black project

[ blak proj-ekt, -ikt ]

noun

1. a covert undertaking by a country’s military and defense forces, often carried out at a secret location, outside the law and other systems of protection and oversight:

   It would later be revealed that development of the stealth bomber had been a black project with an unlimited “black budget.”

Word History and Origins

Origin of black project¹

Coined in 1727, in the sense of “plotting a mutiny,” by English author Daniel Defoe ( def ) in A New Voyage Round the World by a Course Never Sailed Before