Maybe some submarines are cutting some deep sea cables? In actuality it's probably massive backbone upgrades that are classified, the NSA has to obtain real-time data from somewhere.
I agree with you on all points, but they are already disclosing the late 80s technology to the general public with the SR-72. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lockheed_Martin_SR-72) Allegedly, Ben Rich of Skunk Works after he retired in 1991 gave a presentation at UCLA chronicling his career and hinted at the Aurora and that "we now have the technology to send ET home" so we probably have some new type of propulsion system that makes planes interstellar. This is all speculation though.
What's really fascinating is the x-37b https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_X-37 we have an autonomous space craft in orbit for years, yet I never head anything about it. It's part DARPA project so, it's probably some sort reconnaissance experiment.
I could go on and on, I just find this all fascinating.
The Aurora project and TR3-B were successful. There's no chance we don't have a few of them in Dreamland or off the intercontinental self where we simply use them for reconnaissance. Just look at the old F-16 pilot footage from 2007, it was a controlled leak to see how the government would react to such technology, just like the disclosure of Area 51 (Bob Lazar) after satellite imagery was beginning to become popular.