AATIP: the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program, fully sourced
The AATIP record — the Pentagon's Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program first revealed publicly in the December 2017 New York Times investigation — and the related programs (AAWSAP, BAASS, the UAP Task Force, AOIMSG) that connect it to today's AARO.
The Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program (AATIP) was a Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) effort active roughly 2007-2012, funded under the Defense appropriations bill at the request of then-Sen. Harry Reid. Its existence became public in the December 16, 2017 New York Times piece by Helene Cooper, Ralph Blumenthal, and Leslie Kean, which named former DoD official Luis Elizondo as the program's director.
AATIP is sometimes confused with AAWSAP — the Advanced Aerospace Weapon System Applications Program — which was the contracting vehicle that funded much of the same work via Bigelow Aerospace Advanced Space Studies (BAASS).
The AATIP/AAWSAP record is also the link between modern UAP investigation and earlier U.S. government programs. The 2020 establishment of the UAP Task Force (UAPTF), the 2021 establishment of the Airborne Object Identification and Management Synchronization Group (AOIMSG), and the 2022 establishment of AARO are all institutional successors to AATIP.
This page tracks the original 2017 NYT story, every subsequent disclosure about AATIP and AAWSAP, and the public statements of named officials connected to them.
On June 9, 2026, UAP whistleblower David Grusch joined a bipartisan group of House members on the steps of the U.S. Capitol to demand that the federal government declassify and publish its records on unidentified anomalous phenomena. Reps. Anna Paulina Luna, Eric Burlison, Tim Burchett, and Jared Moskowitz appeared alongside investigative journalist Leslie Kean and documentary filmmaker James Fox, pressing Congress to pass the UAP Disclosure Act and to ensure that career intelligence officials do not obstruct the administration's declassification directive. At the lectern Grusch went further than usual on the nature of the phenomena, telling reporters the government is aware of 'several' kinds of non-human life, ranging from 'corporeal bipedal type life' to what he called 'sentient plasma life.'
A first-person USPER narrative published as the centerpiece of PURSUE Release 02 by a currently-serving senior U.S. intelligence officer who describes 'a series of close UAP encounters lasting over an hour' from a U.S. military helicopter in late 2025: two oval orange-with-white-center orbs stationary just above the rotor disk, a swarm of smaller orbs forming a triangular pattern, and a fighter scramble in which the same orbs trailed the responding jets.
The House Oversight Committee Subcommittee on Cybersecurity, Information Technology, and Government Innovation, chaired by Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.), holds a public hearing titled 'Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena: Eyes on the Sky, Secrets in the Dark,' featuring testimony from former military and intelligence officials.
Former intelligence officer David Grusch, retired Navy Cmdr. David Fravor, and retired Navy Lt. Ryan Graves testify under oath before the House Oversight Subcommittee on National Security, the Border, and Foreign Affairs. Grusch states that the U.S. government operates a long-running classified program to retrieve and reverse-engineer non-human craft.
The House Intelligence Subcommittee on Counterterrorism, Counterintelligence, and Counterproliferation holds the first open congressional hearing on UAP in fifty-three years. Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence Ronald Moultrie and Deputy Director of Naval Intelligence Scott Bray testify.
Helene Cooper, Ralph Blumenthal, and Leslie Kean publish a front-page New York Times investigation revealing the existence of the Department of Defense's Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program. The story includes a release of the 'FLIR1' video and on-the-record statements from former AATIP director Luis Elizondo.
A Navy ATFLIR clip appears to show a small object streaking just above the Atlantic. Officially released in April 2020 alongside FLIR1 and GIMBAL, GO FAST became the clearest case study in how sensor geometry can mislead: analyses using the video's own displayed data — including AARO's published assessment — put the object several thousand feet up, moving far slower than it appears.
An F/A-18F crew from the USS Theodore Roosevelt's air wing records an infrared object with no visible exhaust that appears to rotate in flight while the crew reports a formation of additional objects on their situational-awareness display. One of three videos the Pentagon officially confirmed authentic in April 2020 — and the only one of the three with no published resolution.
F/A-18F crews assigned to Strike Fighter Squadron 11, operating from Naval Air Station Oceana, report routine encounters with UAP off the U.S. East Coast. Two of the three Pentagon-released videos — 'GIMBAL' and 'GO FAST' — are recorded during this period.
The Defense Intelligence Agency awards the Advanced Aerospace Weapon System Applications Program (AAWSAP) contract to Bigelow Aerospace Advanced Space Studies. Roughly $22 million flows through the program from 2008 to 2010, and Skinwalker Ranch — owned by the contractor's founder — becomes its primary field laboratory.
Dozens of residents around Stephenville, Texas, report large, fast-moving, brightly lit objects in the night sky. A subsequent FOIA release of FAA radar data confirms anomalous tracks consistent with witness reports.
United Airlines ground personnel, mechanics, and pilots at Chicago O'Hare International Airport report a metallic, disc-shaped object hovering at low altitude above gate C-17, then ascending rapidly through the cloud deck. The Federal Aviation Administration confirms the report but declines to investigate.
Aircrews from the USS Nimitz Carrier Strike Group report repeated radar contacts and a daylight visual encounter with a small, white, smooth, Tic Tac–shaped object during a training exercise in the Pacific. One of three Pentagon videos later released by the Department of Defense (FLIR1) documents a portion of the event.
Thousands of witnesses across Arizona report a large V-shaped formation of lights moving slowly southward over the state, followed by a separate set of stationary lights over Phoenix. The Air Force later attributes the second event to flares dropped during a training exercise; the first remains unexplained.
Approximately sixty-two children at the Ariel School in Ruwa, Zimbabwe, report observing a silvery craft and small humanoid figures during morning recess. The case is documented by Harvard psychiatrist Dr. John E. Mack and remains one of the most-cited mass-witness child reports.
Hundreds of witnesses across Belgium, including dozens of national and federal police officers, report large, silent, triangular craft moving at low altitude over the country. The Belgian Air Force scrambles F-16s on 30–31 March 1990 and obtains a brief radar lock that is later attributed to anomalous propagation.
Capt. Kenju Terauchi reports two small craft and a much larger, walnut-shaped 'mothership' alongside a Japan Airlines 747 cargo flight transiting Alaskan airspace. The objects are corroborated by FAA ground radar at Anchorage Center.
Three Texas residents report a close-range encounter with a diamond-shaped object emitting intense heat, escorted overhead by approximately twenty-three twin-rotor military helicopters. All three subsequently report serious medical injuries.
Two Imperial Iranian Air Force F-4 Phantoms intercept an unidentified object over Tehran. Both pilots report electronic-system failures, and one reports temporary loss of weapons control. A four-page Defense Intelligence Agency report on the case is later released under FOIA.
The Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program — a Defense Intelligence Agency program that ran from approximately 2007 through 2012 to investigate unidentified aerial phenomena reports from U.S. military sources.
Who was the director of AATIP?
Luis Elizondo, a former U.S. Department of Defense intelligence official, has stated publicly and under oath that he led AATIP. The DoD has at times disputed the program's specific name and scope while acknowledging Elizondo's broader UAP-related work.
What's the difference between AATIP and AAWSAP?
AAWSAP — the Advanced Aerospace Weapon System Applications Program — was the official funding contract awarded by the DIA to Bigelow Aerospace Advanced Space Studies (BAASS) in 2008. AATIP was the broader umbrella term Elizondo and others have used for the UAP investigation activity that AAWSAP funded. The two terms are often used interchangeably in popular accounts.
Is AATIP still operating?
No — the program was effectively discontinued in 2012 when funding ended. Its institutional successors are the UAP Task Force (2020), AOIMSG (2021), and ultimately AARO (2022). The 2017 NYT story revealed AATIP retroactively after its funding had ended.
Where can I read the original AATIP documents?
The original NYT story, plus the BAASS contract documents released through FOIA, are linked from individual events on this page. The full BAASS reports — the so-called 'DIRDs' or Defense Intelligence Reference Documents — were released piecemeal between 2018 and 2024.
Canonical reading on this topic
Non-fiction titles by named witnesses, Pentagon insiders, and investigative journalists referenced in this archive.
Skinwalkers at the Pentagon
James Lacatski, Colm Kelleher & George Knapp · 2021
U.S. material is the single largest body in the public UAP record, but it isn't the only one. France's GEIPAN has run a transparent case database since 1977; the UK MoD released ~60,000 pages between 2008 and 2017; Japan's evolving track is the program currently moving fastest in 2026. Every state-run UAP-investigation body with a public archive — fifteen countries to date — is catalogued in one place.