12.
Pentagon’s UFO Report Project The Pentagon spent $22 million investigating
UFOs.That’s right.
A cool $22 million on Unidentified Flying Objects.
The Aerospace Threat Identification Program was a Defense Department program established
to investigate unidentified flying objects and is the successor to Project Blue Book.
During the 60s and 70s there were so many UFO sightings that the U.S. government established
a secret task force to investigate them.
Although it has since been said to have been terminated, many people do not believe the
agency's claims and think the program continues to operate in secret.
Any time there is a long history of intrigue, potential alien aircraft, and high-level government
secrecy- there’s bound to be some pretty intense conspiracy theories.
While most of the time you can ignore or dismiss the rumours, lately the Pentagon has actually
released some pretty wild reports.
If you've been keeping track of the news lately, you might have seen the news about a US government
report on UFOs that was released, with officials openly referring to several UFO sightings.
The Pentagon is indeed investigating several cases of unidentified flying objects, but
the task force is yet to find a "clear indication" that they have extraterrestrial origins.
11.
CIA’s “Project Insectothopter” Did you know clandestine devices have actually
been created for the military?
When you're watching movies that show secret spy missions, just remember that the real
ones are much more exciting than anything Hollywood can come up with.
Some of the craziest gadgets from James Bond movies are actually based on reality.
The CIA is known to have funded a host of fascinating gadgets..
Among the gadgets from the seventies, there was a dragonfly drone known by the CIA as
the "Insectothopter".You can find one on view as part of a CIA exhibit at The Agency's museum
in Washington, D.C.
Amazingly, the US spy agency released some of its top secret projects to the public,
though it’s safe to assume many more top secret projects remain just that- top secret.
The CIA had successfully built miniature listening devices by 1970, but getting them into foreign
embassies still required a lot of work.
The CIA has long been interested in surveillance technology.
It once considered putting microphones on animals, including cats, dolphins, and (ostensibly)
bats.
The earliest attempts to implant microphones in animals failed.
The idea of a robot insect was eventually embraced- which is how we ended up with the
"Insectothopter."
The machine worked by using two lasers – one to control the power, and another to steer
it.
While the robotic insect worked fine in the laboratory, it proved to be harder to control
in the outdoor environment.
While they weren’t exactly successful in practice, the concept is both creative and
fascinating.
10.
CIA’s “Project Charlie” Back in the 1990s, the CIA wanted to figure
out if they could build an underwater robot that could navigate on its own.
After $2 million was invested in attempting to figure out whether an underwater uncrewed
robot was feasible- “Charlie” was the first of its kind in the world.
And how did the CIA allow “Charlie” to keep a low-profile?
By disguising him as a lowly catfish.
It was reported that it was sent to collect a water sample undetected, but was unable
to determine if it had been successful.
Because the signal didn't travel well through water, the invention was impractical.
The project then turned out to be too complicated and specialized to be useful and it was unclear
whether the project was ever implemented.
Charlie maintained its depth by using a combination of high-pressure air and ballast tanks.
It moved by changing its depth to keep the surrounding water at the same level, which
meant it could stay underwater for long periods of time.
The engineers proposed some very creative ways of dealing with the problem of stealthily
propelling underwater robotics.
They decided to design a self-propelled vessel that operated much like a real catfish.
In order for a microchip to control Charlie from a distance, a wireless signal would need
to be picked up by a receiver attached to the fish.
It is one of an increasing number of AI-driven programs that was made to perform a wide range
of jobs.
9.
CIA’s “Project Aquiline” Over the years, over 50% of secret military
projects were big planes with impressive abilities.
As the threat of nuclear war with the Soviet Union intensified, the United States was focused
on developing new ways to spy on potential threats.
The most important defense projects involved designing planes that could be faster than
enemy missiles and radar systems.
Probably the most famous was the SR-71 Blackbird, which could fly for more than 12 hours.
At the height of the Cold War, the US military tried to figure out how to spy on communists
using a “flying bird”.
The project was called “Project Aquiline”, another crazy project that involved nuclear
energy.
One of the projects was a nuclear-powered drone that could stay in the air for thirty
days.
The aircraft was originally designed to loiter low over battlefields and spy on troops, but
this changed in time to include features such as wings and a beak.
Nuclear power was the only energy source that promised to extend the range of the project.
The CIA wanted nuclear propulsion systems for better energy optimization and management.
Working with radioisotopes is tricky because they decay.
If they could recycle the heat they produce, they would generate energy much more efficiently.
Aquiline was created as a combination spy plane and recon aircraft, and some of its
more unique features include an extendable canoe-shaped nose, as well as a detachable
tail for cameras.
That’s right.
Essentially, Project Aquiline was a nuclear flying “bird” drone.
8.
Iran's Military Dolphins Back In 2000, it was known that a fleet of
military-trained dolphins that Iran had purchased from Russia, had supposedly been swimming
around the Persian Gulf for years.
Besides worrying about Iran's nuclear capabilities, military leaders across the world were also
keeping a close watch on the country's navy.
While many countries had been making efforts to develop nuclear weapons during the early
century, it had come to military intelligence’s attention that there were speculations that
Iran was developing an underwater team of weaponized dolphins.
Yes, you heard right.
Where did the Iranian navy get its dolphins, and where are they today?
In an effort to combat the United States' use of marine mammals during the Cold War,
the Soviet Union trained dolphins for military purposes.
The dolphins were acquired for government use but the public were against keeping dolphins
in captivity.
The then special trainer Boris Zhurid, subsequently sold them when he couldn't afford to feed
them.
The Iranian navy supposedly trained the dolphins to detect mines.
It is also claimed they then trained the dolphins to kill enemies using harpoons, poison darts,
and explosives.
The dolphins were outfitted with cameras to enable the military to check the area after
an attack.
While it may be remotely possible, given the creatures are extremely intelligent, poison
dart and harpoon-throwing military dolphins seems awfully far fetched.
Do these military projects sound real or are they nothing more than just conspiracy theories?
What do you think?
Let us know in the comments below, and don’t forget to hit the thumbs up and subscribe
buttons if you haven’t already!
:) 7.
CIA’s Project Azorian In the 1970s, a CIA operation retrieved parts
from Soviet nuclear submarines that had sunk in the Pacific Ocean.
The operation was codenamed Project Azorian.
The agency had a secret dual-purpose submarine disguised as a mining ship that instead carried
out military operations.
In 1969, a group of people claiming to be from an ocean mining agency showed up at a
meeting and demanded to speak with Curtis Crooke, a top engineer at Global Marine.
The three men approached Crooke and asked to speak with him about a top-secret project
they were working on that could soon become a reality.
Crooke had developed expertise in deep-ocean drilling, and that was what the three men
wanted.
In the 1960s, both the U.S. and Soviet Union had nuclear-armed submarines patrolling the
open seas.
The Soviet ballistic missile submarine K-129 equipped with nuclear missiles that could
have threatened American cities, went missing in the Pacific.
The CIA, with the help of Dr. Crooke’s expertise to construct a deep-sea recovery vehicle to
bring an abandoned Soviet submarine up from the bottom of the ocean
Some modern historians believe that the vessel hit a mine, while the Russians suspected that
the explosion was due to an enemy torpedo attack.
Some modern historians believe that the vessel encountered an ignition problem, while the
Russians suspected that the explosion was due to an enemy torpedo attack.
6.
The CIA’s Stargate Project The Stargate Project was a $20 million program
sponsored by the U.S. government and dedicated to researching psychological phenomena such
as remote viewing.
Research on psychic phenomena was primarily done to verify the existence of a kind sensory
perception as well as to identify whether such a capability could be useful to military
intelligence.
Large numbers of secret military projects have been revealed as part of a huge leak
of documents.
Some claimed that the military project was started by Maj. Gen. Albert Stubblebine and
that it was overseen by Lt. Frederick Holmes Atwater, an aide and "psychic headhunter".
The U.S. government kept funding the research on Stargate.
That changed in the early ‘70s, when they conducted an extensive survey of the scientific
community and found it to be very skeptical about the paranormal world.
The academics during the time reacted by greatly increasing their interest in the paranormal.
5.
British Panjandrum Rolling Bomb During World War II, D-Day was the biggest
military operation ever carried out in the history of mankind.
However, this does not change the fact that the preparations of the Allies for D-Day tell
of some imaginative ways of breaching German resistance.
The Panjandrum was an enormous rocket-assisted wooden cart with dozens of explosive charges
inside, that the British military attempted to use to destroy coastal defense pillboxes
on the beaches of Normandy, northern France.
It was simply designed to roll on the beach at lightning speed, and then detonate.
It was said to be a weapon that could be launched from a boat and move as fast as a tank.
For example, one test involved a missile travelling 40 miles off course and even almost killing
a dog instead!
It was one of the craziest stories going back to the time of the Second World War.
Even by today's standards, the project would be quite an engineering feat to construct.
At the end of 1943, the Directorate even built a prototype of the Panjandrum in London.
4.
Chrysler’s TV-8 Tank As the nuclear arms race was in full swing,
most people thought that nuclear energy would dominate the 20th century.
There were many secret projects in the '50s, but Cold War tensions drove much of the nuclear
energy development.
Well, while most people were concerned about nuclear weapons, popular car manufacturer,
Chrysler, was willing to have a bit of fun with this halftrack nuclear-powered tank design.
The tank was so heavy that it could only move on a flat surface.
For obvious reasons, the US military tried to keep their new research a secret.
The tank's oddity is evident in its turret design, which is much larger than the hull
itself.
It's pretty strange to see an almost entirely featureless tank, with only the turret giving
away what was inside.
One of the most surprising things about the project was how little they weighed, at just
25 tons.
The strangest part was probably that the nuclear reactor was hidden inside the turret.
Aside from its obviously failed attempt, some weapon experts thought that a tank designed
to contain a vacuum may not be a good idea if the tank is hit.
3.
The U.S Airforce’s “Project 1794” While most people have never heard of the
secret military project called the Avrocar, the truth is stranger than anything they could
have imagined.
The Avrocar was intended to be a secret military aircraft project, but the idea was not well
received.
It was easy to dismiss claims but there are many reasons to believe that the government
has been hiding the existence of UFOs from the public for many years.
When most people think about what secret military projects might look like, they imagine something
like this.
The flying saucer was invented after WWII, so this is an example of the theory being
true.
The idea of a flying saucer has long captured the imagination of science fiction fans, but
for real-life military engineers, the concept proved incredibly difficult to put into practice.
Built in Canada, this vehicle was developed in response to a US Military requirement for
a flying saucer-type aircraft that could travel at supersonic speeds, maneuver in any direction
and hover over the battlefield.
2.
Russia’s “1K17 Szhatie” 1K17 Szhatie, an experimental ground-based
laser tank, was designed in the Soviet Union in the 1980s.
Like most weapons, the 1K17 is designed to destroy things, with a futuristic, Star Wars-inspired
laser that was effective at disabling sensors, weapons, and more.
Specific applications for directed energy included blinding enemy sensors or burning
through armored vehicles.
The stealth technology deflected electromagnetic waves around an aircraft, rendering them invisible
to radar.
This could potentially neutralize an enemy's night-vision equipment.
The tank also has the ability to shut down enemy weaponry completely (that is, by blinding
them).
In addition to other biological effects, it should come as no surprise that directing
a high-energy laser at a human can have devastating effects.
In order to prevent retina problems, soldiers had to use a pair of laser safety goggles.
This laser was so powerful, it could blind anyone who fired the 1K17.
1.
B.F. Skinner’s “Project Pigeon” One of the craziest military secrets is that
pigeons were used as missile guidance systems in World War II.
The history of missile engineering is filled with strange stories.
In the '40s, the missile's guidance systems were so bad that ideas such as guiding a missile
to a target by radio waves reflected from the ground were seriously considered.
Some of the earliest missile developers pieced together guidance systems out of whatever
they had lying around.
During battles, the trained pigeons were to peck at a small screen displaying a target
with their beaks once missiles were launched.
Inside this missile's nose cone was a tiny primitive screen.
The pigeons, unfortunately, were also inside the nose cone.
The pigeons were trained to recognize a specific target, and were rewarded for pecking at the
computer screen once the missile was airborne.
Legendary physiologist and behaviorist B.F. Skinner was an early developer of the project,
where he rewarded the pigeons for certain behaviors very consistently until the pigeons
performed the behavior on their own accord.
Research on animals sometimes involves them being harmed or killed.
Some people had issues with this.
Skinner explained that the bird’s losses were justifed, viewing their sacrifice as
small relative to the devastation Hitler’s ruthless bombings were causing.
These are some seriously crazy military projects.
Which one do you think is the most unbelievable?
Let us know in the comments below and don’t forget to like and subscribe for more intense
info!