The Feds Spent $22 Million Researching Invisibility Cloaks, UFOs, and a Tunnel Through the Moon

However wonderful it is to imagine a world in which these things are possible, the government shouldn’t be shelling out millions to entertain speculation.

Documents acquired by Vice via a public records request have revealed details about a secretive government program that was researching highly speculative and often outlandish theories and technologies, including the development of invisibility cloaks and the feasibility of building a tunnel through the moon using nuclear explosions.

Those documents (which are available here) reveal insights into the research conducted by the Advanced Aerospace Weapons System Application Program (AAWSAP), a program that often overlapped with the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program (AATIP). Both were funded by the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), a division of the Department of Defense (DOD). AAWSAP and AATIP research focused on the potential use of far-term technologies in defense and military settings. While AATIP “was the name of the overall program,” AAWSAP “was the name of the contract that DIA awarded for the production of technical reports,” according to a DIA spokesperson.

The AATIP made waves in 2020 for its study of UFO-related phenomena. (It formally disbanded in 2012, but multiple reports indicate that it has lived on in some form). Though the existence of the AAWSAP and the AATIP has been known for years, the newly-publicized details of their research are proving as outlandish as the UFO fodder of yore. “None of these technologies ever seem to have gotten remotely close to being a reality, as far as we know,” says Vice. Rather, the aspects of this program that are now seeing the light of day are reports, assessments, and memos that reveal truly bizarre research carried out using government dollars, out of public view. – READ MORE