Kona Blue
From the UAP Encyclopedia, the open encyclopedia of UFO and UAP history · 🗓️ Event
Contents 8
| Date | February 2011 |
|---|---|
| Topics | Secrecy & cover-up (topic), Government programs (topic) |
| People | James Lacatski, Luis Elizondo |
| Testimony | Shellenberger testimony, p. 172 |
| Year | 2011 in UFO history |
| Timeline | 2011 on the UAP Timeline |
| Sources | 12 |
Kona Blue was a proposed U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) special access program, put forward around 2011 by former participants of the Pentagon's AAWSAP/AATIP UFO study, which would have continued their work on unidentified phenomena and any recovered material. It was briefly established as a prospective program but terminated without receiving funding or material, and its records were released in 2024.[1][2]
Background
The Defense Intelligence Agency's Advanced Aerospace Weapon System Applications Program (AAWSAP), run with Bigelow Aerospace Advanced Space Studies (BAASS) as the main contractor and funded through congressional earmarks, ended its funding in 2010. According to the insiders' account Skinwalkers at the Pentagon, the DIA's James Lacatski and BAASS then tried to keep the work going by approaching other agencies, including DHS.[1][3]
The proposal
In 2011 several people involved with AAWSAP/AATIP urged DHS to take over the effort under the name Kona Blue. The proposal said it would continue AAWSAP/AATIP's work to investigate, identify and analyse sensitive materials and technologies, including advanced aerospace vehicles; interviewees later told the Pentagon's AARO that it was meant as a protected compartment for the retrieval and exploitation of "non-human biologics". The DHS Under Secretary for Science and Technology established it as a prospective special access program, citing claimed relevant material and congressional interest.[2]
Termination
About six months later the DHS Deputy Secretary disapproved it as a special access program and ordered its termination, citing inadequate justification and incomplete information on personnel and budget. AARO found that Kona Blue never received any material or funding, that no data were collected under it, and that only the proposal presentation existed.[2]
Release and significance
On 16 April 2024 the Department of Defense released 57 pages of Kona Blue documents, declassified by DHS. In its March 2024 historical report, AARO attributed persistent claims of hidden UFO programs partly to a small group of believers, some of whom had been involved in the Kona Blue effort. Lacatski and his co-authors maintain that AAWSAP found real evidence of UAP.[2][3][4]
People and topics
- BAASS — The Bigelow Aerospace division that carried out the AAWSAP contract.
- Defense Intelligence Agency — The Pentagon's military intelligence agency, which ran AAWSAP.
- Unidentified anomalous phenomena — The U.S. government's current term for unidentified objects in the air, in space and underwater.
- AAWSAP — The Defense Intelligence Agency's UAP research program of 2008–2010, carried out by Bigelow Aerospace Advanced Space Studies.
- James Lacatski — DIA official who started AAWSAP and co-wrote Skinwalkers at the Pentagon.
- Skinwalkers at the Pentagon — A 2021 book about AAWSAP by Lacatski, Kelleher and Knapp.
- AARO — The Pentagon office set up in 2022 to investigate UAP.
- Non-human intelligence — A term for intelligent beings of non-human origin, used in UAP legislation.
- AATIP — The Pentagon UAP effort associated with Luis Elizondo, revealed in December 2017.
- Luis Elizondo — Former Army counterintelligence officer who says he ran AATIP.
On the Timeline
- Kit Green's autopsy tissue package (2011) — Kit Green says he received an anonymous package of supposed alien autopsy tissue.
- Alexander on Edward Teller (15 February 2011) — Col. John Alexander says physicist Edward Teller would be among the few who knew the truth.
See every 2011 event on the UAP Timeline →
References
- Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program — Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org · archived copy
- "DoD Releases 'KONA BLUE' Documents", The Black Vault (16 Apr 2024) · theblackvault.com · archived copy
- Robert Sheaffer, "Skinwalkers at the Pentagon — book review", Bad UFOs (30 Jun 2022) · badufos.blogspot.com · archived copy
- Brad Dress, "Pentagon report throws cold water on UFOs, alien visits", The Hill (8 Mar 2024) · thehill.com · archived copy
- Glowing auras and 'black money': the Pentagon's mysterious UFO program — New York Times (2017) · nytimes.com · archived copy
- The origins of AAWSAP — Metabunk · metabunk.org · archived copy
- DIA FOIA reading room (AAWSAP technical reports) · dia.mil · archived copy
- AAWSAP documentation (FOIA) — The Black Vault · theblackvault.com · archived copy
- Documents on the vetting of 'Skinwalkers at the Pentagon' — The Black Vault · theblackvault.com · archived copy
- AARO historical report finds no evidence of alien technology (2024) — Space.com · space.com · archived copy
- AARO Report on the Historical Record, Volume I — The Black Vault · theblackvault.com · archived copy
- pearl-hifi.com · pearl-hifi.com · archived copy
Further reading
- Robert Bigelow — Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org · archived copy
This page was last edited on 29 October 2026. Articles are written in our own words from the sources listed under References; disputed claims are attributed to the people who made them.
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