Directorate of Science and Technology
OrgGovernment AgencyDirectorate of Science and Technology
OrgGovernment AgencyThe Directorate of Science and Technology is the CIA's technical branch. It ran the U-2 and OXCART spy planes and is named in 2026 anonymously sourced claims about UFO retrieval programs.
The Directorate of Science and Technology is the CIA's technical branch. It ran the U-2 and OXCART spy planes and is named in 2026 anonymously sourced claims about UFO retrieval programs.
The Directorate of Science and Technology (DS&T) is the scientific and engineering branch of the Central Intelligence Agency and one of its five directorates. Director of Central Intelligence John McCone established it in 1963 to manage the agency's research and development, scientific analysis and technical support to operations. The CIA describes its present work as creating, adapting, developing and operating technical collection systems, in partnership with the military, national laboratories, academia and industry.
The directorate began in 1962 as the Deputy Directorate of Research under Herbert Scoville, took its science-and-technology name in 1963 under Albert Wheelon and adopted its current title in 1965. In 1962 the U-2 reconnaissance program moved into its Office of Special Activities, which also ran the Lockheed A-12 developed under Project OXCART. In 1963 it absorbed the Office of Scientific Intelligence, the office that had convened the Robertson Panel on UFOs a decade earlier, and in 1973 it took over the Office of Technical Service. In 1975 it funded remote-viewing experiments at the Stanford Research Institute, which were not judged a success.
The directorate's spy planes are part of the documented UFO record. The CIA's history of the U-2 and OXCART programs, re-released in June 2026 among the government's UAP files, says high-altitude U-2 testing produced a sharp rise in UFO reports, as airline pilots saw sunlight glinting off aircraft flying far above them, and that U-2 and later OXCART flights accounted for more than half of all UFO reports during the late 1950s and most of the 1960s.
In 2026 the directorate became a focus of anonymously sourced allegations about a hidden crash-retrieval program. Christopher Sharp of Liberation Times reported in May that sources named it, with the Weapons and Counterproliferation Mission Center, among the CIA components historically most involved, and in August that a source described the CIA's chief scientist as the "operational gatekeeper" for retrieval and reverse-engineering programs inside the directorate and its deputy director as the administrative gatekeeper; the article carried no CIA response. Earlier anonymously sourced reports had named a former head of the directorate, Glenn Gaffney, as having blocked a transfer of alleged non-human material from Lockheed Martin. In October Sharp noted that Sean Kirkpatrick, the first director of the Pentagon's UAP office, had joined the directorate as a staff scientist in 2005 under Stephanie O'Sullivan, who led it in the late 2000s and whom Sharp called an "alleged UAP gatekeeper."
No released record ties the directorate to recovered non-human technology, and no CIA response to the 2026 claims has been reported. Its documented history, from the spy planes behind many Cold War UFO reports to the absorption of the office that convened the Robertson Panel, gives it a genuine place in UFO history. Its mandate for technical collection and its ties to contractors and national laboratories explain why disclosure advocates now name it when they ask where a hidden program could be housed.
[Retweeted] Former Pentagon UAP Task Force Director, and Defense Intelligence Senior Executive, Jay Stratton, reveals how Head of CIA’s Directorate of Science and Technology blocked plans to transfer UFO craft of nonhuman origins from the custody of Lockheed Martin to a Pentagon program‼️🛸 https://t.co/yHO6H9LvvC
Weaponized — The Pentagon’s UFO Debunker is Lying — The Sean Kirkpatrick and AARO vs. Robert Bigelow and James Ryder’s narrative of the attempted Lockheed Martin UAP Transfer Thwarted by Glenn Gaffney and the CIA’s Directorate of Science and Technology
[Retweeted] Kirkpatrick worked under alleged UAP gatekeeper Stephanie O’Sullivan TWICE: when she headed the CIA’s DS&T, and when she was Principal Deputy DNI. Public reported she denied a retrieval program’s existence to Rubio. From what I was told, it was very tense. Those ties raise serious questions about potential conflicts during his leadership of AARO.
Kirkpatrick worked under alleged UAP gatekeeper Stephanie O’Sullivan TWICE: when she headed the CIA’s DS&T, and when she was Principal Deputy DNI. Public repor [Quoted] “Dr. Kirkpatrick converted from Air Force to CIA in 2005 where he served as a staff scientist for the Directorate of Science and Technology.” Just sayin’ 🔗 https://t.co/gRqzE1oq8i https://t.co/12YEpnG4Qj
He's soon to be the former operational gatekeeper if he's been outted. https://t.co/Y47XWKZXxv [Quoted] 'Another source told Liberation Times that the CIA’s chief scientist acts as an operational gatekeeper for programs involving the retrieval and reverse-engineering of vehicles allegedly of non-human origin within the Agency’s Directorate of Science and Technology. 'According to the source, the CIA’s deputy director within the Science and Technology directorate serves as the administrative g...
The CIA's chief scientist is a key gatekeeper for classified UFO crash retrieval and reverse engineering programs. When do we subpoena? @RepEricBurlison @RepTi [Quoted] 'Another source told Liberation Times that the CIA’s chief scientist acts as an operational gatekeeper for programs involving the retrieval and reverse-engineering of vehicles allegedly of non-human origin within the Agency’s Directorate of Science and Technology. 'According to the source, the CIA’s deputy director within the...
[Retweeted] 'Another source told Liberation Times that the CIA’s chief scientist acts as an operational gatekeeper for programs involving the retrieval and reverse-engineering of vehicles allegedly of non-human origin within the Agency’s Directorate of Science and Technology. 'According to the source, the CIA’s deputy director within the Science and Technology directorate serves as the administrative gatekeeper for those programs.' https://t.co/vbwhcHyard
[Retweeted] 'Another source told Liberation Times that the CIA’s chief scientist acts as an operational gatekeeper for programs involving the retrieval and reverse-engineering of vehicles allegedly of non-human origin within the Agency’s Directorate of Science and Technology. 'According to the source, the CIA’s deputy director within the Science and Technology directorate serves as the administrative gatekeeper for those programs.' https://t.co/vbwhcHyard
'Another source told Liberation Times that the CIA’s chief scientist acts as an operational gatekeeper for programs involving the retrieval and reverse-engineer [Quoted] Jim Ryder, VP of Lockheed, directly met with Stratton many times and told him he worked on the legacy program and reported directly to Ben Rich. He said only the Directorate of Science and Technology at the CIA had the full picture. The USAF was used for field operations.
[Retweeted] Jim Ryder, VP of Lockheed, directly met with Stratton many times and told him he worked on the legacy program and reported directly to Ben Rich. He said only the Directorate of Science and Technology at the CIA had the full picture. The USAF was used for field operations.
