Journalist George Knapp Exposes How $22M US Defence AAWSAP Study Was Disguised To Hide UFOs

Journalist George Knapp claims the Advanced Aerospace Weapon System Applications Programme's ordinary name deliberately concealed the UFO work of the $22 million US defence study, describing its purpose during an interview with Mystery Wire.

The Defense Intelligence Agency programme investigated reports of unidentified flying objects and unusual aerospace threats. Senator Harry Reid had pushed for secret government funding, Knapp explained, although the official name gave no explicit indication that UFOs were part of the work.

Speaking in a Mystery Wire interview carried by 8 News Now in Las Vegas, Knapp explained why the official paperwork did not identify the programme's true focus, saying, 'That was on purpose. They didn't want to draw attention to what it was really doing.'

The Ordinary Name Behind AAWSAP

Knapp explained that the title (AAWSAP) was deliberately designed to sound like a routine intelligence study of future technology, rather than an investigation into unidentified flying objects.

Such a description suggested research into overseas developments, including weapons other countries might be developing and whether those capabilities could pose a future threat.

He explained that the programme examined those areas, but that the research did not exclude investigations into UFOs.

Knapp said AAWSAP's remit included research into unidentified objects from the outset, despite its name's broader wording. 'It was UFO stuff from the beginning.'

Why AAWSAP's UFO Remit Was Disputed

Some people have argued that AAWSAP was not a UFO programme because neither its official documents nor its contract specifically mentioned unidentified flying objects, Knapp explained. He attributed that omission to a deliberate effort to avoid attention.

His explanation distinguished between the paperwork's language and the work the programme undertook. He argued that the absence of an explicit reference to UFOs did not mean they were absent from the research.

Knapp also cited how people associated with the project described it. Reid called it a UFO programme, he noted, as did Robert Bigelow, whose interest in unidentified flying objects extended back decades.

Those descriptions did not settle the disagreement. Knapp explained that some people still rejected a connection between AAWSAP and UFO research despite Reid and Bigelow's characterisation.

Knapp's own work on the subject includes serving as a producer on UFOs: The Best Evidence and an associate producer on The Phenomenon.

AAWSAP's Reports and Worldwide Database

In a 2021 interview Mystery Wire revisited, Dr James Lacatski offered a more categorical description of AAWSAP, presenting it as wholly focused on UFOs.

He attributed the lack of detail in its contract documents to the format they used, which, he explained, did not disclose the project's full scope.

Lacatski pointed instead to the proposal from Bigelow Aerospace Advanced Space Studies. In his account, that document explicitly outlined plans to establish a worldwide database of advanced aerospace vehicles, a goal he presented as evidence of the programme's UFO remit.

The proposed collection would cover advanced aerospace vehicles worldwide. Lacatski distinguished that stated goal from the less revealing language in the contract documents.

Lacatski stated that AAWSAP produced more than a hundred UFO reports, including technical studies. He added that the US military still used its large UFO database at the time of his account.