Government Experiments That They Didn’t Want Us To Know About

Home Weird Science Government Experiments That They Didn’t Want Us To Know About

Weird Science

By Joe Burgett - January 14, 2022

At Science Sensei, we’ve been known to highlight some odd or horrible things in science history. In fact, we have discussed several government experiments that either made no sense and/or became a black mark on those nations. Due to the staff being mostly American, we cover a lot more government experiments from here than anywhere else. Yet there are other states that have secret experiments in their past that, at the time at least, they did not want anyone knowing about.

Yes, we will still discuss some American experiments that fall into this category. However, we will also be going over some notable government experiments from other nations, both developed and undeveloped. At the end of the day, there are many that governments wanted to hide due to what was being done. Whether it was developing new weaponry, testing out how to brainwash people, or even testing viruses… governments do a lot of horrible experiments. Let’s discuss just a few big ones!

Government Experiments That They Didn’t Want Us To Know About — *First “Pow wow” nations people of Canada. Photo Credit: Alina Reynbakh/Shutterstock*

First Nations Nutrition Experiments

Nation Involved: Canada
Time Period: 1940s to 1950s

While we often think of Canadians as nice, welcoming people, they have a dark history when it comes to how they have treated the Natives that have lived there for centuries. The First Nations Nutrition Experiments were conducted by the Department of Pensions and National Health from the 1940s through the 1950s. The experiments were conducted on roughly 1,300 indigenous people all over Canada. At least 1,000 were children at the time. These experiments were considered a form of genocide by most, as the government intentionally allowed people to die.

The experiments were conducted in nutrient-poor communities, mostly in the Pas and Norway House as well as residential schools around them. The experiments were conducted to see the best level of vitamins and nutritional supplements. In these experiments, many people experienced malnourishment deliberately forced by the Canadian government. The government could not claim ignorance as it was they who granted approval for these experiments, especially at the schools! Canada already underfunded those schools severely, but this led to severe childhood malnutrition that led to many early deaths.

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Karma Police

Nation Involved: United Kingdom
Time Period: Since 2008

While it might not technically be an experiment that you’re used to seeing, it technically was. However, it is formally called a “surveillance program.” Edward Snowden happens to be the one that alerted us to it. This is officially run by the United Kingdom’s Government Communications Headquarters or GCHQ. Snowden came across it while working for the U.S. National Security Agency, finding that the UK ran this program since 2008. Karma Police was being implemented to collect the IP addresses of internet users who visit websites.

They did not make anyone aware of this, as there was really no oversight formed specifically because they knew how people would feel. Of course, this program is a big deal as IP addresses can be cross-referenced to allow the UK government to collect other data from people. What was the main goal of the program? They wanted a web browsing profile for every visible person on the internet or a user profile for every visible website on the internet. The name comes from Radiohead’s song of the same name, which references: “this is what you’ll get when you mess with us.” Nothing dark there at all.

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The Psammetichus Experiment

Nation Involved: Egypt
Time Period: Between 664 to 610 BCE

Psammetichus was an Egyptian Pharoah who ruled from 664 to 610 BCE. He is sort of a forgettable ruler, but he did do a lot for Egypt, including many attempts at partnerships and peace with local nation-states. However, his biggest claim to fame is the psychological experiment that bears his name. He wanted to know if humans were born with the ability to speak, and if so, what language would they use? To find out, two infants were used.

They would be brought up in a remote territory by a shepherd, who was told to never speak around the children. The children began to speak after roughly 2 years. The word they began using most was “becos,” which is the Phyrian word for “bread.” It led to the Pharoah assuming the natural language for people must be Phyrian. There is so much wrong here that we do not know where to begin. Yet other similar experiments would be done by governments for years after this over many centuries.

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Military Dolphins

Nation(s) Involved: Iran and Russia
Time Period: 1980s to 2000

We all know the way things are done in Iran can be quite different compared to what goes down in the West. However, we’re not even sure most of Iran’s neighboring states would understand this one. Back in 2000, it was uncovered that Iran purchased an entire fleet of military-trained dolphins from Russia. During the reign of the Soviet Union decades ago, they trained several dolphins to kill potential enemies and attack enemy ships. While Iran buying these dolphins is weird enough, there are MANY questions we have for Russia on this one.

Were they trained dolphins that just did not die off from the Soviet Union days? Were these dolphins still active and in military training before they were sold off? Moreover, where the heck is Iran going to utilize our mammalian friends? They are close to a major body of water but it is not like they get a lot of enemies coming at them in that direction. Plus, how do you keep these dolphins from going rusty during lul periods? There are just so many things odd with this. What’s weirder? The U.S. had some too. Seriously, the militaries around this world do some weird stuff.

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AZT Trials

Nation(s) Involved: Zimbabwe and United States of America
Time Period: 1994

HIV/AIDS did not become important in the West until the 1980s and was initially thought to only affect gay men. This turned out not to be true, of course, but the public was hard to sway. Very little was known about medications being formed to treat it at the time. This is likely what led to the AZT trials. The University of Zimbabwe as well as U.S. doctors were involved with the help of the World Health Organization. The testing included 17,000 women from Zimbabwe. They were given azidothymidine, a medication used to prevent mother-to-child transmission of HIV/AIDS.

Very few of the subjects were made aware of the details or testing methods, nor the effectiveness or potential dangers. Plus, those in the placebo group were never informed of this. Most of the women involved were even used under duress, hoping to prevent their child from having the disease. Roughly half of the women involved were given the placebo, making HIV/AIDS transmission very likely if they had it. The result? Around 1,000 babies were born with HIV/AIDS. The worst part was that proven life-saving drugs already existed that did the same thing as AZT, and none of the women were made aware of this.

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The Aversion Project

Nation Involved: South Africa
Time Period: 1969 to 1970

The infamous Apartheid era in South Africa is one of the worst racist periods in world history. Sure, America and the UK have a dark history with racism, South Africa was horribly racist too. Yet they were even worse to homosexual people. One such instance of being horrible to them was the Aversion Project, led by Dr. Aubrey Levin. The design of government experiments like this is usually always built on BS. This project was literally out to try and “cure” people of homosexuality. Seriously. They’d set out to do it by force as well. The South African government rounded up as many gay men as they could find.

Levin’s testing method was to initially use electroconvulsive aversion therapy. The goal was to shock them any time they could be aroused by a homosexual feeling. Electrodes were strapped to the upper arm with wires leading to a dial that went from levels 1 to 10. Gay men were shown pictures of naked men and were told to fantasize about them. Then they were given several shocks of varying levels, with the concept that making them feel pain would end their gay lifestyle. Of course, that is not how any of this works. Today, Dr. Levin’s experiments with government support are considered a human rights violation.

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British Sarin Tests

Nation Involved: United Kingdom
Time Period: 1950s

During the 1950s, several governments began testing chemical weapons. Many had already done this during the recent World Wars, but due to the chemical weapons of World War II, others needed to be ready. The British were ahead of most and began conducting experiments using sarin, a nerve agent. They did their tests with it at Porton Down, a noted science park. The first adverse reaction to those tests happened in February 1953 after running tests since October of 1951. An even larger severe reaction occurred in April 1953.

Out of 6 volunteers, one man was exposed to 300 milligrams of sarin and went into a coma, but recovered. That prompted a reduction in the dosage to 200 mg. That was when Royal Air Force engineer Ronald Maddison was offered money and three days’ leave from the service to help. He was told, however, that he’d be testing out a cure for the common cold. In reality, he was being exposed to 200mg of sarin. The entire experiment was to find the lethal dose of sarin, which worked. Ronald died during the experiment, which was finally ruled unlawful 51 years later!

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Aboriginal Australian Tests

Nation Involved: Australia
Time Period: 1920s to 1930s

Many government experiments have sadly involved taking advantage of a vulnerable group of people. They are also conducted on people who the government does not care much or as much about. This became a common practice in Australia, as aborigines were forced into several medical experiments. This was most common from the 1920s through the 1930s. Some of the experiments resulted in severe pain. On top of that, forced bodily measurements and blood samples were taken.

Most of the experiments were conducted by the University of Adelaide but were completely sanctioned by the Australian government. In fact, a lot of the experiments conducted were government-sponsored. To the university’s credit, in 2002 the Vice-Chancellor came out to say the experiments were “degrading and sometimes barbarous.” They would then issue a formal apology to the entire Aboriginal and Torress Strait Islander groups. Yet that does not change what the school did.

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North Korean Poison Cabbage Experiment

Nation Involved: North Korea
Time Period: Between 1986 to 1992

We are all well aware by now of how North Korea treats its people. They will claim to be a paradise but the place is consistently losing people to starvation. The economy is terrible, and freedom is nonexistent. However, the government experiments out of NK can be downright horrific. People have routinely just disappeared as they were captured by armed forces members at random for experimentation. While NK defectors and former prison guards discussed experiments, one person did it better.

Lee Soon-ok. in her book Eyes of the Tailless Animals, discussed several experiments the government did on people. She told the United States Senate once about a story involving poison cabbage. North Korea has been developing chemical weapons for years but they often need test subjects. Once they rounded up 50 perfectly healthy female prisoners and forced them to eat the poison cabbage leaves. Every woman who ate it died within 20 minutes. That is just one of the horror stories.

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Operation Whitecoat

Nation Involved: United States of America
Time Period: 1954 to 1973

Operation Whitecoat is something the United States Armed Forces kept under wraps for a long time. There was a period when the U.S. was forced to draft men to take part in the armed forces. If you were involved in the forces from the 1930s to 1970s, there was a solid chance you’d be put in an area where you’d be forced to kill someone. Yet several men were against this, in particular the Seventh-Day Adventists. These people truly believe in the biblical request of “thou shalt not kill.”

Of course, government experiments were underway in the U.S. Armed Forces by that time. Thus, those people who refused to take part in situations where they may have to kill were added to Operation Whitecoat. Around 2,300 SDA’s were used as guinea pigs for SEVERAL tests. This included multiple vaccines as well as biological weapons. Many men recalled afterward how terrible they felt. High fevers, chills, diseases, and much worse. Somehow, no one ever died during this testing period.

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Soviet Union Poison Experiments

Nation Involved: Soviet Union/Russia
Time Period: 1921 to 1970s (then reactivated in 1990s)

During World World 1 and slightly before, the Soviet Union began testing out several chemical weapons and poisons. The Soviet Union collapsed around the late 1980s, resulting in Russia stepping out as the prominent nation within it. Government experiments with chemical weapons are not uncommon today but in 1921, the Soviets were one of the few working on them. In fact, they opened specific laboratories dedicated to this. They are referred to as Laboratory 1, Laboratory 12, and Kamera.

Most of the people they tested chemical weapons and poisons on were prisoners from the notable Gulags. These people were exposed to countless toxic agents, resulting in dozens of deaths. The big thing for the Soviets is that they wanted to create the perfect poison that would be tasteless and odorless. This could be taken anywhere and used with ease on anyone. They also did not want anyone assuming a target was poisoned, so they attempted to create an undetectable toxin. The team used everything from mustard gas and ricin to digitoxin and curare among others.

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British Toxin Drop

Nation Involved: United Kingdom
Time Period: 1953 to 1964

During The Cold War, several nations were in a weird place. Everyone was arming themselves in preparation for potential war to break out. Others were testing major chemical weapons, such as the United Kingdom. However, they weren’t the Soviets, right? They’d never test stuff in prisoners. Oh no, they just tested it on a few cities. The story goes that the Brits decided to drop several thousands of kilos of an unknown, possibly toxic chemical out of a military aircraft.

Officially, they dropped exactly 4,600 kilos or just over 10,000lbs of the chemical zinc cadmium sulfide. While we know of it as a carcinogen today, they could not know this in the 1950s or 1960s. Yet they did know of its toxic nature. It was dropped on the cities Wiltshire, Bedfordshire, and Norfolk. Yet a lot was also dropped in the English Channel and North Sea. Meaning it would not just affect those cities but the entire country and possibly surrounding areas. Government experiments like this are insane!

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South African Forced Sexual Reassignment Surgery

Nation Involved: South Africa
Time Period: 1970s to 1980s

Remember Dr. Levin from the other South African experiment on gay people? Well, the dude is back. Along with the South African Defence Force, they forced lesbian and gay people in their military to undergo sex-change operations. While that might seem insane, they assumed that if they did this, it would “technically” not make them gay. After all, a female loving a male is fine to them. Apparently, even if that female was born a guy. Their idiocy on this whole thing is just astonishing. While transgender people undergo surgery today, it is by choice to make them feel like themselves. Doing it by force to people is horrific, and all just for loving the same sex?

These people were not given a choice, and most did not even want to be there. They were put through psychological coercion, chemical castration, and obviously the electroshock issue from before. From 1971 to 1989, roughly 900 forced sexual reassignment surgeries were done at military hospitals. Most of the people reassigned were young men. Males as young as 16 were forced to do this, as the South African Border war drafted 16 to 24-year-old males. Yet women also underwent sex-change operations by force too.

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Soviet ESP Experiments

Nation Involved: Soviet Union
Time Period: 1980s

Extrasensory Perception or ESP is the ability to get information that is not recognized by the normal physical senses. Often, it is referred to as the “sixth sense” due to this. As one is able to sense something through the mind, but not through their other senses. Thus making it come off as fake most of the time. Yet Russia wanted to develop some sort of way to utilize it. The CIA declassified a memo from 1991 in early 2021 about two Russian scientists discussing their ESP experiments. One of the scientists even claimed to have “perfected” his methods.

These technically Soviet scientists were conducting experiments in the 1980s using several subjects. The scientist claiming to have perfected things claimed that mirrors focused psychic energy. As he put them on opposite sides of the subjects. The scientist asked subjects to concentrate on transmitting psychic energy to a patient as well as empathetically experience their discomfort. The belief was that they could transmit bioenergy to help control or cure numerous diseases from simple colds to heart disease. This all turned out to be BS for the Soviet scientists, obviously.

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The Secret Hazardous Devices School In Alabama

Nation Involved: United States of America
Time Period: 1971 to Present

Government experiments on hazardous weapons or chemicals seem to be a running theme here. Yet the U.S. did actually want to stop the experiments being done too often nationwide. Thus, they tried to reduce things by having some testing take place in a few distinct locations. This led the FBI and Army to create the Hazardous Devices School. It was a secretive testing and training facility in a very remote area in Alabama around the city of Hunstville. Today, it only operates as a training center.

The U.S. Army and FBI realized that many improvised explosives were being formed nationwide. Thus, this school could serve as a great training center to train bomb squad officers. There they could learn about various devices, thus knowing the amount of damage they could do. Plus, they could learn how to disable them too. It opened in 1971 and is openly running to this day. Interestingly, this is close to the Terrorist Explosive Device Analytical Center as well as NASA’s Space and Rocket Center.

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The Racist Porton Down Experiments

Nation Involved: United Kingdom
Time Period: 1916 to 1989

Porton Down was referenced above briefly, but we feel it is important to bring them up again. The Sarin Tests were just the tip of the iceberg for those people. The Porton Down facility is obviously owned and run by the UK’s Armed Forces. They brought in several servicemen over the years to take part in their chemical warfare testing. This included exposing them to mustard gas among many more toxic substances. Several died or had lifelong illnesses due to these chemical warfare trials. Porton Down conducted experiments for most of the 20th Century, beginning in 1916 and closing by 1989.

Roughly 20,000 British servicemen were put through this. However, one of the most racist trials involved Indian servicemen. It was conducted in Rawalpindi, British India from the 1930s to 1940s. Several were hospitalized from these trials, and it is said that very few volunteered for the trials. Meaning they forced them to take part, which is now said to be a massively racist action. There was a wide assumption that those with darker skin would not have as many problems with chemicals like mustard gas, which is horribly wrong.

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Project Troy

Nation Involved: United States of America
Time Period: Fall of 1950

Project Troy is now pretty famous, but for many years the American government hid it from us. While some might not refer to this as an “experiment,” it actually was. Yet it was ultimately more psychological and political. The U.S. State Department met with scholars and physicists from Harvard University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and RAND Corporation in the Fall of 1950. The idea was to find ways to undergo political warfare, including how to stop Soviet jamming on the Voice of America broadcasts. This first began during World War II.

The U.S. Office of War Information decided to launch a major campaign of propaganda both in the United States and outside of it. They would do this through radio broadcasts, newspapers, photos, movies, and any form of notable media. Yet President Truman wanted to expand upon this. Thus, after OWI handed over control to the Interim International Information Service within the State Department. Eager to live up to what the President wanted, they brought the 21 scholars, academics, and scientists in for three months to figure out how to expand their propaganda.

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The CHANI Project

Nation Involved: United States of America
Time Period: 1994

The Soviets were not the only people over the years to study ESP and psychics with the idea of introducing them into warfare somehow. Yet the CHANI Project is likely one of the weirdest government experiments ever devised. CHANI was an acronym, standing for Channeled Holographic Access Network Interface. It was supposedly going to bring together science theory and spiritual awareness. The design of the project was to bring psychics into the digital age, through various computer programs.

A digital “channeler” supposedly makes contact with spirits or energies from another realm, which they referred to as “The Entity.” This is likely due to the fact that they could not know what omnipresent deity they’d be channeling. When studied, they claimed this Entity was in contact with them on behalf of “The Elders.” Apparently, they created and now oversee the universe today. Several projects like this have taken place, with the CIA doing several different things in an attempt to get a leg up on other countries. From MK Ultra to this, it is clear they were grasping at straws as this entire thing was crap.

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Project Blue Book

Nation Involved: United States of America
Time Period: March 1942 to December 1969

Project Blue Book is now a pretty popular government project that was kept under wraps for several years. The goal of this project was to study unidentified flying objects or UFOs. Conducted mostly by scientists and pilots for the U.S. Air Force, the main thing they wanted to know was if UFOs were a national security threat. They also wanted to analyze any UFO data that could be collected. Several thousand UFO reports were collected for over 20 years. Supported by the National Academy of Sciences, it was concluded that UFOs were not a security threat nor offered potential scientific advancements.

Thus, the Air Force shut down Project Blue Book. The Air Force studied 12,610 total UFO reports or sightings and found no evidence of a national security threat. They also found that no UFO reported or sighted had any major technological advancements beyond modern scientific understanding. NONE of the UFOs were extraterrestrial in nature. However, since shutting this project down, many sightings have been reported with some tech beyond our current knowledge. The U.S. and other nations also now have a UFO program, with the U.S. finally being very transparent about theirs.

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The British Subway Experiment

Nation Involved: United Kingdom
Time Period: 1964

You’ll be forgiven if you do not know who Ulf Smidt is. He is a professor who is responsible for exposing A LOT of old British tests and experiments, many of which were done on the public. Porton Down seemed to love doing tests on an unsuspecting public without even thinking about the consequences of their actions. We know government experiments went down at the facility a lot. Yet when they wanted to study something to see how a mass amount of people would respond, they tested the British public. It was uncovered that Porton Down experimented on public transit from the 1910s up to as far as the 1960s.

Usually, the tests were done to see how trains, subways, and buses worked. On some occasions, they released biological agents. One such incident took place when they conducted a biological warfare field trial on the Capital Tube System in May of 1964. Porton Down scientists released a lot of the chemical Bacillus Globigii into the tube. The test was said to be for seeing if long-distance travel of aerosols in the tube network was due to train transportation or if it came through the ventilation system. All the while, not considering the potential dangers their chemical could do to people on the train.

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Project Coast

Nation Involved: South Africa
Time Period: 1980s

During the South African Apartheid era, the nation had a top-secret chemical and biological warfare program called “Project Coast.” The program was known most for testing out CX Powder and mustard gas, on top of non-lethal tear gas. Of course, by the mid-1970s, South Africa was involved in a border war with the local nation, Angola. The South African Defence Force had no choice but to begin experimenting with chemical weapons. Plus, it was claimed that Angola already had chemical and biological weapons. Giving them a serious advantage over South Africa on the battlefield.

They needed to develop better vaccines too. By the 1980s, South Africa hired Dr. Wouter Basson to visit other countries and report back on how South Africa stacks up in weaponry. Of course, many countries developed chemical and biological weapons by then. Thus, they expanded their program to officially begin Project Coast in 1983. At first, they developed defensive chemicals but then began creating CBW toxins and biotoxins. Though said to be used for the last resort, they were being misused. To a point that they were copying Soviet assassination uses with them.

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Chinese Super Soldier Experiment

Nation Involved: China
Time Period: 2020 to Present

In December of 2020, the U.S. Intelligence Agency reported that China has been conducting human testing on members of the People’s Liberation Army. The hope of these tests was to give these soldiers “biologically enhanced capabilities.” While people might be getting flashbacks to the Captain America movie or the Master Chief experiments from Halo, there has not been any notable testing success that can give people enhanced abilities. That would never stop the Chinese.

They have been known for being totally willing to sacrifice hundreds to thousands of people for even the most minor of progress. Yet we do know that DNA alteration can happen with things like CRISPR already making waves in that field. However, most stuff like that usually only helps when changed on a child or animal in its mother’s womb. China has been wanting to use biotechnology more on the battlefield, and this might be one way to do that. Yet most feel that humanoid AI would likely be a better use of time and effort, as it can be altered to no end where humans cannot be.

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Unit 731

Nation Involved: Japan
Time Period: 1937 to 1945

The Imperial Japanese Armed Forces did some horrible things. Yet perhaps the worst of them all was the experiments they conducted on people at the Unit 731 facility. This unit committed more human rights violations and war crimes than any other nation in modern history. The scientists studied various diseases to see how a person reacted to them, including things like syphilis. To make sure they were given various STDs, prisoners were often raped by the guards. Plus, they did not just test a few men here and there.

They experimented on women and children, including pregnant women. Several were forced to do vivisections, which opened them up internally for examination. By the way, none were given anesthesia for this. Unit 731 also tested out chemical weapons, as you can imagine. On top of this, they tested out regular weapons including grenades and flamethrowers to see how they worked on human targets. They also deliberately watched people starve to death. Funny enough, the U.S. gave them immunity after World War II in exchange for all the data these evil people collected in their experiments.

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Manhattan Project

Nation(s) Involved: United States, United Kingdom, and Canada
Time Period: 1942 to 1946

The infamous Manhattan Project was a closely guarded secret by the United States for many years. They experimented with SEVERAL types of bombs in order to develop the ultimate atomic bomb we know today. Several notable scientists of the day were involved, including Albert Einstein. This was also a joint project between the United States, Canada, and United Kingdom. Thus, we saw scientists from these nations plus others from allied countries or those that escaped oppressive regimes.

The goal might have been to create nuclear weapons, but along the way, they were also able to discover many other things that would not work for this but could for other things. On top of that, they managed to develop weapons that could be used on proper aircraft or those that could be dropped from one. Those might be bombs too, but not always the atomic bomb. Of course, they were doing tests on a lot of dangerous chemicals. Some were exposed to them and died from them or sustained horrible wounds. This project was not held secret for so long due to the bomb but what it took to make it.

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U.S. Black Projects

Nation Involved: United States of America
Time Period: 1900 to Present

While most developed nations have a version of this, the United States has the “Special Access Program.” This is basically just a term for “black projects” that the U.S. uses. These are the most highly classified military or defense projects in the history of the nation. Most have still not been publicly addressed by the U.S. government to this day. Most of the funds used for these projects tend to be under the “black budget.” This is the money that you, uh, just don’t ask anyone about.

Several weapons were developed under the black project category along with major aircraft. One such project resulted in the Lockheed F-117 Nighthawk, which is a stealth attack aircraft. Another was the Northrop Grumman B-2 Spirit, which is a stealth bomber. Technically, the Manhattan Project falls under this but does pretty much every nuclear program. The U.S. often works with private contractors on these projects too, such as Boeing and obviously Lockheed Martin. In fact, they might use more contractors for this stuff today than their own military scientists and engineers.

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