AATIP
AATIP (Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program) was a U.S. Department of Defense program that investigated unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP) between 2007 and 2012. The program's existence was made public by the New York Times in 2017.
AATIP (Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program) was a Pentagon research program that, according to official information, operated between 2007 and 2012 with a budget of roughly $22 million, and dealt with unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP) and their possible military and security risks. The program was launched at the initiative of then-Democratic Senator Harry Reid, with the support of Senators Ted Stevens and Daniel Inouye, within the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA). Its original name was AAWSAP (Advanced Aerospace Weapon System Applications Program); whether AATIP was its later name or a separate, related initiative is still disputed.
Background and operation
The program awarded contract work to a company called Bigelow Aerospace Advanced Space Studies (BAASS), which was run by Robert Bigelow, a longtime acquaintance of Senator Reid. Under the program, pilot accounts, radar data and video footage were reportedly analyzed, including the Navy footage that later became public.
Disclosure
The existence of AATIP was made public by the New York Times on December 16, 2017, and the Washington Post and Politico also wrote about it on the same day. One of the main sources for the articles was Luis Elizondo, a former intelligence official who presented himself as the program's former director, and who resigned from his position at the Pentagon in October 2017 and pushed for more transparent handling of the subject. His role is disputed: one Pentagon spokesperson referred to him in 2017 as the program's director, while another stated in 2019 that he had no duties in the program. Elizondo then joined Tom DeLonge's organization, To the Stars Academy, which, together with the New York Times, made the three Navy videos public. The Pentagon officially released them in April 2020.
Official finding and disputes
According to the Pentagon, funding for AATIP ended in 2012; according to Elizondo, the work continued in another form afterward. The program's role and actual results are disputed to this day. The Pentagon's UAP investigations were later restarted under new organizational forms: in 2020 the Navy-led UAP Task Force, in 2021 the AOIMSG, and then in 2022 AARO (All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office) took over the task. AARO's 2024 historical report assessed the work of AAWSAP/AATIP critically.