AAWSAP

The Advanced Aerospace Weapon System Applications Program (AAWSAP) was a Defense Intelligence Agency contract that paid Bigelow Aerospace Advanced Space Studies (BAASS) $21,948,810 from September 2008 to study the aerospace technology of the next forty years [S1][S2]. It matters because three incompatible stories are told about what that money was really for: a study of Skinwalker Ranch, a way to receive crash-retrieval material that Lockheed Martin allegedly held, or exactly what the paperwork says. The documents support the third. The sponsor's own words support part of the second.

What the contract bought

DIA's solicitation (HHM402-08-R-0211, July 2008) asked the contractor to "understand the physics and engineering" of breakthrough aerospace applications "from now through the year 2050." It named twelve study areas: lift, propulsion, control, power generation, spatial and temporal translation, materials, structure, signature reduction, human interface, human effects, armament, and other [S1]. BAASS, the sole bidder, won contract HHM402-08-C-0072 on 22 September 2008. The base year totals exactly $10,000,000, almost all of it for reports, plans and program management [S2].

DIA's memo to the Pentagon's intelligence special-programs office, sent up by James Clapper, explains the money: a "$10M earmark in the July 2008 supplemental", co-sponsored by Harry Reid and Daniel Inouye, and a further $12M for FY2010 [S3]. The same memo gives the contract's goal as "to identify key technologies and physics concepts that would support revolutionary aerospace vehicle research and development" [S3]. The program produced the Defense Intelligence Reference Documents and ended in 2012 [S4].

The Skinwalker question

AARO, describing its own predecessor program, says AAWSAP's primary purpose was the twelve technology areas. It adds that the program "also investigated an alleged hotspot of UAP and paranormal activity at a property in Utah", which was then owned by Robert Bigelow [S4]. Neither the solicitation nor the contract mentions the ranch [S1][S2].

Jeremy Corbell has called the ranch "the hub, the center, the beginning and the reason for that 22 million dollars" [S5]. His collaborator George Knapp qualified that in the same piece: the money "funded a much broader discussion" [S5]. The program insiders' account, co-written by James Lacatski, Colm Kelleher and Knapp, treats the ranch as one of three investigative tracks [S6]. The ranch was a real activity under the contract. It was not the contract's stated purpose.

The Lockheed question

Reid's own words are the strongest evidence for a Lockheed motive. In 2021 he said: "I was told for decades that Lockheed had some of these retrieved materials. And I tried to get… a classified approval by the Pentagon to have me go look at the stuff. They would not approve that." Asked whether that was why he wanted special-access status for the program, he said yes [S7]. The Pentagon's record confirms the refusal: Reid's June 2009 request was reviewed and declined that November (2009 AAWSAP SAP Request Denial) [S3][S8]. The letter itself names neither Lockheed nor Skinwalker [S8].

David Grusch later went further. On Joe Rogan Experience he said "Lockheed Martin wanted to divest itself from this material" and that "the 21 or 22 million dollars was actually for Bigelow Aerospace to build out facilities in Las Vegas" (Grusch on Joe Rogan Experience) [S9]. His Reid sentences closely track Reid's published quote. The divestment and facilities claims are his own and come with no stated source. The contract's first-year line items contain no facility construction [S2].

The account that Lockheed executive James Ryder arranged a transfer and that CIA's Glenn Gaffney vetoed it is told by Knapp, by others, and by an unnamed interviewee in AARO's historical report. No agreement, meeting record or clearance file has surfaced [S4][S10]. It is recorded here as contested (see 2008-2012 Lockheed-AAWSAP Material Transfer Veto and Kona Blue).

Sources

[S1] "AAWSAP Combined Synopsis/Solicitation HHM402-08-R-0211, Statement of Objectives" / https://sam.gov/opp/3e296242a761cf77a54ca4e4981c97c7/view / Accessed 2026-09-27 / Twelve study areas; 2050 horizon [S2] "AAWSAP Solicitation and Original Order, contract HHM402-08-C-0072 (SF 1449)" / https://www.war.gov/medialink/ufo/sept-18/release-06/assets/DOW-UAP-D111_AAWSAP-Solicitation-and-Original-Order-September-22-2008.pdf / Accessed 2026-09-27 / Award date, total $21,948,810, base-year line items [S3] "DIA FOIA — Senator Harry Reid's Request to Put AATIP under Special Access Protection" / https://www.dia.mil/FOIA/FOIA-Electronic-Reading-Room/FileId/237660 / Accessed 2026-09-27 / $10M + $12M earmarks; Reid and Inouye; contract goal; SAP request declined [S4] "AARO Historical Record Report Volume 1" (March 2024) / https://media.defense.gov/2024/Mar/08/2003409233/-1/-1/0/DOPSR-2024-0263-AARO-HISTORICAL-RECORD-REPORT-VOLUME-1-2024.PDF / Accessed 2026-09-27 / Primary purpose; Utah property; uncorroborated CIA-official claim; termination 2012 (AARO describing its own predecessor) [S5] "Government Funded Paranormal Study Revealed In Skinwalker Documentary" (Den of Geek) / https://www.denofgeek.com/culture/government-funded-paranormal-study-revealed-in-skinwalker-documentary / Accessed 2026-09-27 / Corbell and Knapp quotes [S6] "Skinwalkers at the Pentagon — summary" / https://www.shortform.com/summary/skinwalkers-at-the-pentagon-summary-james-t-lacatski-colm-a-kelleher-and-george-knapp / Accessed 2026-09-27 / Three investigative tracks [S7] "How the Pentagon Started Taking U.F.O.s Seriously" (The New Yorker, 2021) / https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2021/05/10/how-the-pentagon-started-taking-ufos-seriously / Accessed 2026-09-27 / Reid on Lockheed and the refused clearance [S8] "Reid letter to Deputy Secretary of Defense William Lynn III, 24 June 2009" / https://documents2.theblackvault.com/documents/dia/AAWSAP/20090624_Reid_to_DEPSECDEF_ref_AAITP_in_SAP.pdf / Accessed 2026-09-27 / Text of the SAP request [S9] "Joe Rogan Experience #2065 ft. David Grusch — transcript" / https://www.uaprw.com/books/grusch-david/page/2023-11-21-joe-rogan-experience-ft-david-grusch / Accessed 2026-09-27 / Grusch on Lockheed and the $21–22M [S10] "House UAP Whistleblower Hearing transcript (9 Sep 2025)" / https://www.rev.com/transcripts/house-uap-whistleblower-hearing / Accessed 2026-09-27 / Knapp names Ryder

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