Person
James Lacatski
Also known as Lacatski, Jim Lacatski
- DIA intelligence officer and rocket scientist; AAWSAP program manager
James Lacatski is a retired Defense Intelligence Agency intelligence officer and rocket scientist who conceived and managed AAWSAP (2008–2012), the $22 million program funded at Senator Harry Reid's direction and contracted to Robert Bigelow's BAASS. By the 8 News Now account, his interest followed a visit to Bigelow's Skinwalker Ranch in the mid-2000s, during which he reported a strange encounter of his own. Hal Puthoff says Lacatski issued the request for proposals that Bigelow's company won.
AAWSAP commissioned the Defense Intelligence Reference Documents on future technologies, but also, by AARO's account, UFO and paranormal research at the ranch that was not in the contract's statement of work, carried out "with the support of the DIA program manager". After the DIA ended the program in 2012, its supporters proposed continuing it at DHS as KONA BLUE, which was rejected.
He has told the program's story in four Pentagon-cleared books: Skinwalkers at the Pentagon (2021) and Inside the US Government Covert UFO Program: Initial Revelations (2023), with Colm Kelleher and George Knapp, then New Insights (2025) and Future Visions (2026) on his own. The 2023 book says that at a 2011 Capitol meeting he told a senator and an agency under secretary that the U.S. held a craft of unknown origin and had gained access to its interior; the Pentagon's DOPSR cleared it without endorsing its accuracy. He has confirmed the statement in interviews since, without going further.
In 2025 and 2026 interviews he called himself the creator of both AAWSAP and KONA BLUE, which he says were classified, described the books as his disclosure, and said false documents about both programs sit in government files. He argues that UFOs are part of a larger paranormal phenomenon. David Grusch wants him to testify in a classified setting. AARO's 2024 report disagrees on the essentials: it says the program was cancelled for lack of merit, KONA BLUE was never approved, and no craft or bodies were ever recovered. The AAWSAP contract documents are now public through PURSUE.
Sources: AARO historical report (2024) · DOPSR case 22-SB-0151 · September 9, 2025 hearing (Knapp) · WEAPONIZED (2023, November 2025 parts 1 and 2) · Mystery Wire (2021, January 2026) · 8 News Now (April 2026) · 8 News Now (November 2025) · PURSUE release 06 · Wikipedia
Facts and claims
- claimed His 2023 book says that at a 2011 meeting in the Capitol he told a U.S. Senator and an agency Under Secretary that the United States “was in possession of a craft of unknown origin and had successfully gained access to its interior.” He repeated that the government holds such a craft in interviews in October 2023 and November 2025. — James Lacatski Source: Inside the US Government Covert UFO Program: Initial Revelations
- claimed Hal Puthoff says Lacatski, at DIA, put out the request for proposals that Robert Bigelow's company won, and that Bigelow then brought in Puthoff's EarthTech. — Hal Puthoff Source: Joe Rogan Experience #2314: Hal Puthoff at 57:46
- claimed George Knapp testified that Lacatski initiated AAWSAP, “the largest acknowledged UFO program ever funded by the U.S. Government”, and that Lacatski told him the U.S. had got inside a craft with no wings, rotor, tail or fuel, and that it took 14 months of Pentagon pre-publication review to clear two sentences on it. — George Knapp Source: Restoring Public Trust Through UAP Transparency and Whistleblower Protection at 1:48:03
- claimed David Grusch points to Lacatski's statement that the U.S. got inside an intact craft and urges AARO and Congress to take his classified testimony. — David Grusch Source: Joe Rogan Experience #2065 - David Grusch at 32:17
- documented AARO's 2024 report, without naming him, says a DIA employee set up and managed the AAWSAP contract, and that the contractor conducted UFO research not in the statement of work “with the support of the DIA program manager”, including paranormal investigations at the contractor's Utah property; the DIA ended the program in 2012. Source: AARO Historical Record Report, Volume 1
- documented The Pentagon's DOPSR cleared the book's manuscript on April 24, 2023, stating that clearance does not imply DoD endorsement or factual accuracy. Source: doc-dopsr-22-sb-0151.pdf
- claimed In 2025 he described himself as “the creator and DIA program manager” of AAWSAP and of the follow-on KONA BLUE program, “Both classified programs, regardless of what the Internet has said in the past.” — James Lacatski Source: “He ran the Pentagon's secret UFO program, and says we've been played”: James Lacatski, part 1 (WEAPONIZED, November 2025) at 1:58
- claimed He says the program was set up “to investigate the paranormal as being the umbrella over UFOs right from the get-go”, with his superiors' knowledge, and argues in his fourth book that UFOs are a subset of a larger paranormal phenomenon. — James Lacatski Source: Craft of unknown origin and the paranormal umbrella: Lacatski on Future Visions (8 News Now, April 2026) at 2:12
- claimed Of his four books on AAWSAP (2021–2026), he says: “They are my disclosure, and they are the public's disclosure”, assembled from DIA files and cleared by the Pentagon. — James Lacatski Source: “The Government UFO Boss”: James Lacatski, part 2, on New Insights (WEAPONIZED, November 2025) at 2:51
- claimed He says “Deliberately false, not just incorrect documents have been created about OSAP and Kona Blue and are currently in government files”, that he reported some to the Inspector General, and that the public is the target of a repeated counterintelligence operation. — James Lacatski Source: “He ran the Pentagon's secret UFO program, and says we've been played”: James Lacatski, part 1 (WEAPONIZED, November 2025) at 8:50
- documented AARO's 2024 report says the KONA BLUE proposal for DHS “was never approved or stood up” and that “no extraterrestrial craft or bodies were ever collected”. Source: AARO Historical Record Report, Volume 1
Connected files
Books
- Inside the U.S. Government Covert UFO Program: Future Visions (authored)
- Inside the U.S. Government Covert UFO Program: New Insights (authored)
- Inside the US Government Covert UFO Program: Initial Revelations (authored)
- Skinwalkers at the Pentagon: An Insiders' Account of the Secret Government UFO Program (authored)
Claims
Documents
- DOPSR case 22-SB-0151: prepublication clearance of Lacatski, Kelleher & Knapp's “Book 2” (April 24, 2023) (subject of)
People
- George Knapp (co-author of) — Co-authors, with Colm Kelleher, of Skinwalkers at the Pentagon and the books that followed
- Robert Bigelow (contracted) — Bigelow's BAASS won the contract for AAWSAP, which Lacatski ran
- Colm Kelleher (co-author of) — Co-authors, with George Knapp, of Skinwalkers at the Pentagon; Kelleher worked at BAASS alongside Lacatski's AAWSAP
- Hal Puthoff (statements by)
- David Grusch (statements by)
Organizations
- Defense Intelligence Agency (worked at)
Places
- Skinwalker Ranch (visited) — He reported a strange encounter during a mid-2000s visit, which he says led to AAWSAP
Programs
- KONA BLUE (initiated)
- Advanced Aerospace Weapon System Applications Program (managed) — Lacatski's own account (Skinwalkers at the Pentagon); AARO says only that “a DIA employee set up and managed the contract”
Videos
- Lacatski, Kelleher and Knapp on “Skinwalkers at the Pentagon” (Mystery Wire, October 2021) (appears in)
- Inside the DIA's Secretive UFO Investigation: Lacatski and Kelleher on WEAPONIZED #38 (October 2023) (appears in)
- Understanding UAP: Science, National Security & Innovation (House Oversight and Government Reform) (discussed in)
- Restoring Public Trust Through UAP Transparency and Whistleblower Protection (discussed in)
- “He ran the Pentagon's secret UFO program, and says we've been played”: James Lacatski, part 1 (WEAPONIZED, November 2025) (appears in)
- “The Government UFO Boss”: James Lacatski, part 2, on New Insights (WEAPONIZED, November 2025) (appears in)
- Mystery Wire: the Bigelow–Lacatski connection, AAWSAP and New Insights (8 News Now, January 2026) (appears in)
- Craft of unknown origin and the paranormal umbrella: Lacatski on Future Visions (8 News Now, April 2026) (appears in)
- “This is UFO disclosure, as far as it can go”: James Lacatski on Future Visions (WEAPONIZED, April 2026) (appears in)
- Jay Stratton's first on-camera interview, recorded 2022 (WEAPONIZED, released October 2026) (discussed in)
- Top Navy Admiral: “The Ocean is FULL OF UFOs!” (discussed in)
- Joe Rogan Experience #2065 - David Grusch (discussed in)
- Joe Rogan Experience #2314: Hal Puthoff (discussed in)