Pentagon Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program (AATIP) UFO Program, 2007–2017

“In the $600 billion annual Defense Department budgets, the $22 million spent on the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program was almost impossible to find.”

“It was run by a military intelligence official, Luis Elizondo, on the fifth floor of the Pentagon's C Ring, deep within the building's maze.”

“For years, the program investigated reports of unidentified flying objects, according to Defense Department officials, interviews with program participants and records obtained by The New York Times.”

“The Defense Department has never before acknowledged the existence of the program”

“which it says it shut down in 2012”

“But its backers say that, while the Pentagon ended funding for the effort at that time, the program remains in existence. For the past five years, they say, officials with the program have continued to investigate episodes brought to them by service members, while also carrying out their other Defense Department duties.”

“The shadowy program — parts of it remain classified — began in 2007”

“initially it was largely funded at the request of Harry Reid, the Nevada Democrat who was the Senate majority leader at the time and who has long had an interest in space phenomena”

“Most of the money went to an aerospace research company run by a billionaire entrepreneur and longtime friend of Mr. Reid's, Robert Bigelow”

“which began as part of the Defense Intelligence Agency”

“In response to questions from The Times, Pentagon officials this month acknowledged the existence of the program”

“'It was determined that there were other, higher priority issues that merited funding, and it was in the best interest of the DoD to make a change,' a Pentagon spokesman, Thomas Crosson, said in an email”

“But Mr. Elizondo said the only thing that had ended was the effort's government funding, which dried up in 2012.”

“From then on, Mr. Elizondo said in an interview, he worked with officials from the Navy and the C.I.A.”

“Mr. Reid said he met with agency officials shortly after his meeting with Mr. Bigelow and learned that they wanted to start a research program on U.F.O.s.”

“Mr. Reid then summoned Mr. Stevens and Mr. Inouye to a secure room in the Capitol.”

“None of the three senators wanted a public debate on the Senate floor about the funding for the program, Mr. Reid said. 'This was so-called black money,' he said. 'Stevens knows about it, Inouye knows about it. But that was it, and that's how we wanted it.' Mr. Reid was referring to the Pentagon budget for classified programs.”

“Contracts obtained by The Times show a congressional appropriation of just under $22 million beginning in late 2008 through 2011.”

“The money was used for management of the program, research and assessments of the threat posed by the objects.”

“The funding went to Mr. Bigelow's company, Bigelow Aerospace, which hired subcontractors and solicited research for the program.”

“Under Mr. Bigelow's direction, the company modified buildings in Las Vegas for the storage of metal alloys and other materials that Mr. Elizondo and program contractors said had been recovered from unidentified aerial phenomena.”

“Researchers also studied people who said they had experienced physical effects from encounters with the objects and examined them for any physiological changes.”

“Harold E. Puthoff, an engineer who has conducted research on extrasensory perception for the C.I.A. and later worked as a contractor for the program”

“The program collected video and audio recordings of reported U.F.O. incidents, including footage from a Navy F/A-18 Super Hornet showing an aircraft surrounded by some kind of glowing aura traveling at high speed and rotating as it moves.”

“Officials with the program have also studied videos of encounters between unknown objects and American military aircraft — including one released in August of a whitish oval object, about the size of a commercial plane, chased by two Navy F/A-18F fighter jets from the aircraft carrier Nimitz off the coast of San Diego in 2004.”

“By 2009, Mr. Reid decided that the program had made such extraordinary discoveries that he argued for heightened security to protect it. 'Much progress has been made with the identification of several highly sensitive, unconventional aerospace-related findings,' Mr. Reid said in a letter to William Lynn III”

“Mr. Reid said in a letter to William Lynn III, a deputy defense secretary at the time, requesting that it be designated a 'restricted special access program' limited to a few listed officials.”

“A 2009 Pentagon briefing summary of the program prepared by its director at the time asserted that 'what was considered science fiction is now science fact,' and that the United States was incapable of defending itself against some of the technologies discovered.”

“Mr. Reid's request for the special designation was denied.”

“Mr. Elizondo, in his resignation letter of Oct. 4, said there was a need for more serious attention to 'the many accounts from the Navy and other services of unusual aerial systems interfering with military weapon platforms and displaying beyond-next-generation capabilities.'”

“telling Mr. Mattis that 'there remains a vital need to ascertain capability and intent of these phenomena for the benefit of the armed forces and the nation.'”

“Mr. Elizondo has now joined Mr. Puthoff and another former Defense Department official, Christopher K. Mellon, who was a deputy assistant secretary of defense for intelligence, in a new commercial venture called To the Stars Academy of Arts and Science.”

“The Pentagon's spokesperson at the time, Christopher Sherwood, suddenly denied I had any involvement in AATIP.”

“when he resigned to protest what he characterized as excessive secrecy and internal opposition”