Black project is an informal term used to describe a highly classified, top-secret military or defense project that is not publicly acknowledged by

government A government is the system or group of people governing an organized community, generally a State (polity), state. In the case of its broad associative definition, government normally consists of legislature, executive (government), execu ...

, 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 The Lockheed Martin Corporation is an American Arms industry, defense and aerospace manufacturer with worldwide interests. It was formed by the merger of Lockheed Corporation with Martin Marietta on March 15, 1995. It is headquartered in North ...

and

Northrop Grumman Northrop Grumman Corporation is an American multinational Aerospace manufacturer, aerospace and Arms industry, defense company. With 97,000 employees and an annual revenue in excess of $40 billion, it is one of the world's largest Arms industry ...

. 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 the Nevada Test site and

Area 51 Area 51 is the common name of a highly classified United States Air Force (USAF) facility within the Nevada Test and Training Range in southern Nevada, north-northwest of Las Vegas. A remote detachment administered by Edwards Air Force B ...

Previously unacknowledged

Below are examples of previously unacknowledged black projects categorized per country.

China

* Nuclear weapons program * Xian H-20 subsonic stealth bomber aircraft

France

* Nuclear Weapons program

North Korea

* Nuclear weapons program

Russia

* Kh-47M2 Kinzhal air-launched "Iskander" ballistic missile

South Africa (apartheid-era)

* Project Coast chemical and biological weapons program * Atlas Carver multirole fighter aircraft

Soviet Union

* Nuclear weapons program *

Sputnik 1 Sputnik 1 (, , ''Satellite 1''), sometimes referred to as simply Sputnik, was the first artificial Earth satellite. It was launched into an elliptical low Earth orbit by the Soviet Union on 4 October 1957 as part of the Soviet space program ...

artificial Earth satellite *

Typhoon A typhoon is a tropical cyclone that develops between 180° and 100°E in the Northern Hemisphere and which produces sustained hurricane-force winds of at least . This region is referred to as the Northwestern Pacific Basin, accounting for a ...

submarine * Vostok programme human spaceflight project

Sweden

* Nuclear weapons program (was never completed)

Switzerland

* Switzerland and weapons of mass destruction

United Kingdom

* Ultra WW2 Decryption Programme *

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 Bri ...

WW2 Nuclear Weapons Programme *

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 retur ...

Post-war Nuclear Weapons programme *

Zircon Zircon () is a mineral belonging to the group of nesosilicates and is a source of the metal zirconium. Its chemical name is zirconium(IV) silicate, and its corresponding chemical formula is Zr SiO4. An empirical formula showing some of th ...

Signals Intelligence Satellite

United States

* Boeing Bird of Prey stealth technology demonstrator * Hughes Mining Barge CIA project authorized 1974 to raise sunken Soviet submarine K-129 * KH-11 Kennen reconnaissance satellite * Lockheed CL-400 Suntan high-altitude, high-speed reconnaissance prototype * Lockheed Have Blue stealth technology demonstrator * Lockheed F-117 Nighthawk stealth ground-attack aircraft * Lockheed Martin Polecat unmanned aerial vehicle *

Lockheed Martin RQ-170 Sentinel The Lockheed Martin RQ-170 Sentinel, nicknamed Wraith, is an American unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) developed by Lockheed Martin and operated by the United States Air Force (USAF) for the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). While the USAF has ...

Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird The Lockheed SR-71 "Blackbird" is a retired long-range, high-altitude, Mach 3+ strategic reconnaissance aircraft developed and manufactured by the American aerospace company Lockheed Corporation. Its nicknames include " Blackbird" and ...

Mach 3.3 very high-altitude reconnaissance aircraft *

Lockheed Martin SR-72 The Lockheed Martin SR-72, commonly referred to as "Son of Blackbird," is an American hypersonic concept intended for intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR). Proposed privately in 2013 by Lockheed Martin as a successor to the ...

Lockheed U-2 The Lockheed U-2, nicknamed the "''Dragon Lady''", is an American single-engine, high–altitude reconnaissance aircraft operated by the United States Air Force (USAF) and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) since the 1950s. Designed for all- ...

very high-altitude reconnaissance aircraft *

Manhattan Project The Manhattan Project was a research and development program undertaken during World War II to produce the first nuclear weapons. It was led by the United States in collaboration with the United Kingdom and Canada. From 1942 to 1946, the ...

Nuclear weapons program * Northrop Grumman B-2 Spirit stealth bomber *

Northrop Grumman B-21 Raider The Northrop Grumman B-21 Raider is an American strategic bomber in development for the United States Air Force (USAF) by Northrop Grumman. Part of the Long Range Strike Bomber (LRS-B) program, it is to be a stealth aircraft, stealth interconti ...

stealth bomber *

Northrop Grumman RQ-180 The Northrop Grumman RQ-180 is an American Stealth aircraft, stealth unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) surveillance aircraft intended for contested airspace. , there had been no images or statements released, but evidence points to the existence o ...

stealth unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) surveillance aircraft *

Northrop Tacit Blue The Northrop Tacit Blue is a technology demonstrator aircraft created to demonstrate that a low-observable Stealth technology, stealth surveillance aircraft with a low probability of intercept radar, low-probability-of-intercept radar (LPIR) and ...

* RQ-3 Dark Star high altitude reconnaissance UAV * Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawk stealth helicopter * Lockheed Sea Shadow (IX-529) experimental stealth US Navy ship

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Black Project United States defense procurement Secret government programs