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22-556: The Lockheed Senior Prom was a classified black project conducted by the United States Air Force in conjunction with the Lockheed Corporation 's Skunk Works for the development and testing of a cruise missile using stealth technology . Based on the company's Have Blue demonstrator, the six Senior Prom vehicles proved successful in testing conducted at Area 51 in the late 1970s; despite this,

44-594: A SPS-13 radar without generating a discernible return. Most testing took place at Groom Lake (" Area 51 ") in Nevada, with a DC-130 Hercules acting as the launch aircraft; there are also reports that some testing was conducted at Edwards Air Force Base in California, with a B-52 Stratofortress being used as the launch platform, while "Hangar 18" at the Groom Lake test complex was reportedly constructed to house

66-610: A SAP may impose more stringent investigative or adjudicative requirements, specialized nondisclosure agreements , special terminology or markings, exclusion from standard contract investigations (carve-outs), and centralized billet systems. Within the Department of Defense, SAP is better known as "SAR" by the mandatory Special Access Required (SAR) markings. Shortly before America's involvement in World War II Franklin D. Roosevelt signs Executive Order 8381, creating

88-521: A hyphen, and are listed alphanumerically. Subcompartments are separated by spaces, and are also listed alphanumerically. Markings do not show the hierarchy beyond the sub-compartment level. Sub-sub-compartments are listed in the same manner as sub-compartments. A more complex banner line with multiple SAPs and subcompartments might read TOP SECRET//SAR-MB/SC-RF 1532-RG A691 D722 . Older documents used different standard for marking. The banner line might read SECRET//MEDIAN BELL//SPECIAL ACCESS REQUIRED , and

110-587: A more slender airframe with retractable wings, which rendered it capable of internal carriage; it began flight testing shortly after the end of the Senior Prom program. Despite the cancellation of the program in 1982, Senior Prom remains highly classified into the 21st century. Black project In the United States, the formal term for a black project is an unacknowledged special access program ( SAP ). Black projects receive their funding from

132-507: A separate SCI-SAP category alongside the three listed above. The Intelligence Community, drawing on the DNI's statutory responsibility to protect intelligence sources and methods, finds a legal basis for SCI separate from that of SAPs, and consequently consider SCI and SAPs separate instances of the more general controlled access program. SAP documents require special marking to indicate their status. The words SPECIAL ACCESS REQUIRED , followed by

154-786: Is "on a need to know basis". A SAP can only be initiated, modified, and terminated within their department or agency; the Secretary of State , Secretary of Defense , Secretary of Energy , Secretary of Homeland Security , the Attorney General , the Director of National Intelligence ; their principal deputies (e.g. the Deputy Secretary of State in DoS and the Deputy Secretary of Defense in DoD ); or others designated in writing by

176-483: Is finally made official. Two types of SAP exist – acknowledged and unacknowledged. The existence of an acknowledged SAP may be publicly disclosed, but the details of the program remain classified. An unacknowledged SAP (or USAP ) is made known only to authorized persons, including members of the appropriate committees of the United States Congress . Waived SAPs are a subset of unacknowledged SAPs in

198-550: Is only oral. There are three categories of SAPs within the Department of Defense: Only the Director of National Intelligence may create IN-SAPs. Sensitive Compartmented Information (SCI) control systems may be the most well-known intelligence SAPs. The treatment of SCI is singular among SAPs, and it seems there is some disagreement within the government as to whether or not SCI is a SAP. Defense Department sources usually state that it is, and at least one publication refers to

220-752: The Department of Defense . These SAPs are exempt by statutory authority of the Secretary of Defense from most reporting requirements and, within the legislative branch, the only persons who are required to be informed of said SAPs are the chairpersons and ranking committee members of the Senate Appropriations Committee , Senate Armed Services Committee , House Appropriations Committee , and the House Armed Services Committee . Oftentimes, this notification

242-446: 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

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264-588: The B-52 and Senior Prom combination. Despite the success of the test program, Senior Prom was cancelled in 1982; reportedly one reason for the cancellation of the project was that the size and configuration of the Senior Prom aircraft rendered it incapable of being carried in internal weapons bays such as that on the B-1 bomber; the AGM-129 ACM , a competing design to Senior Prom for the cruise missile requirement, had

286-521: The F-117, the "sawtooth" wing profile bore similarities to the B-2 stealth bomber's planform. The Senior Prom vehicle was intended to be expendable; however, it was modified to be reusable before testing commenced, with a ballistic parachute and inflatable landing bag located under the fuselage. The aircraft is believed to have been fitted with folding wings to facilitate carriage by the launching aircraft, and

308-655: The Nevada Test site and Area 51 . Below are examples of previously unacknowledged black projects categorized per country. Special access program Special access programs ( SAPs ) in the U.S. Federal Government are security protocols that provide highly classified information with safeguards and access restrictions that exceed those for regular (collateral) classified information. SAPs can range from black projects to routine but especially-sensitive operations, such as COMSEC maintenance or presidential transportation support . In addition to collateral controls,

330-650: The aircraft was not selected to enter production, and the program was terminated in the early 1980s. Following the success of the test program for the Lockheed Have Blue stealth technology demonstrator aircraft, the United States Air Force awarded a contract to the Lockheed Advanced Development Projects division—the " Skunk Works "—for the development of an unmanned aerial vehicle , intended to act as

352-469: The original configuration of the Senior Prom vehicle included winglets and a ventral fin; the aircraft was later modified to include a V-tail and more slender wings, closer in configuration to the F-117 Nighthawk stealth fighter. Radar-absorbent material was applied to the airframe as part of its stealth configuration; in addition to the faceting of the design, similar to that of Have Blue and

374-419: The portion marking would read (S//MB) . Other variations move the special access warning to a second line, which would read MEDIAN BELL Special Control and Access Required (SCAR) Use Only or some other phrase directed by the program security instructions. SAP access ergo policy on classified security categories de facto is understood informally as described as those who need to know have access, access

396-480: The program nickname or codeword , are placed in the document's banner line. Abbreviations may be used for either element. Portion markings use SAR and the program's abbreviation. For example, a secret SAP with the nickname MEDIAN BELL would be marked SECRET//SPECIAL ACCESS REQUIRED-MEDIAN BELL . Portions would be marked (S//SAR-MB) . Multiple SAPs are separated by slashes. Compartments within SAPs may be denoted by

418-582: The prototype of a cruise missile , that would apply the Have Blue's faceted design in order to reduce the radar cross section of the missile by deflecting electromagnetic waves from radar transmitters away from their source, instead of directly back at the radar set's antenna. The program began in 1977, with a reported budget of USD $ 24,000,000; the design of the aircraft was closely based on that of Have Blue, except scaled down. Intended for launch from Lockheed DC-130 Hercules drone launcher aircraft,

440-462: The remaining three classification levels to prevent a systematic flood of classified documents coming from the Pentagon and other agencies. The Pentagon responds by creating its own "special access" labels to further insulate classified information from outside influence. In Executive Order number 11652 Richard M. Nixon legitimizes the use of special access controls and the "special access program"

462-496: The three security levels for his country's most important documents- Restricted, Confidential, and Secret. After the conclusion of World War II, President Harry S. Truman issues Executive order 10104, and creates the "Top Secret classification" designation. Dwight D. Eisenhower issues Executive order 10501. It drops the "restricted" classification level. It removes classification authority from 28 government entities and limits its use in 17 more. There are now explicit guidelines for

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484-537: Was powered by a single turbofan engine, with the air intake and exhaust being configured in such a manner that the airframe would shield them from the ground, reducing the aircraft's radar and infrared signatures. Flight testing of the Senior Prom vehicles began in October 1978; a total of six aircraft were built, which completed a total of fourteen flights over the duration of the testing program. The craft were reportedly capable of flying within 500 feet (150 m) of

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