What happened
The Advanced Aerospace Weapon System Applications Program was a Defense Intelligence Agency effort begun in 2008, reportedly at the urging of Senator Harry Reid, to study future aerospace threats. Its contract, worth about $22 million, went to Bigelow Aerospace Advanced Space Studies (BAASS), which commissioned technical papers, acquired UFO case data and investigated reported phenomena at a Utah ranch widely identified as Skinwalker Ranch. PURSUE Release 06 (18 September 2026) published the program's statement of objectives and original order (DOW-UAP-D110, D111), contract changes and 37 Defense Intelligence Reference Documents on subjects from warp drives to invisibility cloaks. One, a 38-page March 2010 study (DOW-UAP-D128), described three previously fit antenna engineers who reported skin redness and heat, hair loss and, in one case, signs of radiation illness after an anomalous aerospace-related event. Release 07 (23 October 2026) added nine more AAWSAP and BAASS records, including monthly reports, Project Capella, a self-assessment and an April 2010 Utah Ranch Investigation Report (DOW-UAP-D174) gathering about 25 witnesses' accounts of light balls, orbs and creatures.
The official explanation
The Pentagon released the reference documents with the caveat that they summarize literature and do not validate the ideas they discuss, and most had already come out through FOIA. The ranch report, per Axios, records testimony but reaches no conclusions and offers no hard evidence; according to SoapCentral, its hair samples taken from barbed wire came back mundane, three from dogs and one from a raccoon. The injury study does not identify any source of exposure, and its medical claims are historical case descriptions rather than verified findings. Critics have long argued the contract funded paranormal research far from a defense mission, and The Debrief reported that the DIA stopped funding in 2010 and that some ranch guards may have exaggerated incidents.
The anomalous case
These are the Pentagon's own records confirming that a defense intelligence agency paid a contractor millions of dollars to collect UFO reports and investigate a Utah ranch, years before the program became public in 2017. The 2010 injury study framed its subject as evidence of unintended injury to human observers by anomalous advanced aerospace systems, and described radiation-like illness and, in one case, later signs of malignant change, according to IBTimes. The ranch report collected testimony from about 25 people, and BAASS ran regular patrols there, as the November 2009 monthly report records. A program that treated UAP as possible advanced aerospace systems and documented physical effects on witnesses supports the argument of former insiders that the government took the phenomenon far more seriously than it admitted in public.
The strongest argument that this was something genuinely unknown or classified, with each claim attributed to the person who made it.
Documents
- PURSUE Release 06 (18 September 2026), WAR.GOV/UFO official, war.gov
- DOW-UAP-D110: AAWSAP Statement of Objectives, July 2008 (PURSUE Release 06) official, war.gov
- DOW-UAP-D111: AAWSAP Solicitation and Original Order, September 2008 (PURSUE Release 06) official, war.gov
- DOW-UAP-D128: AAWSAP DIRD, Anomalous Acute and Subacute Field Effects on Human Biological Tissues, March 2010 (PURSUE Release 06) official, war.gov
- DOW-UAP-D135: AAWSAP DIRD on antigravity, March 2010 (PURSUE Release 06) official, war.gov
- PURSUE Release 07 (23 October 2026), WAR.GOV/UFO official, war.gov
- DOW-UAP-D166: MUFON Reports Prepared for BAASS, November 2008 (PURSUE Release 07) official, war.gov
- DOW-UAP-D167: Project Capella, December 2008 (PURSUE Release 07) official, war.gov
- DOW-UAP-D168: BAASS Project Management Plan, December 2008 (PURSUE Release 07) official, war.gov
- DOW-UAP-D173: BAASS Monthly Report, November 2009 (Utah ranch patrols) (PURSUE Release 07) official, war.gov
- DOW-UAP-D174: Utah Ranch Investigation Report, April 2010 (PURSUE Release 07) official, war.gov
- DOW-UAP-D175: BAASS Self-Assessment of UAP Analysis Capabilities, November 2010 (PURSUE Release 07) official, war.gov
Sources
- Defense Intelligence Agency paid $22 million to chase UFOs and werewolves The Debrief
- 6th batch of Pentagon UAP files EarthSky
- Pentagon releases more UFO files, including documents on secretive military program News 9 Oklahoma City
- Pentagon's latest UFO files reveal details on secretive military research programme Geo News
- New Pentagon UAP files release details 'evidence of unintended injury to human observers' International Business Times UK
- Mysterious 'flying triangle' sighting leads new government release of UFO documents Axios
- Seventh UFO files batch reveals details about 'unidentified craft' of 'black triangular shape' SoapCentral via AOL
- Pentagon files detail silent black triangle that hovered over secret US site International Business Times UK
- Pentagon releases secret documents on UFO sightings, including a triangular object observed by FBI agents CiberCuba
- UFO files tracker (file IDs and titles) probed.space
Witness reports elsewhere
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