Published
11/02/2026 às 11:34
Updated
11/02/2026 às 11:35
A secret Pentagon program investigated UFOs between 2007 and 2012, received $22 million, analyzed Navy encounters, and changed US policy.
Em December 16, 2017, a report from The New York Times revealed to the public the existence of a project that, until then, was known only to a restricted circle within the United States government: the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program, better known by the acronym AATIPThe program officially ran between 2007 and 2012, inside United States Department of Defense, with the stated objective of investigating unidentified aerial phenomena that could pose risks to national security.
What made the revelation historic was not just the existence of the project, but the fact that it was… funded with public resources, kept confidential and focused on events recorded by advanced military sensors, including radars, infrared cameras and systems installed on Navy fighter jets.
US$22 million, influential senators, and discreet contracts.
AATIP received approximately $22M monthly throughout its years of operation. The funds were approved at the initiative of the then senator. Harry Reid, with the support of other members of the Senate Appropriations Committee.
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A large portion of that budget was allocated to contracts with the company. Bigelow AerospaceBased in Nevada, the organization specializes in advanced aerospace studies. Its official mission was to analyze data, produce technical reports, and assess whether the observed objects could be related to advanced foreign technologies, sensor malfunctions, or poorly understood natural phenomena.
Nothing, at least officially, indicated a search for “extraterrestrial life”Still, the documents analyzed went far beyond conventional drones or weather balloons.
The role of the Navy and the meetings recorded on video.
The turning point in public perception came when the US Navy confirmed the authenticity of videos recorded between 2004 and 2015, which show military pilots interacting with objects exhibiting anomalous behavior.
The most famous are the videos known as FLIR1, Gimbal e GoFast, recorded by fighter pilots F / A-18 Super Hornet during exercises in the Atlantic and Pacific. These objects exhibited characteristics that defied immediate explanation:
Abrupt speeds without a compatible thermal signature.
Instantaneous changes of direction
Ability to hover and accelerate without visible means of propulsion.
Absence of wings, rotors, or conventional exhausts.
Internal AATIP reports indicate that some of these objects appeared to be operating beyond the known limits of aerodynamics, which led the Pentagon to classify them as UAPs (Unidentified Aerial Phenomena), a term adopted to replace the stigmatized “OVNI”.
The official closing and what followed afterwards.
Em 2012The Department of Defense announced the formal termination of AATIP, claiming that the program no longer met the strategic priorities of the time. However, subsequent documents and testimonies showed that… The investigations have not ceased entirely..
Part of the activities were absorbed by other internal structures, culminating years later in the creation of new official offices, such as the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO), responsible for investigating anomalous phenomena not only in the air, but also in space, the sea, and submerged environments.
The political and institutional impact in the United States
The AATIP revelations had profound effects. For the first time, the US government publicly acknowledged that objects of unknown origin and function These phenomena were observed repeatedly by modern armed forces, and there were no conclusive explanations for all cases.
This led to:
Congressional hearings with Navy and intelligence officers.
Public reports required by law to the Director of National Intelligence.
Change in guidelines for pilots to report anomalous encounters without fear of stigma.
Greater institutional transparency on the subject.
Em 2021An official report admitted that dozens of cases remained. without explanation, even after analyzing data from multiple sources.
What the government says and what remains open to interpretation.
It is important to note that No official US agency has stated that UAPs are of extraterrestrial origin.The most frequently cited hypotheses include:
Foreign experimental technologies
Rare atmospheric phenomena
Sensor artifacts
Events not yet understood by current science.
Even so, the Pentagon itself acknowledges that Some cases do not fit clearly into any of these categories.This keeps the topic active within the scientific, military, and political communities.
Why AATIP changed the global debate on UFOs.
Before 2017, talking about UFOs was largely synonymous with fringe speculation. After the AATIP revelation, the topic began to be treated as… air safety, technological and strategic issue.
Today, US allies like the United Kingdom, France, and Japan are reviewing their own archives, while universities and research centers are openly discussing the need to study anomalous aerial phenomena with scientific rigor.
What was once taboo is now an institutional matter.
A program concluded, a debate that continues.
The AATIP officially existed for only five years, but its impact far exceeded that period. It opened the way for a new governmental approach to the unknown, forcing institutions to acknowledge technological limitations and gaps in their understanding of airspace.
More than providing definitive answers, the program left an uncomfortable realization: Not everything that crosses the skies monitored by the world’s greatest military powers can be explained with current knowledge..
And for governments accustomed to controlling narratives, this is perhaps the most disturbing aspect of all.