LAS VEGAS (KLAS) — Information recently emerged shedding light on an ambitious program that would have researched UFO technology in Southern Nevada, with the goal of exploring the technology, interviewing witnesses of extraterrestrial activity and studying the physical and psychological effects of the encounters.
Codenamed “Kona Blue,” Las Vegas would have been in the eye of the storm when it came to investigations of UFO technology had the program come to fruition. But why transparency now? Dr. James Lacatski, a former Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) analyst and missile expert, has some tips.
AAWSAP ORIGINS
“It was completely UFO related,” Lacatski said of Kona Blue. In 2007, Lacatski became interested in reports of UFO activity in certain hotspots, including a property in northeastern Utah known by the nickname Skinwalker Ranch.
Lacatski designed and defended a highly secret program called the Advanced Aerospace Weapons Systems Application Program (AAWSAP), an acronym that purposefully omits terms relating to UFOs. He met with Nevada Senator Harry Reid, who, along with two Senate colleagues, secured $22 million in funding. With the contract awarded to a subsidiary of Bigelow Aerospace, AAWSAP became the largest recognized UFO investigation in history.
AAWSAP had 50 full-time employees, most based in Southern Nevada, and created the largest UFO data warehouse in the world. It has generated more than 100 technical articles on different aspects of UFO technology and related phenomena. DIA did not release any of these documents.
However, Lacatski, the project’s general manager, and his colleague Dr. Colm Kelleher, the site manager in Las Vegas, co-authored two books on AAWSAP, reporting as much as government officials allowed.
In his 2023 book, Lacatski casually revealed that in 2011 he informed a US senator and a high-ranking official that “the United States was in possession of a craft of unknown origin and had successfully gained access to its interior. This job had…. no intakes, exhausts, wings or control surfaces… (no) engine, fuel tanks or fuel.”
In other words, the US had a flying saucer.
Since that revelation, Lacatski has refused to say anything not authorized by the Pentagon.
“There was more than that, considerably more to that discussion about what the situation was,” Lacatski said. “We can’t get into that.”
However, thanks to a surprise disclosure from the All-Domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO), the Pentagon’s current UFO program, the public is better able to read between the lines. The previously top-secret document, declassified in February by Homeland Security, describes Blue Konaa program developed by Lacatski, Kelleher and other AAWSAP colleagues as an ambitious plan to study and explore UFO technology.
KONA BLUE
The articles describing the Kona Blue, which would function as a successor to the AAWSAP, did not mention UFOs or UAPs by name, but there are clues. On the one hand, Kona Blue’s documented objective was to “identify potentially disruptive technologies” through the analysis of “unique engineering and source materials.” Success in doing so would depend on access to these materials.
Kona Blue would establish a system to collect sightings of this technology, including in frequently reported locations. The documents reference the advanced technology that has already been recovered and a plan to interview people familiar with these recoveries and how they can recover more. One section notes that this reclaimed technology only exists in special access programs.
The program would have created a medical division to study the physical and psychological effects of encounters with advanced aerial vehicles on humans, including deaths and injuries. Notably, Kona Blue experts would be tasked with handling and examining “unusual and unique biological specimens.” It is not explicitly stated what the specimens were, but it is not difficult to infer.
Based in Las Vegas, the document notes that buildings already cleared to handle top-secret materials were on standby. Businessman Robert Bigelow reportedly spent more than $1 million to bring his facilities up to safety requirements in preparation for the AAWSAP effort. His team expected to receive unspecified but highly sensitive materials.
In 2009, Senator Harry Reid wrote to the Department of Defense requesting special classification for the DIA program. Officials in Washington were alerted, opposition grew, and the program’s budget disappeared. As a result, in 2011, Lacatski, Kelleher and others tried to find Kona Blue another home.
Documents show the Department of Homeland Security was briefed on what AAWSAP discovered. Dr. Tara O’Toole, deputy secretary for science and technology and noted scientist, was impressed enough to approve Kona Blue. However, as with AAWSAP, when senior officials began knocking on doors to request access to the special materials, opposition to Kona Blue quickly mobilized and the proposed program was halted.
Lacatski was measured when he spoke of the special materials authorities wanted access to.
“There is material and there is material,” he said. “Are you talking about material to be investigated? In other words, pieces falling from flying saucers? Or are you talking about complete craftsmanship? You know, there’s a big difference.”
BLUE LEGACY
Kona Blue was disqualified by AARO to discredit the evidence and testimony provided by witnesses and whistleblowers. Dr. Sean Kirpatrick, former head of AARO, said people talking about crashed flying saucers were all referring to Kona Blue.
However, since the program never existed and only a handful of people knew it was proposed, it seems unlikely that the witnesses reporting flying saucer crashes were seeing the results of Kona Blue.
