January 1, 2004🇺🇸Disclosure
WhistleblowerDeclassification

Nevada: CIA releases Area 51 U-2/Oxcart program history

The Central Intelligence Agency provided historical records regarding the U-2 and Oxcart reconnaissance programs to The Black Vault. These papers documented the intelligence agency's involvement with the Nevada testing facility. The release predated the publicized 2013 declassification by nearly a decade.

Date
January 1, 2004
Location
Area 51Nevada🇺🇸
Type
Disclosure
Country
🇺🇸 United States
Map
📍 Operating under the names Homey Airport and Groom Lake, the US Air Force has maintained a highly restricted test facility in southern Nevada since the 1950s. During the Cold War, spy aircraft like the U-2 and A-12 were developed here — projects whose secrecy triggered numerous UFO reports in the region. The site became synonymous with alleged extraterrestrial technology in 1989, when Bob Lazar claimed to have worked on reverse-engineering a recovered craft there. Washington did not officially confirm the facility's existence until 2013.

Background

Via TheBlackVault.com (FOIA), the CIA released a 407-page document titled 'The Central Intelligence Agency and Overhead Reconnaissance: The U-2 and Oxcart Programs' from 1992. This publication detailed the agency's role in operating the secretive Nevada airfield for high-altitude reconnaissance aircraft testing. The 2004 release provided comprehensive historical context about Area 51's function during the Cold War era. Despite later media reports in 2013 describing similar releases as the 'first ever' admission of the base's existence, these records had already been available through FOIA since 2004.

Connections