For five years, the U.S. government quietly spent $22 million studying unidentified aerial phenomena. The program was hidden inside the Defense Intelligence Agency, contracted to a private aerospace company, and funded at the personal request of the Senate Majority Leader. When it ended on paper, a Pentagon insider kept it alive on his own. When he quit, he told the New York Times. And the modern era of UAP disclosure began.
TL;DR: In 2007, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid secured $22 million in funding for a secret Pentagon program to study unidentified aerial phenomena. Officially called AAWSAP, later known as AATIP, the program was run by the Defense Intelligence Agency and contracted to a private company owned by Nevada billionaire Robert Bigelow. It produced hundreds of pages of reports and 38 technical papers on advanced propulsion and materials. When the program’s funding ended in 2012, a Pentagon official named Luis Elizondo continued the work. He resigned in 2017, became the source for a New York Times exposé, and blew the lid off the government’s UFO investigation. The Pentagon confirmed the program existed. What followed was a chain of successor programs that continues today. Sources linked below.
Timeline
2007 Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV), at the urging of his friend and Nevada billionaire Robert Bigelow, secures a $22 million earmark in the Defense Intelligence Agency budget. The program is officially named the Advanced Aerospace Weapon System Applications Program (AAWSAP). Senators Ted Stevens (R-AK) and Daniel Inouye (D-HI) support the funding. The contract is awarded to Bigelow Aerospace Advanced Space Studies (BAASS), a subsidiary of Bigelow Aerospace.
2007-2010 AAWSAP operates through BAASS, conducting research into unexplained aerial phenomena. The program generates a 494-page “Ten Month Report” documenting worldwide UFO sightings over several decades. Monthly reports are sent to the Defense Intelligence Agency. The program also commissions 38 technical papers covering advanced propulsion, materials science, space-time metric engineering, and other topics related to the observed capabilities of UAP.
2008-2010 AAWSAP investigators are sent to Skinwalker Ranch in Utah, a property associated with reports of paranormal activity. The ranch was previously owned by Robert Bigelow. The investigations are part of the broader AAWSAP research portfolio, which includes both aerial phenomena and related anomalous events.
2009 Reid writes a letter to Deputy Secretary of Defense William Lynn stating that the program has made “much progress” and recommending the creation of a special access program for specific classified aspects. The letter is later obtained and published by KLAS-TV investigative journalists George Knapp and Matt Adams.
2010-2012 As AAWSAP’s contract with BAASS ends, the program continues under the name AATIP (Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program) within the Pentagon. Luis Elizondo, a career intelligence officer, takes over leadership of the program. Elizondo focuses specifically on UAP encounters reported by military personnel, particularly incidents involving Navy pilots.
2012 The Department of Defense officially ends AATIP funding. However, Elizondo continues to operate the program using existing resources and his own authority as a Pentagon intelligence official.
October 2017 Luis Elizondo resigns from the Department of Defense, citing excessive secrecy and internal resistance to investigating UAP. In his resignation letter to Defense Secretary James Mattis, Elizondo writes that the government needed to take the UAP issue more seriously.
December 16, 2017 The New York Times publishes an exposé revealing the existence of AATIP, its $22 million budget, and Elizondo’s role. The story, reported by Helene Cooper, Ralph Blumenthal, and Leslie Kean, also reveals three declassified Navy UAP videos. The Pentagon confirms the program and its budget. The story transforms public and Congressional awareness of government UAP investigation.
2018 Elizondo joins To The Stars Academy of Arts and Sciences (TTSA), founded by former Blink-182 musician Tom DeLonge, as Director of Global Security and Special Programs. He continues to advocate for UAP transparency.
2020 The Pentagon officially establishes the Unidentified Aerial Phenomena Task Force (UAPTF), acknowledging that UAP investigation continues after AATIP. The three Navy videos that Elizondo helped declassify are officially released by the Pentagon in April 2020.
2021 UAPTF is replaced by the Airborne Object Identification and Management Synchronization Group (AOIMSG).
2022 AOIMSG is replaced by the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO), a permanent Pentagon office with broader authority and Congressional reporting requirements.
March 2026 Navy FOIA records reveal that the program was discussed during a classified 2022 Pentagon briefing with unidentified attendees, suggesting the program’s activities remained relevant to ongoing classified assessments years after its official end.
AATIP and AAWSAP: The Pentagon’s Real UFO Programs
The two names are often used interchangeably, but they refer to distinct phases of the same effort.
AAWSAP (Advanced Aerospace Weapon System Applications Program) was the original program name. It operated from 2007 to approximately 2010 as a DIA-managed contract with Bigelow Aerospace Advanced Space Studies. AAWSAP had a broader mandate: it investigated not only aerial phenomena but also related anomalous events, including activity at Skinwalker Ranch. The program produced the 494-page Ten Month Report and the 38 technical papers. Its focus was as much on scientific research and technology assessment as on case investigation.
AATIP (Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program) was the Pentagon-facing name that continued after the AAWSAP contract ended. Under Luis Elizondo’s leadership from approximately 2010 to 2017, AATIP focused specifically on UAP encounters involving military assets, particularly Navy pilots. Elizondo’s program collected case data, investigated incidents, and advocated for formal reporting mechanisms within the Pentagon. When AATIP’s funding was officially cut in 2012, Elizondo continued the work using existing authorities.
The distinction matters because the Pentagon has at times tried to minimize AATIP’s scope. In 2017, the Pentagon initially denied that Elizondo had any role in AATIP, a claim contradicted by documents obtained by Popular Mechanics showing Elizondo was running the program.
The 38 Technical Papers
One of the most significant outputs of the AAWSAP program was a series of 38 technical papers commissioned from various scientists and researchers. The papers covered topics including:
Advanced propulsion concepts, including warp drives and space-time metric engineering. Materials analysis related to reported UAP characteristics. Invisibility and cloaking technologies. Extra dimensions and their potential role in observed phenomena. High-energy physics relevant to the performance characteristics reported in UAP encounters.
Physicist Hal Puthoff, a researcher known for his work on remote viewing and zero-point energy, was involved in commissioning and reviewing several of the papers. The papers were produced as part of the DIA contract and submitted to the agency as program deliverables.
Senator Reid referenced these papers when he later said “hundreds and hundreds of papers” were available from the program and that “80 percent at least, is public.” He expressed frustration that the media and public had not examined the materials: “I wanted it public, it was made public, and you guys have not even looked at it.”
The full set of papers has not been widely analyzed by the scientific community. Some researchers have criticized the papers as speculative rather than empirical, while others see them as a legitimate attempt to explore theoretical frameworks for observed phenomena.
The Pentagon’s Contradictions
The relationship between the Pentagon and the AATIP story has been marked by contradictory statements.
2017: After the New York Times exposé, the Pentagon confirmed the program existed and received $22 million in funding. However, the Pentagon stated the program ended in 2012.
2019-2020: The Pentagon denied that Elizondo had any role in AATIP, stating he had “no assigned responsibilities” related to the program. Elizondo produced documentation, including his resignation letter addressed to the Secretary of Defense, contradicting this claim.
2020: Popular Mechanics obtained internal Pentagon documents showing that the program continued after the AAWSAP contract ended, that Elizondo was running it, and that efforts to examine UAP were “still currently underway” at the time of the documents.
2022: The establishment of AARO as a permanent office effectively confirmed that the government’s UAP investigation, which began with AAWSAP/AATIP, never truly stopped.
The pattern of denial followed by confirmation has become a recurring feature of the government’s handling of UAP programs. Elizondo has described this pattern as evidence of institutional resistance to transparency.
The Chain of Successor Programs
AATIP did not die when its funding ended. Instead, it spawned a series of successor programs, each expanding in scope and visibility:
AATIP (2007-2017) The original. Secret, $22 million, DIA-managed, later Pentagon-run.
UAPTF (2020-2021) Established after the Pentagon acknowledged the program’s existence. Run by the Navy. Focused on UAP encounters reported by military personnel.
AOIMSG (2021-2022) Replaced UAPTF with broader synchronization across military branches. Criticized for limited authority and resources.
AARO (2022-present) The current office. Established with Congressional mandate, annual reporting requirements, and authority to investigate UAP across all domains (air, sea, space, and transmedium). Reports to the Deputy Secretary of Defense.
This chain of programs, each replacing the last, demonstrates both the persistence of government interest in UAP and the difficulty of maintaining a consistent organizational approach. The programs also connect to the broader UAP legislative effort, including the UAP Disclosure Act, which was partly driven by allegations that AATIP’s findings were being withheld from Congress.
Opposing Perspectives
The case for significance: Supporters argue that AAWSAP/AATIP represents proof that the U.S. government has taken UAP seriously for decades, despite public dismissals. The $22 million investment, the technical papers, the 494-page report, and the chain of successor programs all suggest genuine institutional interest. Elizondo’s resignation and subsequent advocacy, combined with the Pentagon’s contradictory statements, lend credibility to claims that the government is withholding information about UAP.
The skeptical case: Critics note several concerns. The program was initiated at the urging of Robert Bigelow, a billionaire with personal interests in the paranormal, who then received the contract. This raises questions about conflicts of interest. The 38 technical papers have been criticized as speculative rather than empirical. The Skinwalker Ranch investigations included paranormal research that many scientists consider outside legitimate inquiry. And $22 million over five years is a modest budget for a Pentagon program, suggesting it may not have been considered high-priority by the defense establishment.
The Pentagon’s position: The Department of Defense has confirmed AATIP existed and received funding but has consistently downplayed its findings. The Pentagon has stated that no evidence of extraterrestrial technology was found. The contradictory statements about Elizondo’s role remain unexplained.
What would settle it: The 494-page Ten Month Report, the full set of 38 technical papers, and the classified assessments produced by AATIP during Elizondo’s tenure have not been fully released. If these documents contain substantive analysis of UAP cases, they could validate the program’s significance. If they are primarily catalogues of unverified reports, the case for the program’s importance weakens.
Sources
Reporting
- New York Times – On the Trail of a Secret Pentagon U.F.O. Program (December 16, 2017)
- Popular Mechanics – Inside the Pentagon’s Secret UFO Program (February 14, 2020)
- Popular Mechanics – He Ran the Pentagon’s UFO Unit (December 3, 2025)
- IBTimes – Navy FOIA Bombshell as Secret UFO Program AATIP Resurfaces (March 2026)
- HowStuffWorks – What We Do and Don’t Know About the Pentagon’s Secret UFO Program (November 1, 2024)
- Wikipedia – Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program