In many, many ways, AATIP appears to be Skinwalker Ranch all over again and BAASS is NIDSci all over again. There is significant overlap between the people involved and BAASS even has an odd habit of bringing up Skinwalker Ranch repeatedly despite a lack of a clear connection.
This is significant when you look at the history of NIDSci's investigation of Skinwalker Ranch, which was a fairly high profile and well-funded investigation run by essentially all the same people which, after years, produced some popular media but few or no actual results.
To a cynical eye, it looks very much like Bigelow ran out of funding for his ongoing Skinwalker Ranch work (thus the undiscussed decline in actual NIDSci activity at the site despite it supposedly being an active project) and then, through some combination of wheeling and dealing and good fortune, connected with Sen. Reid to obtain a significant source of new funding to do similar work. Despite this funding being directed at UFOs generally and not Skinwalker Ranch specifically, BAASS still shows a desire to funnel that money towards Skinwalker Ranch.
So, is this a case of the US Gov't working towards disclosure, or a case of Bigelow finding a new source of funding for his ongoing hobby project at Skinwalker Ranch, and the DoD and the taxpayer being taken along for the ride? The involvement of DeLonge is an interesting twist not present for the Skinwalker Ranch saga, but unsurprising considering DeLonge's longstanding interest in UFOs and apparent similarity to Bigelow (wealthy, eccentric, and interested in paranormal phenomena). DeLonge, as well as Bigelow, seems fully prepared to play the whole matter for personal benefit through TTSA.
I do not question that there are interesting phenomena under the heading of UAP and that that Nimitz incident might be one of the most compelling pieces of open evidence. However, given the history of Bigelow and and almost everyone else heavily involved in BAASS, I have a very hard time beliving that the AATIP is going to take us in the direction of better understanding.
I feel that it takes very little background in federal contracting, especially in the intelligence space, to fully believe that the DoD has invested tens of millions of dollars into a total flight of fancy. This has happened many times and will happen many more. Confusion and opacity in discussing the matter is completely unsurprising as a result of both the complicated confidentiality matters involved and the DoD's inherent lack of interest in being clear that it has spent tens of millions on Bigelow's hobby.
I sound very critical, and I am. But I think the important point is that a lot of the popular reporting on the issue, perhaps all of it, fails to discuss the possibility that "there is no there there" and that this is quite possibly just another story of DoD inefficacy with an unusual, Blink-182 twist.