Organization
National Air and Space Intelligence Center
Also known as NASIC, Foreign Technology Division, FTD, Air Technical Intelligence Center, ATIC, T-2 Intelligence
The National Air and Space Intelligence Center is the U.S. Air Force's centre for scientific and technical intelligence on foreign air, space and missile systems, headquartered at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. It traces its heritage to 1917 and has been known as T-2 Intelligence, the Air Technical Intelligence Center (ATIC) and the Foreign Technology Division (FTD). After the Second World War it studied captured German aircraft and documents, partly under Col. Howard McCoy.
It is also the institutional home of the Air Force's UFO investigations: AARO and the CIA's 1952 records place Projects Sign, Grudge and Blue Book under ATIC. NASIC's official heritage, however, does not mention that work. David Grusch says NASIC analysed foreign intelligence about U.S. crash-retrieval programs. Claims that it plays a wider role in retrieving or exploiting non-human craft, made in some documentaries, rest on inference and anonymous accounts rather than records.
Sources: NASIC heritage fact sheet (our copy) · AARO Historical Record Report, Vol. 1 (2024) · CIA memorandum on flying saucers (1952) · Capitol press conference (June 9, 2026)
Facts and claims
- documented NASIC's official heritage says that, “Headquartered at Wright-Patterson AFB, NASIC’s official organizational lineage dates to 1961, however the Center traces its unit heritage back to the Foreign Data Section of the Army Signal Corps’ Airplane Engineering Department established at McCook Field in 1917.” Source: nasic.af.mil (archived)
- documented Its official list of designations: Foreign Data Section (1917), T-2 Intelligence (1 July 1945), Air Technical Intelligence Center (21 May 1951), Foreign Technology Division (1 July 1961), National Air Intelligence Center (1 October 1993) and National Air and Space Intelligence Center (February 2003). Source: nasic.af.mil (archived)
- documented After the Second World War, captured German aircraft were sent or flown to Air Materiel Command’s T-2 Intelligence Department at Wright Field for study, and “Under the direction of Colonel Howard McCoy, the Army also delivered a large amount of captured documents to Wright Field.” Source: nasic.af.mil (archived)
- documented AARO's 2024 historical report states: “The Air Technical Intelligence Center (ATIC) assumed control of Project SIGN on January 23, 1948. (ATIC later became the National Air and Space Intelligence Center - NASIC).” NASIC's own history dates ATIC's creation to May 1951; in 1948 the unit was Air Materiel Command's intelligence department. Source: AARO Historical Record Report, Volume 1
- documented A 1952 CIA memorandum records that the Directorate of Intelligence, USAF, “has charged the Air Technical Intelligence Center (ATIC) with responsibility for investigating the reports of sightings”. Source: CIA memorandum: “Flying Saucers” (Office of Scientific Intelligence to the Director of Central Intelligence)
- claimed David Grusch says foreign intelligence reporting on U.S. retrieval and reverse-engineering efforts was “published across the ic and analyzed by such analytical centers such as nasic”, and that those records belong under congressional oversight. — David Grusch Source: FULL PRESSER: David Grusch & Lawmakers Call for UAP Records Declassification on Capitol Hill (9 June 2026) at 21:49
Connected files
Organizations
- Department of War (Department of Defense) (part of)
- Defense Intelligence Agency (related to)
Places
- Wright-Patterson Air Force Base (based at) — Headquartered at Wright-Patterson; its lineage runs back to Wright Field's T-2 Intelligence Department
Programs
- Project Sign (ran) — AARO: ATIC, NASIC's forerunner, “assumed control of Project SIGN on January 23, 1948”
- Project Grudge (ran) — AARO and the CIA's 1952 records place Projects Sign, Grudge and Blue Book under ATIC, NASIC's forerunner
- Project Blue Book (ran) — AARO and the CIA's 1952 records place Projects Sign, Grudge and Blue Book under ATIC, NASIC's forerunner
Official records (PURSUE)
- DOW-UAP-D180 — Final Personnel Record for McCoy, Howard M., U.S. Air Force, 1954 (documented in) — Personnel record of Col. Howard McCoy, intelligence chief at Air Materiel Command when Sign and Grudge began
Documents
- CIA memorandum: “Flying Saucers” (Office of Scientific Intelligence to the Director of Central Intelligence) (assessed in) — The CIA found ATIC, NASIC's forerunner at Wright-Patterson, the only group giving the subject serious effort
People
- David Grusch (statements by)
Mentioned in this file
- Crash retrieval & reverse engineering (Concept)
- AARO Historical Record Report, Volume 1 (Document)
- All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (Program)
- Central Intelligence Agency (Organization)
Mentioned in videos
Mentioned in documents and records
- Air Force Regulation 200-2, Unidentified Flying Objects Reporting (12 August 1954)
- Project Blue Book case file: KOREA, January 1952
- Project Blue Book case file: Socorro, New Mexico, April 1964 (Lonnie Zamora)
- Transcript of a presentation by Captain Edward J. Ruppelt, March 1952 (DOW-UAP-D154)
- Wonsan–Sunchon B-29 sightings
More organizations
- National Reconnaissance Office
- Intelligence Community Inspector General
- Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence & Security
- Senate Select Committee on Intelligence
- Bigelow Aerospace
- Italian Air Force (Aeronautica Militare)