november 1977, CIA's KH-11 reconnaissance satellite identified a new soviet fighter at Zhukovsky-AB (24 miles southwest of moscow) through satellite imagery.
It was still around the time of its FF (RAM-L prototype) but its size/configuration immediately told western analysts that this was a new generation of soviet fighter in development (a top secret project).
for the 1st time, they were looking at an a/c clearly intended to answer fighters such as the F-16 & F/A-18.