The 30 Most Shocking Government Secrets

Among some of the Pentagon's most secretive programs is the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program. The program was dedicated to investigate reports of unidentified flying objects (UFOs) — but for years, it was never formally acknowledged by the Department of Defense. The agency claims the program stopped receiving funds in 2012, however, many believe it continues to operate to this day.

During World War II, the U.S. and Britain snuck Allied prisoners of war escape maps using playing cards. The papers, containing detailed escape routes, were hidden in between the layers of cards. The Geneva Convention stated Christmas care packages were allowed to be delivered to POWs, which is how the decks of cards went undetected.

There are at least three videos released by the U.S. Navy documenting UFO activity. However, those videos were never supposed to have leaked. Along with a confirmation that the videos were taken by Navy pilots and capture unexplained aerial phenomena, the agency also admitted the footage was never intended for the public to see.

Most people were astonished after watching the three Navy UFO videos, a.k.a. the Nimitz UFO Encounters, but many speculate that there's way more to the incident than previously seen. After watching the videos in full, witnesses claim there is a longer video still yet to be released, in which the object performed a number of physically impossible maneuvers.

Thanks to James Bond and other spy movies, our imaginations are filled with possibilities for covert devices on the spy trade — but the reality is so much better than imagined. At least that's how we felt when the CIA released never-before-seen devices from the 1970s at The CIA Museum in Washington, D.C. Among the gadgets was a drone-like dragonfly known by the CIA as the "insectothopter."

Meet Charlie, the CIA's top-secret catfish. The agency built the robotic part-submarine in the '90s to see if it was possible to build an uncrewed underwater vehicle (UUV). Charlie's purpose was to collect water samples without being detected, but it is unclear if it ever succeeded. Since the agent controlling the unmanned vehicle needed to be nearby for it to work, as well as catfish not being very common in the '90s, it can be assumed that the invention wasn't too useful.

Imagine a weapon that couldn't be traced to the attacker. That was the idea behind the CIA's past attempt at weaponizing lightning, according to a declassified document from 1967. While the invention turned out to be functional, the agency never fulfilled the program.

The Pentagon has always remained tight-lipped on whether or not there even is a funded UFO program. That being said, claims have been made that the government is in possession of off-world vehicles. Astrophysicist Eric Davis, who consulted for the Pentagon's UFO program, examined numerous materials that he deems "off-world vehicles not made on this earth."

The United States and India came together for a joint mission in the 1960s that, if successful, would monitor China's nuclear development. The goal was to install radioactive isotope Pu-238 powered sensors, but hazardous conditions forced the team to evacuate the Himalayas before the installation was complete. When they returned, the sensors had vanished. No one has tracked down the plutonium devices, but locals believe they are still active in the area and are responsible for melting mountain caps that are causing massive floods.

Retired Navy Commander David Fravor recalled an unusual experience that can only be described as terrifying. In the '90s, he was assigned to retrieve BQM aerial target drones and submarine telemetry torpedoes from the ocean. A helicopter pilot was tasked to do the same. Both men witnessed a large dark mass, circular in shape, descend towards the surface when they were attempting to hook the torpedo — and both swear it wasn't a submarine. In the helicopter pilot's encounter, the object sucked up the torpedo, never to be recovered.

While many are concerned over Iran's nuclear capabilities, the military is also keeping a watchful eye on its sea. In 2000, Iran purchased a fleet of military-trained dolphins from Russia — and no one knows whether they're alive or not today. The dolphins were originally trained by the Soviet Union to kill and attack enemy ships.

The United States experienced a huge win for the intelligence community in June 2020 by acquiring Russia's most advanced anti-aircraft missile, the Pantsir S-1, from Libyan forces. The Pantsir S-1 is a low-altitude air defense system, mounted on the back of a military truck. It has recently been used in Libyan and Syrian war zones. The U.S. Air Force transported the weapon out of the country and has since moved it to an unknown location.

While the public has always been fascinated with the government's investigation of UFOs, the fact that the military once funded the design of its own flying saucers hasn't been made public until recently. The secret program was launched by the military in the 1950s and was titled Project 1794. The mission? A supersonic aircraft that could uniquely combat Soviet bombers.

The U.S. Air Force surprised the public when it announced the arrival of a new fighter jet in 2020. The aircraft was secretly designed, built, and tested by the Next Generation Air Dominance (NGAD) program. No other information about the fighter jet has been released — other than the fact that it's here and, supposedly, breaking records.

Although it's declassified now, the government ran a top-secret training program during the Cold War known as the "Constant Peg" program. In said program, U.S. pilots trained with the MiG jets — former Soviet fighter jets. Not only did the government acquire these aircrafts secretly, they were purchased so the USAF's best pilots could familiarize themselves with the enemy's technology and learn how to beat the jets in combat, in case World War III occurred.

A very real threat to the United States during the Vietnam War was the Soviet Union's SA-2 missiles (shown here in this 2003 photo). To defeat them, the CIA concocted the secret mission, United Effort, to steal pertinent data information. The mission only lasted 200 milliseconds, and at first glance appeared to be a Soviet victory. However, the CIA's "Sam Sniffer" was really a "suicide drone" — an unmanned drone disguised as a U-2 spy plane to lure a Soviet missile strike. The goal was to record the radar guidance and proximity fuse information of the attack. After a successful mission in 1966, all of this information was used to create a warning receiver to prevent the SA-2 missiles from hitting their aircrafts.

Since 2010, the United States Air Force has been launching an unmanned spaceplane into orbit to carry out classified tests. The aircraft, known as X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle-5 (OTV-5), has carried out five missions since it initially launched — the last spending a record-breaking 780 days in orbit.

With the Cold War brought tons of covert inventions — some of which were only recently declassified. The CIA's Project Aquiline, for example, was intended to create a fleet of bird drones that would act as spy planes and couriers in the Cold War. The invention, although never completed, was intended to be nuclear- powered so they could stay in the air for up to a month.