--- alias: - Foreign Technology Division - FTD - AFSC Foreign Technology Division - Air Technical Intelligence Center - ATIC - Aerospace Technical Intelligence Center - Air Force Foreign Technology Center - Foreign Aerospace Science and Technology Center - National Air Intelligence Center - NAIC - National Air and Space Intelligence Center - NASIC category: Government Organization created: 2026-10-03 location: Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio relations: - end: 1991-10-01 fn: 1 role: assigned to the command when activated as the Foreign Technology Division start: 1961-07-01 type: reported_to with: '[[Air Force Systems Command]]' - end: 1969-12-17 fn: 8 role: named in Air Force Regulation 80-17 of September 19, 1966 as the unit supporting and analyzing Project Blue Book start: 1961 type: participant_in with: '[[Project Blue Book]]' - fn: 5 reverse: true role: scientific support contract for UFO reports under the Air Technical Intelligence Center (Project Bear, Project Stork) start: 1951-12 type: contractor_to with: '[[Battelle Memorial Institute]]' - fn: 14 reverse: true role: ATEP II contract FA860415D7977 (ceiling $2,200,000,000) and NOVASTAR contract FA860422DB005 (28 listed orders, $159,269,313 obligated as of October 4, 2026) start: 2014-10-03 type: contracted_with with: '[[Altamira Technologies]]' - fn: 14 reverse: true role: ATEP II contract FA860415D7975 (ceiling $1,240,000,000; 149 orders, $285,894,298) start: 2014-10-03 type: contracted_with with: '[[KBR Wyle Services]]' - fn: 14 reverse: true role: NOVASTAR contract FA860422DB006 (16 listed orders, $63,766,638 obligated as of October 4, 2026) start: 2022-08-19 type: contracted_with with: '[[Epsilon C5I]]' - fn: 14 reverse: true role: NOVASTAR contract FA860422DB009 (15 listed orders, $50,856,348 obligated as of October 4, 2026) start: 2022-08-19 type: contracted_with with: '[[Xandar LLC]]' - fn: 13 reverse: true role: ATEP I contract FA860409D7976 (217 listed orders, $396,247,022 obligated as of October 4, 2026) start: 2009-07-08 type: contracted_with with: '[[Ball Aerospace]]' - fn: 13 reverse: true role: ATEP I contract FA860409D7977 (87 listed orders, $120,731,319 obligated as of October 4, 2026) start: 2009-07-08 type: contracted_with with: '[[General Dynamics Mission Systems]]' - fn: 13 reverse: true role: ATEP I contract FA860409D7975 (14 listed orders, $6,983,794 obligated as of October 4, 2026) start: 2009-07-08 type: contracted_with with: '[[Northrop Grumman]]' - end: 2018-07-31 fn: 16 reverse: true role: General Services Administration purchase order GS05T13BMC0003, Foreign Materiel Exploitation Engineering and Maintenance Support, funded by NASIC (F4FTAU NASIC GX), $53,916,532.23 obligated start: 2013-02-01 type: contracted_with with: '[[HII Mission Technologies]]' start: 1951-05-21 summary: Wright-Patterson scientific and technical intelligence unit, the Air Technical Intelligence Center from 1951, Foreign Technology Division from 1961 and NASIC since 2003, which housed Project Blue Book and analyzed UFO reports by regulation. tags: - Organization - Government - AirForce - Intelligence - ScientificAndTechnicalIntelligence - WrightPatterson - ProjectBlueBook - UFO - ForeignMaterielExploitation updated: 2026-10-04 --- The [Air Force](/organizations/us-air-force/)'s official lineage for the National Air and Space Intelligence Center (NASIC) begins on July 1, 1961, when the Foreign Technology Division (FTD) was "activated, and organized" at [Wright-Patterson Air Force Base](/places/wright-patterson-air-force-base/) under Air Force Systems Command. It was redesignated Air Force Foreign Technology Center on October 1, 1991, Foreign Aerospace Science and Technology Center on January 1, 1992, National Air Intelligence Center on October 1, 1993, and National Air and Space Intelligence Center on February 20, 2003; it was made a field operating agency of the Air Force on September 29, 2014 and has had a presence at Fort George G. Meade, [Maryland](/places/maryland/) since June 8, 2007.[^1] ### From McCook Field to the Air Technical Intelligence Center The unit traces its heritage to the Foreign Data Section of the Army Signal Corps' Airplane Engineering Department, established at McCook Field in 1917, and to the Technical Data Laboratory that from December 1942 carried out the Army Air Forces' scientific and technical intelligence mission at Wright Field. Captured German and Japanese aircraft began arriving at Wright Field in 1943; after the war in Europe Colonel Harold E. Watson and a group of handpicked pilots gathered German aircraft and sent them to Air Materiel Command's T-2 Intelligence Department at Wright Field and Freeman Field, [Indiana](/places/indiana/); "[Operation Paperclip](/programs/operation-paperclip/), a follow-on project, brought over 200 German scientists and technicians to Wright Field"; and by the end of 1947 Wright Field personnel had processed over 1,500 tons of captured documents.[^2] T-2 Intelligence was established in July 1945 and became the Air Materiel Command's Intelligence Department in October 1947.[^2] On May 21, 1951 the Air Force established the Air Technical Intelligence Center (ATIC) at Wright-Patterson "as a field activity of the Assistant Chief of Staff for Intelligence," which in the [Korean War](/events/korean-war/) exploited captured Russian aircraft and studied a defected MiG-15; it was renamed the Aerospace Technical Intelligence Center on September 21, 1959, after the Sputnik launches, and the Foreign Technology Division in July 1961 after the establishment of the [Defense Intelligence Agency](/organizations/defense-intelligence-agency/) on August 1, 1961 and the realignment of the technical intelligence function under Air Force Systems Command.[^2] In the 1970s the division "acquired capabilities in human intelligence targeting and laser signal analysis" and consolidated its scientific and technical databases, and its personnel became known as "the experts in Soviet aircraft, missiles, space systems and related equipment performance."[^2] ### Blue Book and the contractors Project Grudge and [Project Blue Book](/programs/project-blue-book/), the Air Force's UFO reporting projects, ran at ATIC under Edward J. Ruppelt. In December 1951 Ruppelt arranged a contract with an unnamed Midwestern research organization (the [Battelle Memorial Institute](/organizations/battelle-memorial-institute/)) to provide scientists, a questionnaire and a punch-card statistical study; its product, Special Report No. 14, was issued in May 1955 under ATIC's cover.[^3][^4] The memorandum on the [Robertson Panel](/events/robertson-panel/) of February 16, 1953 lists among the evidence presented "Progress Reports of Project STORK (code name for Battelle Memorial Institute contract work supporting ATIC)."[^5] The [Department of Defense](/organizations/department-of-defense/)'s [All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office](/organizations/all-domain-anomaly-resolution-office/) calls this contract "Project BEAR (Late 1951 to Late 1954)" and states that the contractor's report was released "under the cover of ATIC to maintain its anonymity."[^4] On February 15, 1954 Lieutenant General Donald L. Putt, signing as "Commander," forwarded to the ATIC commander, Colonel George L. Wertenbaker, a report on a December 16, 1953 sighting by the [Lockheed](/organizations/lockheed-aircraft-company/) chief engineer Kelly Johnson and Lockheed flight test personnel, writing that the report "was handed to me by Lockheed personnel with the explanation that Mr. Johnson was most reluctant to write the report in the first place and then refused to forward it on to you"; the Blue Book file for the case contains only that report and a record card reading "lenticular cloud" (see [Lockheed Skunk Works](/organizations/lockheed-skunk-works/)).[^6] A [CIA](/organizations/central-intelligence-agency/) memorandum of October 11, 1960 describes the Battelle repository called Project White Stork as concentrating "on subjects of interest to the Air Force's Aerospace Technical Intelligence Center at Wright-Patterson Field," and records that the Agency's Office of Scientific Intelligence was considering funding it.[^7] ### The Foreign Technology Division in the 1966 regulation and review Air Force Regulation 80-17 of September 19, 1966 provides that "The Air Force Systems Command will support the program with current resources within the Foreign Technology Division (FTD) at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, to continue the Project Blue Book effort." Base commanders were to investigate each sighting, with the exception that "FTD at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, independently or with the help of pertinent Air Force activities, may conduct any other investigation." FTD was to "Analyze and evaluate all information and evidence reported to bases on those UFOs which are not identified at the base level," to "Use other Government agencies, private industrial companies, and contractor personnel to assist in analyzing and evaluating UFO reports, as necessary," and to "prepare a final case report on each sighting reported to it," sending significant findings to Systems Command at Andrews Air Force Base and from there to Air Force headquarters.[^8] The Air Force Scientific Advisory Board's ad hoc committee under Brian O'Brien, which met on February 3, 1966 and included [Carl Sagan](/people/carl-sagan/), heard briefings from "the AFSC Foreign Technology Division, which is the cognizant Air Force agency that collates information on UFO sightings and monitors investigations of individual cases"; the memorandum of September 28, 1965 by Major General E. B. LeBailly that requested the review records a determination by the Assistant Deputy Chief of Staff for Plans and Operations that FTD "should continue to exercise its presently assigned responsibilities concerning UFOs," and the committee's distribution list includes the Commander of FTD.[^9] AARO's 2024 report dates the O'Brien Committee to 1964.[^4] The [Condon Committee](/events/condon-committee/)'s bibliography cites an English translation of a Russian conference on the twinkling of stars prepared by the "Translation Services Branch Foreign Technology Division, WP-AFB, Ohio."[^10] [Hynek](/people/j-allen-hynek/)'s 1969 correspondence with the FTD commander and his consultancy to the division from 1970 are described on the page for J. Allen Hynek. ### The Ufimtsev translation [Ben Rich](/people/ben-rich/) wrote in his 1994 memoir that in 1975, after a July [Pentagon](/organizations/pentagon/) briefing on Soviet air defenses, his mathematician Denys Overholser found, in a paper by the Soviet scientist Pyotr Ufimtsev titled "Method of Edge Waves in the Physical Theory of Diffraction," a method of calculating the radar cross section of a shape, and that the paper "had only recently been translated by the Air Force Foreign Technology Division from the original Russian language." Rich wrote that Overholser admitted the paper was "so obtuse and impenetrable that only a nerd's nerd would have waded through it all," and that Ufimtsev "had provided us with an 'industrial-strength' theory" for the faceted F-117 design.[^11] ### After Blue Book An Air Force memorandum of October 20, 1969 signed by Brigadier General C. H. Bolender recommending Blue Book's termination stated that "reports of unidentified flying objects which could affect national security are made in accordance with JANAP 146 or Air Force Manual 55-11, and are not part of the Blue Book system," as the reporter Billy Cox quoted it in 2015.[^12] Secretary of the Air Force Robert C. Seamans Jr. announced the termination of Blue Book on December 17, 1969.[^4] [Dale Graff](/people/dale-graff/), a civilian scientist at FTD, later managed remote viewing taskings for the [Stargate Project](/programs/stargate-project/) from Wright-Patterson (see his page). ### Contracting vehicles Order counts and obligation totals below are the sums of the orders listed under each contract in USAspending on October 4, 2026. Federal procurement records name the National Air and Space Intelligence Center (NASIC) as the funding office on three successive science and technical intelligence support families, each awarded through the U.S. Air Force office coded "FA8604 AFLCMC PZI." The Advanced Technical Exploitation Program (ATEP) began with three indefinite-delivery contracts signed July 8, 2009 to Ball Aerospace and Technologies Corp. (FA860409D7976, described in the record as "ATEP-BALL"), General Dynamics Mission Systems (FA860409D7977, "ATEP - GD") and Northrop Grumman Systems Corporation (FA860409D7975, "ATEP-NG"), each competed with three offers as "FULL AND OPEN COMPETITION" with no set-aside. The USAspending order lists show 217 task orders to Ball ($396,247,022 obligated; ordering to January 7, 2015), 87 to General Dynamics ($120,731,319; to June 6, 2014) and 14 to Northrop Grumman ($6,983,794; to July 7, 2014). One Ball order, number 0182 of May 16, 2014 ($198,644.27), carries the description "NON - ACAT, ATEP TO 0182 - FY14 FOREIGN MATERIEL R&D SUPPORT."[^13] The second family, Advanced Technical Exploitation Program II, was signed on October 3, 2014 as three indefinite-delivery contracts with ordering to October 2, 2023, each with six offers and coded "FULL AND OPEN COMPETITION AFTER EXCLUSION OF SOURCES" and "SMALL BUSINESS SET ASIDE - TOTAL": FA860415D7975 to KBR Wyle Services (ceiling $1,240,000,000), FA860415D7976 to [Radiance Technologies](/organizations/radiance-technologies/) (ceiling $1,240,000,000) and FA860415D7977 to Altamira Technologies (ceiling $2,200,000,000). The record descriptions read "IGF::OT::IGF SCAT 1 ADVANCED TECHNICAL EXPLOITATION PROGRAM II IDIQ AWARD" (KBR Wyle and Altamira) and "IGF::OT::IGF SCAT 1 ADVANCED TECNNICAL EXPLOITATION PRGM II" (Radiance). The order lists of the three contracts show 505 task orders with $1,008,236,001 obligated in the order-level totals: 149 to KBR Wyle ($285,894,298), 136 to Radiance ($276,367,360) and 220 under the Altamira contract ($445,974,343), of which the first 65 orders, from October 3, 2014 to January 25, 2017, went to Invertix Corporation. Radiance announced the same award on October 6, 2014 as a $960 million contract (see its page). The first order, number 0001 to KBR Wyle on October 3, 2014 ($3,110.70), carries the description "IGF::OT::IGF ATEP II INITIAL TASK ORDER- KICK OFF MEETING." Other order titles inside the generic wrapper include "NON-COOPERATIVE TARGET IDENTIFICATION (NCTI) DATA PRODUCTION SUPPORT," "HIGH POWER MICROWAVE (HPM) TOOL DEVELOPMENT" (KBR Wyle FA860417F5068, $1,999,973.69, June 12, 2017) and "ADVANCED EXPLOTATION PROGRAM II" (Altamira FA860421F7192, $9,137,883). Thirty-nine orders totalling $47.46 million were funded by offices other than NASIC, among them the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, the Missile Defense Agency, the [National Security Agency](/organizations/nsa/) and the Office of Security Cooperation, Iraq.[^14] The third family, NOVASTAR ("NASIC S AND TI ANALYTIC CAPABILITY SUPPORT CONTRACT"), consists of five parallel indefinite-delivery contracts signed August 19, 2022 under solicitation FA860421RB007, with ordering to August 18, 2027, ten offers and the codings "FULL AND OPEN COMPETITION AFTER EXCLUSION OF SOURCES" and "SMALL BUSINESS SET ASIDE - TOTAL": FA860422DB005 (Altamira Technologies), DB006 (Epsilon C5I), DB007 ([Modern Technology Solutions](/organizations/modern-technology-solutions/)), DB008 (Radiance Technologies) and DB009 (Xandar LLC). Each of the five records displays a ceiling of $4,797,000,000. As of October 4, 2026 the five hold 118 task orders with $529,681,827 obligated: Altamira 28 orders ($159,269,313), Radiance 38 ($157,754,299), MTSI 21 ($98,035,229), Epsilon C5I 16 ($63,766,638) and Xandar 15 ($50,856,348). By fiscal year, obligations were $25,000 in 2022, $52,279,027 in 2023, $98,752,600 in 2024, $171,469,459 in 2025 and $207,155,740 in 2026 to date. The first five orders, one per holder on September 2, 2022 at $5,000 each, are coded "MINIMUM GUARANTEE." From March 2024 the order descriptions incorporate performance work statements by title, among them Altamira FA860425FB350 "HF PED IDEAS (NSC-25-090)" ($32,426,339, the largest order), Radiance FA860424FB319 "RF SIGNATURES PRODUCTION AND TOOL SUPPORT, NSC-24-083" ($6,525,500) and Altamira FA860425FB339 "NSIC COUNTERSPACE SUPPORT" ($8,127,000). Funding offices on the orders include NASIC GS (77 orders), NASIC WM (17), National Space Intelligence (8) and NASIC Wing Staff (8).[^14] Subaward rows on NOVASTAR orders carry fuller scope text than the order titles. On Modern Technology Solutions order FA860425FB203 (titled "COMPETITION VULNERABILITY ANALYSIS (CVA) AND MISSILE DEFEAT SUPPORT (NSC-25-054)," $10,407,660.09, signed May 29, 2025, funded by NASIC WM), subawards to Sequoia Research Corporation ($2,084,049.26, June 6, 2025) and Kratos SRE, Inc. ($878,295.65, June 12, 2025) read: "THE SCOPE OF THE WORK PERFORMED UNDER THIS TASK ORDER INCLUDES PERFORMING ALL-SOURCE SCIENTIFIC AND TECHNICAL INTELLIGENCE (S&TI) ANALYSIS SUPPORTING NASIC, UNITED STATES (U.S.) AIR FORCE, DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE (DOD) AND NATIONAL LEVEL INTELLIGENCE EFFORTS. THE BALLISTIC MISSILE ANALYSIS SQUADRON (NASIC/WMB) AND THE INFORMATION WARFARE ANALYSIS SQUADRON (NASIC/FTW) ARE SUPPORTED UNDER THIS PWS. THE SUBCONTRACTOR SHALL PERFORM S&TI OF FOREIGN STRIKE WEAPONS IN THE FOLLOWING AREAS: DETAILED EXTERNAL CONFIGURATION; LOCATION AND PERFORMANCE OF INTERNAL COMPONENTS, TECHNOLOGIES, AND OTHER SUBSYSTEMS; CONSTRUCTION TECHNIQUES AND MATERIALS ANALYSIS; GUIDANCE AND CONTROL SYSTEMS; PROPULSION SYSTEMS; REENTRY SYSTEMS, COUNTERMEASURES, AND GROUND SUPPORT EQUIPMENT." The same text continues: "ADDITIONALLY, S&TI ANALYSIS REFERS TO ASSESSMENTS OF ADVERSARY THREAT CHARACTERIZATION, TECHNOLOGY ADVANCEMENT, AND EXPOSING POTENTIAL VULNERABILITIES," "THE SCOPE INCLUDES CONDUCTING RESEARCH, DEVELOPMENT, EXPERIMENTATION, INVESTIGATION, TESTING, AND EVALUATION OF TARGET SYSTEMS," and "THE SUBCONTRACTORS PERFORMING UNDER THIS EFFORT SHALL BE REQUIRED TO INTERFACE WITH OTHER INTELLIGENCE COMMUNITY (IC) MEMBERS, INCLUDING BOTH U.S. AND FOREIGN PARTNERS, AND DOD AGENCIES, WITHIN AND EXTERNAL TO NASIC, IN SUPPORT OF PRODUCTION ACTIVITIES."[^15] The subaward rows listed under the NOVASTAR orders total $107.3 million; under MTSI the largest is Leidos ($29,404,516 in five rows), followed by Ball Aerospace and Technologies ($8,122,448), Sequoia Research Corporation ($7,831,641) and Decibel Research, Inc. ($7,026,024). Under ATEP II the listed subaward rows total $395.9 million, led by Ball Aerospace and Technologies ($102.5 million across the Altamira and Invertix orders), Brilligent Solutions, LLC ($63.6 million under KBR Wyle), Northrop Grumman Systems ($42.2 million under Radiance) and Decibel Research ($26.7 million under KBR Wyle). The totals are the sums of the subaward rows listed in USAspending as reported.[^14] ### The Foreign Materiel Exploitation purchase order General Services Administration purchase order GS05T13BMC0003, awarded January 9, 2013 by the GSA Federal Acquisition Service Assisted Acquisition Services Region 5 to HII Mission Technologies (recipient name as now displayed), carries the description "IGF::CL::IGF FOREIGN MATERIEL EXPLOITATION ENGINEERING AND MAINTENANCE SUPPORT." The funding office is "F4FTAU NASIC GX"; the period of performance runs February 1, 2013 to July 31, 2018; the place of performance is Dayton, Ohio. USAspending shows $53,916,532.23 obligated and $61,599,045.26 including options, one offer received, "FULL AND OPEN COMPETITION" with "NO SET ASIDE USED," solicitation identifier ID05120091, product code AD23 and NAICS 541990. The record lists 373 subaward rows with a reported total of $73,640,597.06. Of the rows, 271 are described "MATERIALS," 23 "MATERIAL" and 28 "TECHNICAL SERVICES." The laboratory vendors named include Synopsys, Inc. (72 rows), Bruker Optics Inc. (50), OneSpin Solutions GmbH (32), Siemens Industry Software Inc. (28), Leica Geosystems Inc. (27), Mentor Graphics Corporation (15), Spirent Federal Systems Inc (13), North Star Imaging Incorporated (10), Oxford Instruments America, Inc. (5), MTS Systems Corporation (3) and 3D Systems, Inc. (1). Rows described "TECHNICAL SERVICES" name Lockheed Martin Services, LLC (ten rows dated February 12, 2014), Radiance Technologies (eleven rows dated September 14, 2017) and Modern Technology Solutions (seven rows dated February 15, 2018).[^16] Other records name the facility. An Air Force order of September 30, 2009 to Edge & Tinney Architects Inc ($104,312.32) is described "CCD FOR PLANNED NASIC FME MILCON"; an Army order of September 28, 2013 to HDR Engineering Inc. ($3,273,287.53) "A/E SERVICES - ADD/ALTER FME LAB"; an order of December 12, 2013 to APTIM Federal Services, LLC ($66,129.20) "ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENT - FOREIGN MATERIEL EXPLOITATION LAB"; and an order signed November 21, 2021 to the [Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory](/organizations/johns-hopkins-university-applied-physics-laboratory/) ($4,812,298, coded not competed, place of performance Laurel, Maryland) the description "NASIC FME." See [Foreign Materiel Exploitation](/concepts/foreign-materiel-exploitation/) for the Department of Defense program and its contractor roster.[^17] ### Foreign materiel exploitation and the reverse engineering allegations Notes attributed to the physicist [Eric Davis](/people/eric-davis/) of October 16, 2002 record Vice Admiral Thomas R. Wilson saying that when program managers told him in June 1997 that they ran "a reverse engineering program" he first thought they meant "recovered Soviet/Chinese, etc. hardware ... like a missile or intell platform or aircraft" and "actually came to meeting expecting to find a sensitive foreign collection and reverse engineering operation," with "UFOs" used as a cover for that; the notes have him adding that the managers "said they weren't that either." Wilson told the Sarasota Herald-Tribune in 2020 that the notes were "all fiction."[^18] The Foreign Technology Division's recorded mission after 1961 was the exploitation of captured foreign aircraft and the evaluation of Soviet systems.[^2] AARO's report states that "AARO found no empirical evidence for claims that the USG and private companies have been reverse-engineering extraterrestrial technology."[^4] ### Advisory and assistance contractors, 2025 to 2026 A presolicitation posted on SAM.gov on April 10, 2025 describes the Advisory Support and Technical Requirement Administration (ASTRA) as "a five (5) year MAC IDIQ contract for Advisory & Assistance Services (A&AS) capabilities to provide a broad range of professional support to the National Air and Space Intelligence Center (NASIC) Scientific and Technical Intelligence analysis mission."[^19] The solicitation, FA860425RB017, states that ASTRA contractor personnel "shall augment the NASIC workforce by providing support for the production of technical intelligence through collection, analysis, planning, processing, dissemination, archiving, and associated activities for NASIC, the USAF, the DoD, and National Level intelligence efforts."[^20] On May 6, 2026 the Department of Defense announced that [Apogee Engineering](/organizations/apogee-engineering/) (FA8604-26-D-B003), KBR Wyle Services (FA8604-26-D-B009), Riverside Research Institute (FA8604-26-D-B005) and Systems Planning and Analysis (FA8604-26-D-B006) "were awarded an $866,000,000 ceiling, multiple-award, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract for advisory and assistance services" for the center, with work "performed at Dayton, Ohio" and completion expected "by June 30, 2034."[^21] The awards of Radiance Technologies for the center are recorded on its own page under other contract vehicles. On June 8, 2026 [WiSC Enterprises](/organizations/wisc-enterprises/) posted a position at Wright-Patterson to "support intelligence and defense operations at the National Air and Space Intelligence Center (NASIC)" in "Geospatial Intelligence (GEOINT), Measurement and Signature Intelligence (MASINT), Foreign Materiel Exploitation (FME), and Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance (ISR) mission areas," requiring an "Active Top Secret (TS) clearance with SCI adjudication" and stated to be "contingent upon contract award."[^22] The War Zone reported on June 15, 2023 that the center "includes a dedicated Foreign Materiel Exploitation Squadron."[^23] ### The Jonathan Grey account The Debrief reported on June 5, 2023, in an article by [Leslie Kean](/people/leslie-kean/) and [Ross Coulthart](/people/ross-coulthart/), that "Jonathan Grey is a generational officer of the [United States](/places/united-states/) Intelligence Community with a Top-Secret Clearance who currently works for the National Air and Space Intelligence Center (NASIC), where the analysis of UAP has been his focus." The article states that Grey is identified "under the identity he uses inside the agency," and quotes him: "The non-human intelligence phenomenon is real. We are not alone. Retrievals of this kind are not limited to the United States. This is a global phenomenon, and yet a global solution continues to elude us." The same article quotes [Christopher Mellon](/people/christopher-mellon/) as saying that "classified briefings are often presented for Jonathan Grey and his team at NASIC." The account of Grey's employment rests on that article alone and has not been independently confirmed.[^24] Department of Defense spokesperson Sue Gough told The War Zone, in an article of June 15, 2023, that "to date, AARO has not discovered any verifiable information to substantiate claims that any programs regarding the possession or reverse-engineering of extraterrestrial materials have existed in the past or exist currently."[^23] AARO's 2024 historical report, quoted above, states that it "found no empirical evidence for claims that the USG and private companies have been reverse-engineering extraterrestrial technology."[^4] [^1]: Air Force Historical Research Agency, "National Air and Space Intelligence Center (ACC)," lineage, assignments and stations, prepared by Daniel L. Haulman, https://www.dafhistory.af.mil/About-Us/Fact-Sheets/Display/Article/432518/national-air-and-space-intelligence-center-acc/ (read from the Wayback Machine raw copy). [^2]: National Air and Space Intelligence Center, "National Air and Space Intelligence Center Heritage," fact sheet, https://www.nasic.af.mil/About-Us/Fact-Sheets/Article/611728/national-air-and-space-intelligence-center-heritage/ (read from the Wayback Machine raw copy). [^3]: Edward J. Ruppelt, The Report on Unidentified Flying Objects (1956), chapter nine, Project Gutenberg ebook 17346, https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/17346/pg17346.txt [^4]: Department of Defense, All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office, Report on the Historical Record of U.S. Government Involvement with Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena, Volume I, February 2024, pp. 7 to 9, 17 to 19 and 28 to 29, https://media.defense.gov/2024/Mar/08/2003409233/-1/-1/0/DOPSR-CLEARED-508-COMPLIANT-HRRV1-08-MAR-2024-FINAL.PDF (read from the Wayback Machine raw copy). [^5]: Durant memorandum of February 16, 1953 on the Robertson Panel, Condon Report Appendix U, https://files.ncas.org/condon/text/appndx-u.htm (Tab C: "Progress Reports of Project STORK (code name for Battelle Memorial Institute contract work supporting ATIC)"). [^6]: Martin Shough, "A Study of the Lockheed Sightings," National Aviation Reporting Centre on Anomalous Phenomena, July 2014, appendix reproducing the letters of Putt (February 15, 1954) and Johnson (January 23, 1954), https://mail.project1947.com/fig/Lockheed_Case_Dec_16_1953.pdf [^7]: Chief, Intelligence Production Faculty, CIA Intelligence School, "Weekly Activities Report No. 36," October 11, 1960, CIA-RDP78-04836A000100040080-9, https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp78-04836a000100040080-9 [^8]: Air Force Regulation 80-17, 19 September 1966, paragraphs 3b to 3e, Condon Report Appendix B, https://files.ncas.org/condon/text/appndx-b.htm [^9]: Special Report of the USAF Scientific Advisory Board Ad Hoc Committee to Review Project "Blue Book," March 1966, with Tab A (LeBailly memorandum of September 28, 1965) and distribution list, Condon Report Appendix A and Section V, chapter 2, https://files.ncas.org/condon/text/appndx-a.htm and https://files.ncas.org/condon/text/s5chap02.htm [^10]: Condon Report, Section VI, chapter 4, references, https://files.ncas.org/condon/text/s6chap04.htm [^11]: Ben R. Rich and Leo Janos, Skunk Works: A Personal Memoir of My Years at Lockheed (Boston: Little, Brown, 1994), chapter on the origin of stealth, https://archive.org/details/skunk-works-apersonal-memoir-of-my-years-at-lockheed-ben-rrich (text lines 437 to 440 and 516 to 552). Sole source for the passage so cited; the translation itself was not located. [^12]: Billy Cox, "The hunt for missing pieces," Sarasota Herald-Tribune, June 3, 2015, reproduced at https://mail.project1947.com/articles/The_hunt_for_missing_pieces.pdf. [^13]: USAspending.gov award records, contracts FA860409D7975, FA860409D7976, FA860409D7977 and Ball Aerospace order 0182 under FA860409D7976, retrieved October 4, 2026. https://api.usaspending.gov/api/v2/awards/CONT_IDV_FA860409D7976_9700/ [^14]: USAspending.gov award records, Advanced Technical Exploitation Program II contracts FA860415D7975, FA860415D7976, FA860415D7977 and NOVASTAR contracts FA860422DB005 through FA860422DB009, with task-order and subaward lists, retrieved October 4, 2026. https://api.usaspending.gov/api/v2/awards/CONT_IDV_FA860422DB008_9700/ (pattern; substitute each contract number). [^15]: USAspending.gov, subawards under order FA860425FB203 (parent contract FA860422DB007), subaward numbers I22-23041-SEQ-TO-3 and I22-23041-SRI-TO-1, retrieved October 4, 2026. https://api.usaspending.gov/api/v2/awards/CONT_AWD_FA860425FB203_9700_FA860422DB007_9700/ [^16]: USAspending.gov, award GS05T13BMC0003, "IGF::CL::IGF FOREIGN MATERIEL EXPLOITATION ENGINEERING AND MAINTENANCE SUPPORT," award detail and subawards, retrieved October 4, 2026. https://api.usaspending.gov/api/v2/awards/CONT_AWD_GS05T13BMC0003_4732_-NONE-_-NONE-/ ; https://www.usaspending.gov/award/CONT_AWD_GS05T13BMC0003_4732_-NONE-_-NONE- [^17]: USAspending.gov orders to Edge & Tinney Architects Inc (0003 under FA860109D0011, September 30, 2009), HDR Engineering Inc. (0018 under W912QR10D0008), APTIM Federal Services, LLC (0025 under FA860111D0002) and Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory LLC (FA868422F7013 under FA868420D7000), retrieved October 4, 2026. [^18]: "EWD NOTES 10/16/02, Eric Davis Meeting with Adm. Wilson," p. 12, https://documents2.theblackvault.com/casefiles/wilsonleak.pdf ; Wilson's 2020 statement to Billy Cox as reproduced in The Black Vault, https://www.theblackvault.com/casefiles/the-admiral-wilson-leak-an-analysis/ . [^19]: SAM.gov, presolicitation PZIEC2025, "Advisory Support & Technical Requirement Administration (ASTRA)," posted April 10, 2025, https://sam.gov/api/prod/opps/v2/opportunities/e5b70042473345cba9a3663d5abda25d [^20]: SAM.gov, solicitation FA860425RB017, "Advisory Support and Technical Requirement Administration," https://sam.gov/api/prod/opps/v2/opportunities/857041a4d1e1402fa2aa69bfb5f296fe [^21]: "Contracts for May 6, 2026," Air Force section, U.S. Department of Defense contract announcements, reproduced at https://www.globalsecurity.org/military/library/news/2026/05/dod-contracts_4479042.htm [^22]: WiSC Enterprises, "Program Management Analyst - Junior," ClearanceJobs listing 8962579, posted June 8, 2026, https://api.clearancejobs.com/jobs/8962579/program-management-analyst-junior ; https://careers-wiscenterprises.icims.com/jobs/1675/program-management-analyst---junior/job [^23]: Joseph Trevithick and Tyler Rogoway, "Aliens Or Not, Secret Crash Retrieval Programs Are A Very Real Thing," The War Zone, June 15, 2023, https://www.twz.com/aliens-or-not-secret-crash-retrieval-programs-are-a-very-real-thing [^24]: Leslie Kean and Ross Coulthart, "Intelligence Officials Say U.S. Has Retrieved Craft of Non-Human Origin," The Debrief, June 5, 2023, https://thedebrief.org/intelligence-officials-say-u-s-has-retrieved-non-human-craft/ . Sole source for the passages so cited.