Research And Development Board
The Research and Development Board (R&D Board) was a high-level US Department of Defense organization established in the late 1940s to coordinate and oversee military research and development activities across all branches of the armed services. According to multiple witness accounts—most notably from Robert Sarbacher—the R&D Board served as the institutional home for a small, highly classified group of scientists tasked with studying recovered UAP craft and materials in the late 1940s and early 1950s. The board was chaired by Dr. Vannevar Bush, one of the most powerful figures in American wartime and postwar science.
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Establishment and Purpose
The R&D Board was created in the immediate aftermath of World War II to ensure that the United States maintained its technological superiority in the emerging Cold War. The board coordinated research efforts across the Army, Navy, and Air Force, overseeing programs related to nuclear weapons, jet propulsion, guided missiles, radar, and other advanced defense technologies.
Membership on the board consisted of senior scientists, engineers, and defense officials with top-level security clearances and access to the nation's most sensitive programs. Vannevar Bush served as chairman, a role that gave him authority over the direction of US military science policy during a critical period.
Alleged UAP Program
In 1950, Wilbert B. Smith—a senior Canadian government radio engineer—met with Robert Sarbacher, a physicist who served as a consultant to the R&D Board. Sarbacher told Smith that:
- The study of flying saucers within the US government was classified at a higher level than the hydrogen bomb.
- Flying saucers exist.
- Their mode of operation is unknown, but a small group headed by Vannevar Bush is making concentrated efforts to study them.
- The entire matter is considered by US authorities to be of tremendous significance.
Sarbacher's testimony placed the R&D Board at the center of the US government's early UAP crash retrieval and reverse engineering efforts. In his 1983 letter to researcher William Steinman, Sarbacher confirmed that he had been invited to participate in several discussions about crash retrievals at the R&D Board, though he did not personally attend. He named Vannevar Bush, John Von Neumann, and J. Robert Oppenheimer as "definitely involved" in the program.
Connection to the Wright Field Meeting
The alleged Wright Field Crash Retrieval Meeting of 1949–1950—attended by Eric Walker and referenced by Sarbacher—is believed to have been organized under the auspices of the R&D Board or its closely related entity, the Defense Research Board. The meeting brought together the nation's top scientists to discuss recovered UAP materials, occupants, and reverse engineering strategies.
Sarbacher's account suggests that the R&D Board's UAP work was compartmentalized even within the board itself, with only a small subset of members—those with a need to know—granted access to the crash retrieval program. This compartmentalization would explain why the program remained secret for decades despite the board's relatively large membership.
Relationship to Majestic 12
The origin of the Majestic 12 documents can be traced conceptually to the R&D Board's structure. The joint Research and Development Board established in 1941 (a precursor organization) consisted of 12 members. The MJ-12 Documents, which describe a secret committee tasked by President Truman with managing UAP crash retrievals, name Vannevar Bush as a member—consistent with Sarbacher's testimony that Bush headed the small group studying flying saucers within the R&D Board.
While many of the MJ-12 documents are considered forgeries, the structural and personnel overlap between the alleged MJ-12 group and the R&D Board—combined with Sarbacher's and Eric Walker's independent confirmations of Bush's involvement—suggests that the R&D Board (or a compartmented subset of it) may have served as the real-world basis for the MJ-12 narrative.
Participants and Members
Known members or consultants to the R&D Board with alleged connections to UAP programs include:
- Vannevar Bush — Chairman; named by Sarbacher as heading the UAP study group.
- Robert Sarbacher — Consultant; confirmed his knowledge of the program in 1950 and 1983.
- Eric Walker — Executive Secretary of the related Defense Research Board (1950–1951); confirmed attending UAP-related meetings.
- John Von Neumann — Consultant; named by Sarbacher as involved in UAP analysis.
- J. Robert Oppenheimer — Consultant; named by Sarbacher as involved in UAP analysis.
Dissolution and Legacy
The R&D Board was eventually reorganized and its functions absorbed into other DoD entities. However, its role during the critical 1947–1952 period—when multiple UAP crashes were alleged to have occurred and the US government was establishing its approach to the phenomenon—places it at the historical center of American UFO secrecy.
The board's legacy in UAP research rests on the testimony of insiders like Sarbacher and Walker, who decades later confirmed that the board had indeed overseen a compartmented program to study recovered non-human technology. The fact that the board was chaired by Vannevar Bush—the architect of the Manhattan Project's predecessor, the Office of Scientific Research and Development—underscores the seriousness with which the UAP question was treated at the highest levels of US defense science.
Role in the Manhattan Project 2.0
UAP Gerb's investigation into the Manhattan Project 2.0 identifies the RDB as the probable "tip of the spear" for the scientific and administrative management of UFO crash retrieval operations from 1947 to 1953. The RDB's mandate under the 1947 National Security Act — to prepare a complete and integrated program of military research and development, advise on trends in scientific research relating to national security, recommend measures of coordination among military departments, and formulate policy for the National Military Establishment in connection with research and development matters involving outside agencies — positioned it as the ideal institutional home for the Manhattan Project 2.0's scientific apparatus.
The RDB was reorganized in 1953 into the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Research and Development, which now exists as the Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering (USDR&E) — a position the host identifies as continuing to be involved in UFO legacy activities alongside the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment (USDANS) and the Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence and Security (USDINS).