United States · News

Was the Pentagon's UFO research disguised as a weapons program? The dispute over AAWSAP

5 min read

The name of the US Defense Intelligence Agency's $22 million AAWSAP program points to the study of foreign weapons. According to investigative journalist George Knapp, this was deliberate, and the program was in fact UFO research from the start. The program's former head also backs his claim, but the two of them co-wrote a book about it, and there is no independent official confirmation.

The US Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) program called the Advanced Aerospace Weapon System Applications Program, AAWSAP for short, was a $22 million study. Its name suggests routine intelligence work: the study of foreign weapons development and the future threats arising from it.

According to Las Vegas investigative journalist George Knapp, this was deliberate. In his interview with Mystery Wire, carried by 8 News Now, he put it this way: "That was on purpose. They didn't want to draw attention to what it was really doing." In his words, the program "was UFO stuff from the beginning." The International Business Times reported on the interview on October 20, 2026; the date of the interview itself is not known.

Paper versus practice

Critics of the program point out that neither the official documents nor the contract mention unidentified flying objects, so in their view AAWSAP was not a UFO program. According to Knapp, that is exactly the point: the wording was deliberately chosen to avoid attention, and a distinction must be made between the language of the paperwork and the actual work.

In his argument he cites two influential figures. Senator Harry Reid, who arranged the secret government funding, called AAWSAP a UFO program. So did billionaire Robert Bigelow, whose interest in UFOs goes back decades and whose company, Bigelow Aerospace Advanced Space Studies, carried out the program's work.

What does the program's founder say?

James Lacatski, the DIA scientist who launched the program, was even more emphatic. In a 2021 Mystery Wire interview, he said that AAWSAP was wholly focused on UFOs. He attributed the sparseness of the contract documents to the format used, which did not show the full scope of the project. In his view, more significant is the Bigelow company's proposal, which explicitly outlined the creation of a worldwide database of advanced aerospace vehicles.

According to Lacatski, the program produced more than a hundred UFO reports, including technical studies, and at the time of the interview the US military was still using the program's large UFO database. These claims are not supported by any independent document or official confirmation.

Two witnesses, one book

Knapp and Lacatski appear in the story as witnesses corroborating each other, but they are not independent sources. In 2021, together with Colm Kelleher, they co-wrote a book about the program titled Skinwalkers at the Pentagon. Moreover, Lacatski is not an outside observer: he launched the program himself. This explains why he may know the details well, but also why he is not impartial.

What do we know for certain?

The program's existence and its sponsor are documented. According to records released by the DIA, work under the contract began in August 2008. The program commissioned 38 scientific and technical studies, known as Defense Intelligence Reference Documents (DIRDs), 37 of which the DIA made public in March 2022. These 38 studies are not the same as the "more than a hundred UFO reports" mentioned by Lacatski, and there is no public information on whether the latter or the database linked to the program are accessible.

No official position on the program's actual purpose is known. According to Knapp, some people still deny that AAWSAP dealt with UFO research, even though Reid and Bigelow described it that way.

What do the people around the program claim?

According to Knapp, the program did indeed also examine the question of foreign weapons development, but this did not exclude research into UFOs. The official documents and the contract, however, specifically do not mention unidentified flying objects. Knapp considers this a deliberate effort to avoid attention, and he distinguishes between the language of the paperwork and the actual work. In his argument he points out that Senator Harry Reid, who pushed for the secret government funding, called AAWSAP a UFO program, and that Robert Bigelow, whose interest goes back decades, spoke of it the same way.

In a 2021 interview revisited by Mystery Wire, Dr. James Lacatski was even more categorical: in his view, the program was wholly focused on UFOs. He attributed the sparseness of the contract documents to the format used, which did not disclose the full scope of the project. He considers more significant the proposal from Bigelow Aerospace Advanced Space Studies, which, according to him, explicitly outlined the creation of a worldwide database of advanced aerospace vehicles. The Lacatski statement therefore comes from a separate source, an earlier interview, not from the Knapp interview.

What do we know, and what don't we?

According to Lacatski's claim, AAWSAP produced more than a hundred UFO reports, including technical studies, and at the time of his account the US military was still using the program's large UFO database. In the source there is no independent document or official confirmation for these claims, only the words of those involved.

The dispute remains open: according to Knapp, some people still deny the connection between AAWSAP and UFO research, despite Reid and Bigelow having characterized the program that way. The available notes contain no information on whether an official position on the program's actual purpose exists, nor on whether the reports and database mentioned are publicly accessible.

According to the source, then, the text of the contract and the description given by those involved differ on the program's purpose.

The sober take

Two contradictory pictures exist of AAWSAP's real purpose. The text of the contract speaks of weapons research, while according to the program's founder and its chronicler it was UFO research from the start. Both versions have a reasonable reading:

A vague name is not unusual. Intelligence programs are often given neutral, generic names, and with an unusual subject it is understandable if those commissioning it wanted to avoid attention. This makes Knapp's reading more likely, but does not prove it.
The witnesses are not independent. The claims come from Knapp, Lacatski, Reid and Bigelow, all of whom were creators or supporters of the program, and Knapp and Lacatski co-wrote a book about it. Their word matters, but it does not replace documents.
The documented output is more modest. The 38 released studies exist and can be read. The "more than a hundred UFO reports" and the database still used by the military, however, are known only from Lacatski's words.

The fact that a program was intended as UFO research does not mean it reached any extraordinary result. So the question is not only what the program's purpose was, but also what it found. Based on the public material, there is no answer to that today.