Warp drive is a theoretical propulsion concept in which space itself, rather than a vehicle moving through it, is manipulated to permit apparent faster-than-light travel. The term originated with a science-fiction writer working in 1930s pulp fiction magazines1, but it has since been taken up as a subject of formal theoretical physics research, and within UAP research circles it is discussed as a candidate explanation for the observed performance characteristics of anomalous aerial vehicles.
The concept gained a rigorous theoretical footing through the work of Miguel Alcubierre, who at the age of thirty, as a PhD student in theoretical physics at Cardiff University, showed how a warp drive could work within the framework of general relativity2. Physicists writing after Alcubierre have argued, according to the book “Imminent: Inside the Pentagon’s Hunt for UFOs”, that warp drives might be theoretically possible but not practical3. The concept has also received attention from US government-linked research institutions: facilities associated with the United States Department of Defense (DoD), National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have given the concept of warp drive serious consideration4.
Within the Pentagon’s UAP programmes, warp drive theory is associated principally with the physicist Harold E. Puthoff. According to Luis Elizondo, before he joined the Advanced Aerospace Weapon System Applications Program (AAWSAP) and the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program (AATIP), Puthoff had conceived and commissioned studies covering warp drives alongside invisibility cloaking, traversable wormholes and stargates, antigravity, and brain/machine interfaces5. Elizondo further recounts that Puthoff’s own papers touched on warp drives, traversable wormholes, and time machines6.
Puthoff has offered his own theoretical account of how a warp drive might function. He said that a technology capable of warping space and time in a localised area could create a bubble around a UAP craft7. Puthoff said that, given sufficient energy, a vehicle could generate such a warp bubble to achieve faster-than-light travel by compressing space in front of the vehicle and stretching space behind it8. He also said that the warp bubble required for faster-than-light travel could only be of limited size, owing to the large amount of energy needed to sustain it9. In a 2026 documentary interview, Puthoff said that advances in physics mean warp drive is not out of the question10.