The AATIP record — the Pentagon's Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program first revealed publicly in the December 2017 New York Times investigation — and the related programs (AAWSAP, BAASS, the UAP Task Force, AOIMSG) that connect it to today's AARO.
The Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program (AATIP) was a Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) effort active roughly 2007-2012, funded under the Defense appropriations bill at the request of then-Sen. Harry Reid. Its existence became public in the December 16, 2017 New York Times piece by Helene Cooper, Ralph Blumenthal, and Leslie Kean, which named former DoD official Luis Elizondo as the program's director.
AATIP is sometimes confused with AAWSAP — the Advanced Aerospace Weapon System Applications Program — which was the contracting vehicle that funded much of the same work via Bigelow Aerospace Advanced Space Studies (BAASS).
The AATIP/AAWSAP record is also the link between modern UAP investigation and earlier U.S. government programs. The 2020 establishment of the UAP Task Force (UAPTF), the 2021 establishment of the Airborne Object Identification and Management Synchronization Group (AOIMSG), and the 2022 establishment of AARO are all institutional successors to AATIP.
This page tracks the original 2017 NYT story, every subsequent disclosure about AATIP and AAWSAP, and the public statements of named officials connected to them.
14 entries · sorted newest first
The House Oversight Committee Subcommittee on Cybersecurity, Information Technology, and Government Innovation, chaired by Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.), holds a public hearing titled 'Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena: Eyes on the Sky, Secrets in the Dark,' featuring testimony from former military and intelligence officials.
Former intelligence officer David Grusch, retired Navy Cmdr. David Fravor, and retired Navy Lt. Ryan Graves testify under oath before the House Oversight Subcommittee on National Security, the Border, and Foreign Affairs. Grusch states that the U.S. government operates a long-running classified program to retrieve and reverse-engineer non-human craft.
The House Intelligence Subcommittee on Counterterrorism, Counterintelligence, and Counterproliferation holds the first open congressional hearing on UAP in fifty-three years. Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence Ronald Moultrie and Deputy Director of Naval Intelligence Scott Bray testify.
Helene Cooper, Ralph Blumenthal, and Leslie Kean publish a front-page New York Times investigation revealing the existence of the Department of Defense's Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program. The story includes a release of the 'FLIR1' video and on-the-record statements from former AATIP director Luis Elizondo.
F/A-18F crews assigned to Strike Fighter Squadron 11, operating from Naval Air Station Oceana, report routine encounters with UAP off the U.S. East Coast. Two of the three Pentagon-released videos — 'GIMBAL' and 'GO FAST' — are recorded during this period.
Dozens of residents around Stephenville, Texas, report large, fast-moving, brightly lit objects in the night sky. A subsequent FOIA release of FAA radar data confirms anomalous tracks consistent with witness reports.
United Airlines ground personnel, mechanics, and pilots at Chicago O'Hare International Airport report a metallic, disc-shaped object hovering at low altitude above gate C-17, then ascending rapidly through the cloud deck. The Federal Aviation Administration confirms the report but declines to investigate.
Aircrews from the USS Nimitz Carrier Strike Group report repeated radar contacts and a daylight visual encounter with a small, white, smooth, Tic Tac–shaped object during a training exercise in the Pacific. One of three Pentagon videos later released by the Department of Defense (FLIR1) documents a portion of the event.
Thousands of witnesses across Arizona report a large V-shaped formation of lights moving slowly southward over the state, followed by a separate set of stationary lights over Phoenix. The Air Force later attributes the second event to flares dropped during a training exercise; the first remains unexplained.
Approximately sixty-two children at the Ariel School in Ruwa, Zimbabwe, report observing a silvery craft and small humanoid figures during morning recess. The case is documented by Harvard psychiatrist Dr. John E. Mack and remains one of the most-cited mass-witness child reports.
Hundreds of witnesses across Belgium, including dozens of national and federal police officers, report large, silent, triangular craft moving at low altitude over the country. The Belgian Air Force scrambles F-16s on 30–31 March 1990 and obtains a brief radar lock that is later attributed to anomalous propagation.
Capt. Kenju Terauchi reports two small craft and a much larger, walnut-shaped 'mothership' alongside a Japan Airlines 747 cargo flight transiting Alaskan airspace. The objects are corroborated by FAA ground radar at Anchorage Center.
Three Texas residents report a close-range encounter with a diamond-shaped object emitting intense heat, escorted overhead by approximately twenty-three twin-rotor military helicopters. All three subsequently report serious medical injuries.
Two Imperial Iranian Air Force F-4 Phantoms intercept an unidentified object over Tehran. Both pilots report electronic-system failures, and one reports temporary loss of weapons control. A four-page Defense Intelligence Agency report on the case is later released under FOIA.
Non-fiction titles by named witnesses, Pentagon insiders, and investigative journalists referenced in this archive.
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U.S. material is the single largest body in the public UAP record, but it isn't the only one. France's GEIPAN has run a transparent case database since 1977; the UK MoD released ~60,000 pages between 2008 and 2017; Japan's evolving track is the program currently moving fastest in 2026. Every state-run UAP-investigation body with a public archive — fifteen countries to date — is catalogued in one place.
Browse international government archives →Looking for related material? Browse the full timeline, the on-the-record witnesses, or every topical tag.