AATIP/AAWSAP - the publicly available documentation on these programs

Introduction

I was asked a question the other day. It was "How much official documentation about the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program (AATIP)  and the Advanced Aerospace Weapon System Applications Program (AAWSAP), is available publicly?" To answer this question I needed to prepare a list, which you can read below. For a comprehensive listing, and links to mass media material, about AATIP/AAWSAP, I would direct you to the excellent work of journalist Giuliano Marinkovic here.

August 2008

On 18 August 2008, the Virginia Contracting Activity, based at Bolling Air Force Base, Washington, issued a 32 page solicitation/contract/order for commercial items, number HHM402-08-R-0211. The Virginia Contracting Activity is the contracting arm of the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA). The solicitation was slightly amended, by versions dated 20 August 2008 and 22 August 2008. 

Source: http://www.fbodaily.com/archive/2008/08-August/20-Aug-2008/FBO-01643684.htm

Attachment 1 to the solicitation, dated 18 July 2008, sets out the program objectives.

Source: http://www.fbodaily.com/archive/2008/08-August/20-Aug-2008/FBO-01643684.htm

"The objective of this program is to understand the physics and engineering of these applications as they apply to the foreign threat out to the far term, ie from now through the year 2050. Primary focus is on breakthrough technologies and applications that create discontinuities in currently evolving technology trends." Technical studies in 12 areas were required, including in the areas of propulsion; signature reduction and human effects.

The closing date for bids was 5 September 2008. However, despite a comprehensive search of US government solicitations and contracts awarded, including those listed on Federal Business Opportunities;   US Department of Defense Contracts;  and USA government spending, no one has been able to find a public announcement of the company who was successful in winning the contract.

I was, however, able to locate a website snapshot using the Wayback machine which, dated 12 September 2008,  provided a listing of careers within the Bigelow Aerospace Advanced Space Studies company (BAASS)  which matched those areas of expertise listed in the DIA solicitation. The language used in the preamble to the advertised jobs contained identical words to some found in the solicitation. One can therefore deduce from this, that it was BAASS which was the successful company, even though there was no public announcement.

Las Vegas based journalist George Knapp interviewed Robert Bigelow on the coasttocoastam radio show in September 2008, about the work of BAASS. Bigelow, however,  did not state that his funding was from the DIA. Knapp, in a 2018 radio interview, also stated that there was only one other bidder for the contract, and this was the aerospace company Lockheed Martin.

In a digital piece, dated 4 May 2018, written by George Knapp and Matt Adams, it stated, inter alia, "In Aug 2008, DIA posted a solicitation for bids. Weeks later, the contract was awarded to Bigelow Aerospace, the initial amount was $10 million." The written piece was accompanied by the following images:

Source: https://www.lasvegasnow.com/news/i-team-documents-prove-secret-ufo-study-based-in-nevada/1160375205

In the copy of the solicitation I located, areas 17a "Contractor" and 26 "Total award amount" are blank. In the Knapp/Adams version they have been filled in, indicating that Knapp/Adams have, at least. a part of the solicitation/contract which indicates that BAASS were the successful contractor. However, this "contract" has not been fully, publicly released to date.

In summary, we have this piece of documentation about the AAWSAP. However, it should be clearly stated, that no where in the solicitation does it state that the AAWSAP was to study "UFOs."

24 June 2009

On 3 April 2018, US researcher John Greenwald received an email from Andricia Harris, MAJ USARMY OSD PA (US). In part it read "AATIP was funded in the July 2008 Supplemental Appropriations Bill (a Sen Harris add.) Its mandate, as outlined in a 2009 letter from Reid to DSD..."

Source:http://www.theblackvault.com/casefiles/to-the-stars-academy-of-arts-science-tom-delonge-and-the-secret-dod-ufo-research-program/# 

Harris advised Greenwald, that she did not have a copy of that letter in her possession.

Swedish researcher Roger Glassel also communicated with Major Harris. Her email response, also mentioned the 2009 Reid letter. (See update at the end of this blog)

In a 28 June 2018 KLAS TV story, reporters George Knapp and Matt Adams revealed that they held a copy of the letter, and the story included the following images:

I decided to look for a copy of the letter in the former Senator Reid's Congressional papers, which I found out were archived at the University of Nevada-Reno.  I corresponded with the Harry Reid Papers Archivist, Ian M McGlory, who in an email dated 31 July 2018 advised me that due to the size of the collection "we currently wouldn't be able to find something as specific as what you are looking for."

Fortunately, on 25 July 2018 reporters George Knapp and Matt Adams released the full, four page letter, imaged below:

I presented the text of the entire letter in a blog post dated 29 July 2018. 

In short, the letter stated that in September 2008 Congress had mandated the DIA to assess :...far-term foreign advanced aerospace threats..." This is clearly a reference to the 2008 DIA solicitation re AASWAP, though Reid refers to the program as AATIP. Reid went on to suggest to the DOD that the program become a "Restricted Special-Access-Program." It should be noted, that as with the DIA solicitation itself, there is no mention of the subject of "UFOs."

2009

On 7 August 2018, a number of items were revealed to have been sitting on a US website, which were of relevance to our study. Amongst these items were a series of jpeg images of what appeared to be an AATIP slide briefing presentation. These had never been publicly available before. I wrote up a full description of the contents of the slides in a blog post dated 9 August 2018.

Among the slides was the following text:

* A request for the establishment of a special-access-program for specific parts of AATIP

* That the AATIP mission included "To further identify, understand and take advantage of a generation of highly advanced technology and principles..."

* "Preliminary evidence indicates that the United States is incapable of defending itself towards some of these technologies..."

There is reference to items which we read about in the 2008 DIA AAWSAP solicitation, though here in these slides the program is called the AATIP.

2010

On a Coast to Coast radio show interview dated 28 January 2018, between George Knapp and Dr Eric W Davis, Davis outlined his subcontractor role with BAASS. One of the things which he and EarthTech International colleague Hal Puthoff commissioned, was a series of 38 expert studies. The DIA prepared a set of Defense Intelligence Reference Documents (DIRDs) from these studies. The DIA documents stated that these were relating to the AAWSAP.

The EarthTech website contains a list of six such documents, imaged below:

Source: http://earthtech.org/pubs/davis/

A search of the Internet revealed that two of the above Davis DIA AAWSAP documents, were online as early as 18 December 2017 on a website run by US researcher Coorey Goode. 

A third DIA AAWSAP DIRD surfaced in a report by George Knapp and Matt Adams dated 5 May 2018. The DIRD was authored by EarthTech's Hal Puthoff.

How do we know that these documents were in fact prepared under the AAWSAP? Inside each of the three DIRDs so far available, there is the following text, which I image below:

How do we know that Davis and Puthoff authored these documents? Davis confirmed this to UK researcher Isaac Koi by email, and Puthoff confirmed this to me by email.

In a KLAS TV report dated 25 July 2018, reporters Knapp and Adams published a copy of a list of the 38 DIRDs. The source of the list was not stated, though former AATIP program manager Luis Elizondo confirmed that the list was genuine. I analysed the list in a blog post dated 1 August 2018. 

Source: https://media.lasvegasnow.com/nxsglobal/lasvegasnow/document_dev/2018/07/25/list_of_studies_1532565541010_49621331_ver1.0.pdf

You will note that none of these DIRD's mentions the word "UFOs."

27 November 2017

On 13 October 2017, US researcher John Greenwald submitted an FOIA request to the Department of Defense, for information on the program which he only knew to be called something like the "Department of Defense Aerospace Threat Program."  In a letter dated 27 November 2017, the Department of Defense stated that: "no records of the kind you described could be identified."

Source: http://www.theblackvault.com/casefiles/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/2017-12-16_10-58-12.jpg

9 April 2018

Swedish researcher Roger Glassel located an item regarding the AATIP in the "Congressional Record" which is the official record of the proceedings and debates of the US Congress.

Volume 164, number 56, page H3062, dated 9 April 2018, carried the following text:

"4381. A letter from the Chief, Congressional Relations Division, Defense Intelligence Agency, Department of Defense, transmitting a list of all products produced under the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program contract for the Defense Intelligence Agency to publish, to the Committee on Armed Services."

Source: https://www.congress.gov/crec/2018/04/09/CREC-2018-04-09-pt1-PgH3062.pdf

June 2018

At the June 2018 MUFON Conference, one of the speakers was former AATIP manager Luis Elizondo who gave a speech about the AATIP. He illustrated his talk with a number of slides which included the following:

September 2018

US researcher John Greenwald noticed that the Intellipedia page on the subject of Unidentified Flying Objects now contained a reference to the AATIP.  However, the entry contained only public source information, and added nothing new to our knowledge base. 

In summary

 It can be seen from all of the above material, that our knowledge of this program has come from a variety of sources; namely; journalists; the former manager of the AATIP; and civilian researchers. It is this collaborative effort, in my opinion; together with the work of such private companies such as To The Stars Academy, which will continue to unearth further documentation. I am aware that there are a large number of outstanding AATIP related US Freedom of Information Act requests, with the Department of Defense; the US Navy; the Central Intelligence Agency; the Defense Intelligence Agency, and other US agencies; which may, in time, add to what we know. I may well have missed some relevant documentation in my compilation above, so happy to hear from any observant blog reader.

Update: 28 December 2018

Roger Glassel advise me that  Major Harris' email reply to him was dated 3 May 2018. The response read:

"AATIP was funded in the July 2008 Supplemental Appropriations Bill (a Sen Harry Reid add). Its mandate, as outlined in a 2009 letter from Reid to DSD, was to assess "far-term foreign advanced aerospace threats the United States, "including anomalous events (such as sightings of aerodynamic vehicles engaged in extreme maneuvers, with unique phenomenology, reported by U.S.Navy pilots or other credible sources). AATIP was terminated in 2012 due to lack of real progress and concerns about the viability of the program."