For five years beginning in 2007, the United States Defense Intelligence Agency funded a $22 million classified research programme into the physics of UAP propulsion, traversable wormholes, warp drive, negative energy, stargates, and invisibility cloaking. The programme was called AAWSAP — Advanced Aerospace Weapon System Applications Program. The contract was awarded to Robert Bigelow’s aerospace company. The physical research anchor was Skinwalker Ranch. This programme existed, was funded by public money, and was classified. Its existence only became known through a combination of whistleblower testimony, FOIA requests, and congressional disclosure years after it ended.
How AAWSAP Was Created
Senator Harry Reid of Nevada — the Senate Majority Leader — had been briefed on UAP by Robert Bigelow, a Nevada billionaire with deep connections to aerospace contracting and a long-standing personal interest in the phenomenon. Bigelow had purchased Skinwalker Ranch in 1996 and funded private research through NIDS for years. He had evidence he believed warranted a formal government investigation.
Reid approached the DIA. With support from senators Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) and Daniel Inouye (D-Hawaii), he secured a classified budget line — $22 million — for a new programme to study UAP. The contract was awarded to Bigelow Aerospace Advanced Space Studies (BAASS). DIA official James Lacatski — who had visited Skinwalker Ranch personally and had what he described as an anomalous experience there — became the programme’s primary government point of contact.
The Research Topics
AAWSAP’s contracted research papers, released partially through FOIA and congressional pressure, include topics that would be extraordinary in any scientific context — but are particularly significant coming from a DIA-funded programme: Traversable Wormholes, Stargates, and Negative Energy; Warp Drive, Dark Energy, and the Manipulation of Extra Dimensions; High-Frequency Gravitational Wave Generation; Invisibility Cloaking; Lift of Vehicles at Hypersonic Velocities; and Biological Effects on UAP Witnesses.
The DIA does not commission research into wormholes and warp drive as an academic exercise. These research topics were funded because the programme’s leadership believed they were relevant to what was being observed. The 494-page BAASS report — produced for the DIA as the programme’s primary deliverable — documented alleged worldwide UAP sightings over several decades. It has not been publicly released.
The Transition to AATIP
AAWSAP was succeeded by AATIP — the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program, run by Luis Elizondo. AATIP was the publicly acknowledged successor, focused on cataloguing military UAP encounters. The deeper physics research — the wormhole and warp drive studies — remained in classified programmes. When Elizondo resigned in 2017 and worked with To The Stars Academy to release the Tic Tac, Gimbal, and Go Fast videos, he was releasing the military encounter evidence. The physics research stayed classified.
Sources: Wikipedia — Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program. Senator Harry Reid public statements. DIA AAWSAP contract documentation — congressional disclosure. George Knapp reporting on AAWSAP origins.