After a long hiatus of systematic U.S. government–affiliated investigations into UFOs, a Pentagon office quietly resumed such efforts in 2008. Called the Advanced Aerospace Weapon Systems Applications Program (AAWSAP), it was funded to the tune of $22 million in total. The life—and cancellation four years later—of this Defense Intelligence Agency program has featured in congressional hearings, UFO “whistleblower” claims and renewed public uproar about aliens. But the real story is more sordid than sensational.

In 2022 the U.S. Department of Defense established the brand-new and separate All-Domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO) to investigate military reports of UFOs, now called unidentified anomalous phenomena, or UAP. Currently AARO offers a unique chance for the government to get this UFO thing right once and for all—but not in quite the way that more hard-line alien believers might wish.

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