What was AATIP (the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program)?

“AATIP was a Pentagon program operating from 2007 to 2012 under the Defense Intelligence Agency, focused on investigating UAP encounters with U.S. military assets — the direct organizational ancestor of today's AARO.”

AATIP — the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program — was a U.S. Department of Defense effort that ran from 2007 to 2012 under the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA). It was originally championed by Senator Harry Reid (D-NV), Senator Ted Stevens (R-AK), and Senator Daniel Inouye (D-HI) and funded at approximately $22 million across its operating period. AATIP investigated UAP encounters with U.S. military assets — most notably the 2004 USS Nimitz "Tic Tac" encounter — and is the direct organizational ancestor of the modern All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO). The program was disclosed publicly in a December 2017 New York Times investigation by Helene Cooper, Ralph Blumenthal, and Leslie Kean. Luis Elizondo, who has stated he led AATIP from 2010 to 2017, resigned from the DoD in 2017 and has been a central public figure in subsequent disclosure efforts. AARO's 2024 Historical Record Report reviewed AATIP's activities and found no evidence of any classified retrieval program operating under the AATIP umbrella.