Definition of "covert operation" []

• An intelligence operation so planned as to permit plausible denial by the sponsor (noun)

WordNet. Princeton University. 2010.

• "The thundering navy SeaHawk chopper had been scrambled under a covert operation status out of Thule Air Force Base in northern Greenland."
• "At that meeting on Pearl Harbor Day, 1985, when we considered continuing and possibly even expanding the covert operation begun the previous summer, they made their opposition clear to me forcefully."