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Black Projects
Black project is an informal term used to describe a highly classified information, classified, top-secret military or defense project that is not publicly acknowledged by government, military personnel, or contractors. United States and black projects In the United States, the formal term for a black project is an ''unacknowledged special access program'' (''SAP''). Black projects receive their funding from the black budget. The US depends on private defense contractors to develop and build military equipment. The two most notable examples are Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman. The R&D department of Lockheed Martin is commonly referred to as Skunk Works; it is responsible for a number of aircraft designs, highly classified R&D programs, and exotic aircraft platforms. Two well known sites for testing of black projects are Nevada Test Site, the Nevada Test site and Area 51. Previously unacknowledged Below are examples of previously unacknowledged black projects categorized ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
F-117 Nighthawk Front
The Lockheed F-117 Nighthawk is an officially retired American single-seat, subsonic, Twinjet, twin-engined, stealth aircraft, stealth attack aircraft developed by Lockheed Corporation, Lockheed's secretive Skunk Works division and operated by the United States Air Force (USAF). It was the first operational aircraft to be designed with stealth technology. Work on what would become the F-117 commenced in the 1970s as a means of countering increasingly sophisticated Soviet surface-to-air missiles (SAMs). During 1976, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) issued Lockheed a contract to produce the ''Lockheed Have Blue, Have Blue'' technology demonstrator, the test data from which validated the concept. On 1 November 1978, Lockheed decided to proceed with the F-117 development program. Five prototypes were produced; the first of which performed its maiden flight in 1981 at Groom Lake, Nevada. The first production F-117 was delivered in 1982, and its initial operat ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Atlas Carver
The Atlas Carver (sometimes erroneously referred to as "CAVA") was a proposed South African twin-engine, delta wing fourth-generation fighter aircraft. In development during the 1980s and early 1990s, the Carver was ultimately cancelled during 1991. The South African Border War played a considerable role in stimulating the demand for the production of a modern fighter aircraft with which to equip the South African Air Force (SAAF) in the face of increasingly capable opposition. Additionally, South Africa was incapable of importing such aircraft due to a long-standing arms embargo having been placed upon the nation's government bodies by United Nations Security Council Resolution 418. The South African government decided to launch a pair of domestically-conducted programmes, a short-term upgrade programme of the existing fleet of French-built Dassault Mirage III fighters, which became known as the Atlas Cheetah, while a long-term and more extensive effort to design and manufactur ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
K-129
''K-129'' was a Project 629A (, ; NATO reporting name Golf II–class) diesel-electric-powered ballistic-missile submarine that served in the Pacific Fleet of the Soviet Navy. It was one of six Project 629 strategic ballistic-missile submarines assigned to the 15th Submarine Squadron based at Rybachiy Naval Base near Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, commanded by Rear Admiral Rudolf Golosov. The ''K-129''s commander was Captain First Rank Vladimir I. Kobzar, and she carried the hull number 722 on her final deployment, during which she sank on 8 March 1968 along with her missiles and their nuclear warheads. This was one of four mysterious submarine disappearances in 1968, the others being the Israeli submarine , the , and the American nuclear-powered submarine . After nearly two weeks of silence during her patrol in the Pacific Ocean, the Soviet Navy officials became concerned about her status and reportedly deployed large numbers of military aircraft and ships to search for ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hughes Mining Barge
The ''Hughes Mining Barge'', or ''HMB-1'', is a submersible barge about 99 m (324 ft) long, 32 m (106 ft) wide, and more than 27 m (90 ft) tall. The ''HMB-1'' was originally developed as part of Project Azorian (more widely, but erroneously, known as "Project Jennifer"), the top-secret effort mounted by the Central Intelligence Agency to salvage the wreckage of the Soviet submarine ''K-129'' from the ocean floor. The ''HMB-1'' was designed to allow the device that would be used to grasp and lift the submarine to be constructed inside the barge and out of sight, and to be installed in the '' Glomar Explorer'' in secrecy. This was done by towing the ''HMB-1'', with the capture device inside, to a location near Catalina Island (off the coast of California), and then submerging it onto stabilizing piers that had been installed on the seafloor. The ''Glomar Explorer'' was then maneuvered over the ''HMB-1'', the retractable roof was opened, and the capt ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Boeing Bird Of Prey
The Boeing Bird of Prey is an American black project aircraft, intended to demonstrate stealth technology. It was developed by McDonnell Douglas and Boeing in the 1990s."Boeing Unveils Bird of Prey Stealth Technology Demonstrator" . Boeing, October 18, 2002. The company provided $67 million of funding for the project; it was a low-cost program compared to many other programs of similar scale. It developed technology and materials which would later be used on Boeing's Boeing X-45, X-45 unmanned combat air vehicle. As an internal project, this aircraft was not given an X-plane (aircraft), X-plane designation. There are no public plans to make this a production aircraft. It is characterized as a technology demonstrator. Desi ...
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Zircon (satellite)
Zircon was the codename for a British signals intelligence satellite, designed to intercept radio and other signals from the USSR, Europe and other areas. It was intended to be launched in 1988 on a NASA space shuttle. However, the project was cancelled in 1987 because of its cost. Secrecy about the project's cost, hidden from the British Parliament, resulted in the Zircon affair. History During the Cold War, Britain's GCHQ often used the United States National Security Agency (NSA) for communications interception from space. Concern heightened at the time of the 1982 Falklands War. GCHQ requested access to American signals intelligence satellites to assist in monitoring Argentine communications, but reportedly struggled with the NSA to gain appropriate tasking time, despite the special relationship between the two countries. The United States satellites were engaged in monitoring SIGINT traffic elsewhere in South America related to El Salvador. GCHQ therefore decided to produce ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
High Explosive Research
High Explosive Research (HER) was the British project to develop atomic bombs independently after the Second World War. This decision was taken by a cabinet sub-committee on 8 January 1947, in response to apprehension of an American return to isolationism, fears that Britain might lose its great power status, and the actions by the United States to withdraw unilaterally from sharing of nuclear technology under the 1943 Quebec Agreement. The decision was publicly announced in the House of Commons on 12 May 1948. HER was a civil project, not a military one. Staff were drawn from and recruited into the Civil Service, and were paid Civil Service salaries. It was headed by Lord Portal, as Controller of Production, Atomic Energy, in the Ministry of Supply. An Atomic Energy Research Establishment was located at a former airfield, Harwell, in Berkshire, under the direction of John Cockcroft. The first nuclear reactor in the UK, a small research reactor known as GLEEP, went ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tube Alloys
Tube Alloys was the research and development programme authorised by the United Kingdom, with participation from Canada, to develop nuclear weapons during the Second World War. Starting before the Manhattan Project in the United States, the British efforts were kept Classified information in the United Kingdom, classified, and as such had to be referred to by code even within the highest circles of government. The possibility of nuclear weapons was acknowledged early in the war. At the University of Birmingham, Rudolf Peierls and Otto Robert Frisch co-wrote Frisch–Peierls memorandum, a memorandum explaining that a small mass of pure uranium-235 could be used to produce a chain reaction in a bomb with the power of thousands of tons of TNT. This led to the formation of the MAUD Committee, which called for an all-out effort to develop nuclear weapons. Wallace Akers, who oversaw the project, chose the deliberately misleading code name "Tube Alloys". His Tube Alloys Directorate was ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ultra (cryptography)
Ultra was the designation adopted by United Kingdom, British military intelligence in June 1941 for wartime signals intelligence obtained by breaking high-level encrypted enemy radio and teleprinter communications at the Government Code and Cypher School (GC&CS) at Bletchley Park. ''Ultra'' eventually became the standard designation among the western Allies of World War II, Allies for all such intelligence. The name arose because the intelligence obtained was considered more important than that designated by the highest British Classified information, security classification then used (''Most Secret'' and so was regarded as being ''Ultra Secret''. Several other cryptonyms had been used for such intelligence. The code name "Boniface" was used as a cover name for ''Ultra''. In order to ensure that the successful code-breaking did not become apparent to the Germans, British intelligence created a fictional MI6 master spy, Boniface, who controlled a fictional series of agents throug ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Switzerland And Weapons Of Mass Destruction
Switzerland made detailed plans to acquire and test nuclear weapons during the Cold War. Less than two weeks after the nuclear bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the Swiss government started studying the possibility of building nuclear weapons, and continued its military nuclear program for 43 years until 1988. It has since signed and ratified the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons. Switzerland never possessed biological weapons, but did have a program to develop and test chemical weapons. Military nuclear program On 15 August 1945, Hans Frick, a colonel in the Swiss military, sent a letter to Federal Councillor Karl Kobelt requesting that Switzerland study the possibility of acquiring nuclear weapons in order to defend itself. The Federal Council authorized the creation of a commission to do such in November 1945. Efforts "were well under way" in 1945. On 8 June 1946, the Study Commission for Nuclear Energy ( – SKA) was created by the Swiss government u ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Swedish Nuclear Weapons Program
After World War II, Sweden considered building nuclear weapons to defend themselves against an offensive assault from the Soviet Union. From 1945 to 1972 the government ran a clandestine nuclear weapons program under the guise of civilian defence research at the Swedish National Defence Research Institute (FOA). By the late 1950s the work had reached the point where underground testing was feasible. However, at this time the Riksdag prohibited research and development of nuclear weapons, pledging that research should be done only for the purpose of defence against nuclear attack. They reserved the right to continue development of offensive weapons in the future. In recent years declassified documents have shown that Sweden was much closer to possessing the nuclear bomb than previously thought. By 1965 most of the bomb was already built and another 6 months would have been needed to arm it, had the project been given the green light. Another two bombs would have been built sh ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Vostok Programme
The Vostok programme ( ; rus, Восток, p=vɐˈstok, a=ru-восток.ogg, t=East) was a Soviet human spaceflight project to put the first Soviet cosmonauts into low Earth orbit and return them safely. Competing with the United States Project Mercury, it succeeded in placing the first human into space, Yuri Gagarin, in a single orbit in Vostok 1 on April 12, 1961. The Vostok capsule was developed from the Zenit spy satellite project, and its launch vehicle was adapted from the existing R-7 Semyorka intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) design. The name "Vostok" was treated as classified information until Gagarin's flight was first publicly disclosed to the world press. The programme carried out six crewed spaceflights between 1961 and 1963. The longest flight lasted nearly five days, and the last four were launched in pairs, one day apart. This exceeded Project Mercury's demonstrated capabilities of a longest flight of just over 34 hours, and of single missions. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
