A Nuclear Powered CE5: AATIP Proposed a ‘Honey Trap’ Operation to Bait—and Possibly Capture—a UAP

In 2015 the Pentagon’s Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program (AATIP) devised a bold plan to lure unidentified anomalous phenomena out into the open to gather more data on—and perhaps even capture—the otherwise mercurial craft that had been dogging US Naval aviators while training in restricted airspace. Although the operation was never approved, it involved using a large number of nuclear-powered vessels as bait to lure the UAP targets—essentially a complex, nuclear-powered CE5.

As concerns that senior Pentagon staff weren’t taking AATIP’s mission seriously mounted, then-AATIP Director Luis Elizondo was looking for ways to bolster the case for AATIP’s continued operation so that he and his team could address the safety and security concerns presented by senior leaders with the Navy’s Fleet Forces Command, regarding a series of troubling encounters that had started the previous year off of the east coast, according to Elizondo’s new book, Imminent: Inside the Pentagon’s Hunt for UFOs.

Elizondo and his team had already come to the conclusion that, in addition to being drawn to large bodies of open water, UAP seemed particularly—perhaps alarmingly—interested in anything nuclear, be it power plants, nuclear-powered ships, or the nuclear weapons stored in secure facilities around the world, such as Minot Air Force Base in Montana or the UK-based RAF Bentwaters, each of which experienced incursions by UFOs in 1966 and 1980, respectively.

“We do know that there is a very significant interest that UAP has towards our nuclear technology,” Elizondo said in an interview with investigative reporter Ross Coulthart.

Realizing that they needed a plan of action, senior AATIP official Jay Stratton devised an operation plan (OPLAN) with the code name “Interloper” that, according to Elizondo, would be “irresistible” to UAP. The plan entailed coordinating a carrier strike group and other nuclear-powered vessels—and possibly any nuclear weapons that the vessels might be armed with—into a localized area, and wait for UAP to take the bait.

“We had proposed a ‘honey trap’ to try to collect data and information on these UAP,” Elizondo explained, data that could provide further evidence of the existence of UAP to help bolster the case for AATIP’s continued operation, and in turn possibly prompt high-level Pentagon officials to address the incursions taking place in military-controlled airspace.

Once UAP appeared on the scene, surveillance and intelligence assets could then be focused on the anomalous objects to gather crucial intelligence, although the team also floated the idea of actually capturing one of the craft by downing it with an electromagnetic pulse; this idea was based on the theory that the craft that had crashed outside of Roswell, New Mexico in 1947 had inadvertently run afoul of an EMP generated at the nearby White Sands Missile Range.

“The general consensus was that these vehicles, their propulsion units are susceptible to an electromagnetic pulse, meaning they are using a technology that the electromagnetism—if they were to encounter a certain frequency, it would interfere with their ability to fly and maneuver,” Elizondo said.

“You have a nuclear-powered carrier, with other nuclear-powered vessels, potentially nuclear-powered submarines—which also may have potentially nuclear weapons,” Elizondo elaborated. “So the idea is to create a nuclear footprint that is so irresistible to these things that we would create a trap, and then that trap would be sprung.”

At the time, AATIP’s direct overseer, then-Director for Defense Intelligence Garry Reid, was reportedly hostile to the idea of investigating UAP altogether, leading Elizondo to believe the plan would be nixed before they could even start. Instead, he made use of a bureaucratic loophole that allowed them to attempt to submit the proposal for Interloper directly to the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who appeared to be more supportive of their efforts.

Unfortunately, despite the airtight case AATIP personnel made for Interloper’s approval and offers of asset support for the operation from the CIA and NSA, Interloper never received approval; Elizondo believes that, in addition to possibly being a victim of having fallen through the bureaucratic cracks that plague the Pentagon, the operation may have been purposely snuffed out by Garry Reid.

“I took an oath to the American people to defend this country from all enemies, foreign and domestic,” Elizondo said in regards to his efforts to bring attention to the safety and national security threat that UAP might pose. “And turns out that the enemy was elements in our own government. It’s the bureaucracy.”