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, 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 the Nevada Test site and Area 51.
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
North Korea
Russia
- Kh-47M2 Kinzhal hypersonic (mach 10) air-launched 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 artificial Earth satellite
- Typhoon submarine
- Vostok programme human spaceflight project
Sweden
- Nuclear weapons program (was never completed)
United Kingdom
- Enigma machine cipher device
- Operation Hurricane Nuclear Weapons program
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
- Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird Mach 3.3 very high-altitude reconnaissance aircraft
- Lockheed Martin SR-72
- Lockheed U-2 very high-altitude reconnaissance aircraft
- Manhattan Project Nuclear weapons program
- Northrop Grumman B-2 Spirit stealth bomber
- Northrop Grumman B-21 Raider stealth bomber
- Northrop Grumman RQ-180 stealth unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) surveillance aircraft
- Northrop Tacit Blue
- 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