In 2017, the New York Times reported on a secret Defense Intelligence Agency project known as the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program (AATIP). From 2007 through 2012, the program spent $22 million investigating reports of UFOs (such as this 2004 encounter recorded by two Navy pilots over the Pacific Ocean) and conducting related research. According to the article, the program was established at the behest of former Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) and that most of the taxpayer funds “went to an aerospace research company run by a billionaire entrepreneur and longtime friend of Mr. Reid’s, Robert Bigelow … .”
The program was classified, but thanks to a Freedom of Information request filed by the Federation of American Scientists (FAS) we now have a peek into the research. On January 16, the DIA released the titles of 38 reports funded under AATIP, many of which are in the realm of science fiction:
Advanced Space Propulsion Based on Vacuum (Spacetime Metric) Engineering, Dr. Hal Puthoff, EarthTech International
Invisibility Cloaking, Dr. Ulf Leonhardt, Univ. of St. Andrews
Traversable Wormholes, Stargates, and Negative Energy, Dr. Eric Davis, EarthTech International
High-Frequency Gravitational Wave Communications, Dr. Robert Baker, GravWave
Antigravity for Aerospace Applications, Dr. Eric Davis, EarthTech International
Positron Aerospace Propulsion, Dr. Gerald Smith, Positronics Research
Concepts for Extracting, Energy from the Quantum Vacuum, Dr. Eric Davis, EarthTech International
Warp Drive, Dark Energy, and the Manipulation of Extra Dimensions, Dr. R. Obousy, Obousy Consultants
Quantum Tomography of Negative Energy States in the Vacuum, Dr. E. Davis, EarthTech International
A Department of Defense spokesman said that the program was cancelled in 2012 because, “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.”
It can’t be said that AATIP was created to go boldly where no program has gone before: the Air Force’s Project Blue Book that investigated UFO sightings during the Cold War was eventually shuttered because it could “no longer can be justified either on the ground of national security or in the interest of science.”