The general public found out about the project 30 years after it had been developed by Lockheed Martin Skunk Works . The SR-71 program required thousand of contractors and military personnel to develop and maintain the program yet there were no substantial leaks to the general public. The secrecy was maintained by compartmentalizing the information on the secret project. Only a few key individuals had the complete picture of the covert program while the majority of the workers had limited amounts of information given to them on a 'need to know' basis. Individuals who were entrusted with classified information were carefully screened and tested before they attained the required security clearance needed to work on the project.
Critics believe that it is impossible for the government to keep even the smallest of secrets.
They believe that the vast network required to create and maintain this global conspiracy would soon cause its downfall-all it takes is one small leak of evidence. Critics find it hard to believe that the governments of the world can cooperate to keep the biggest discovery of mankind secret while their own internal departments can't cooperate with one another. The previous list represents only the intelligence agencies in the United States. To maintain a cloak of global secrecy every intelligence agency around the world must cooperate with one another. If the world's intelligence agencies are able to cooperate with one another to keep extra terrestrial contact secret it would be one of mankind's greatest achievements-but an achievement that goes unnoticed by the public.