Advanced Aerospace Weapons System Application Program (AAWSAP)

NOTE: Despite being linked below (Secondary Source) Wikipedia is a well-documented disinformation source on UAP related materials. Their page on AAWSAP is incorrect in numerous ways. Do not use is as an information source on this topic. The link is included for the search engines, which assign high credibility to Wikipedia.

Twelve technical study areas included:

• Lift
• Propulsion
• Control
• Power generation
• Spatial/temporal translation
• Materials
• Configuration and structure
• Signature reduction (optical, infrared, radiofrequency, acoustic)
• Human interface
• Human effects
• Armament (RF and directed-energy weapons)
• Related supporting topics

Deliverables called for monthly reports, management plans for each area, comprehensive research reports, and a final integrated threat assessment. Work was to be performed by teams with substantial expertise in breakthrough aerospace research (including PhD-level personnel) and could involve classified information up to TS/SCI.

Background and History

AAWSAP originated from interest inside DIA’s Defense Warning Office. James Lacatski (a DIA engineer/intelligence officer) became interested in high-strangeness and UAP-related reports, including those associated with Skinwalker Ranch in Utah (previously researched privately by Bigelow’s National Institute for Discovery Science / NIDS and described in the 2005 book Hunt for the Skinwalker by Colm Kelleher and George Knapp). Lacatski visited the ranch in 2007.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV), with support from Sens. Ted Stevens (R-AK) and Daniel Inouye (D-HI), secured approximately $22 million in congressional funding. The program name and public solicitation were deliberately framed around “advanced aerospace weapon system applications” and foreign-threat assessment rather than UFOs, to facilitate funding and reduce visibility.

BAASS was awarded the sole contract. In practice, beyond the DIRD technical studies, BAASS conducted field investigations, collected UAP case data (including military encounters such as the 2004 Nimitz “Tic Tac” incident), built a large data warehouse of cases, examined biomedical/physiological effects, and performed ongoing research at Skinwalker Ranch. Program participants (Lacatski, Kelleher, Knapp) describe this dual mandate in the 2021 book Skinwalkers at the Pentagon.

In 2009, Sen. Reid requested that portions of the effort be elevated to a Restricted Special Access Program (SAP). DIA and DoD leadership (including Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence James Clapper and Deputy Secretary William Lynn) declined, judging that the deliverables did not justify SAP protection and were of limited value to DIA.

The formal contract was not renewed beyond the exercised option year. After the funded period ended, some related informal UAP interest continued inside DoD under the AATIP moniker (described by AARO as never an official program with dedicated personnel or budget). A later attempt to revive aspects of the work under DHS as “KONA BLUE” was not successful.

Key Outputs

• Approximately 38 Defense Intelligence Reference Documents (DIRDs) — technical surveys/literature reviews on topics including warp drive, traversable wormholes, antigravity, metamaterials, negative energy, human biological effects of anomalous fields, etc. DIA released 37 of them via FOIA in 2022.
• Additional technical reports, management plans, and a data warehouse of UAP cases.
• Field investigation reports and biomedical data (much of this remains less publicly available than the DIRDs).

Additional Sources

There are two important books covering AAWSAP:

Skinwalkers at the Pentagon (2021) by James T. Lacatski, Colm A. Kelleher, and George Knapp – a first-person account by the principal program managers.

Out of the Shadows (2026) by Jay Stratton – another first-person account by the most senior official in the U.S. government to study UAP.