With each passing week, former Blink-182 singer Tom DeLonge’s UFO research organization keeps giving us reasons to take it more seriously.

The group, called To the Stars Academy, just signed an agreement with the U.S. Army in which it will help the military study and develop advanced materials for the purposes of developing “active camouflage, beamed energy propulsion, and quantum communication” for use on military vehicles.

On October 17th, To the Stars joined forces with the Army’s Combat Capabilities Development Command, a research and development body. While To the Stars has made recent headlines with its UFO themed content, such as its acquisition of “exotic” materials which it claims are not from Earth, and videos acquired from the Navy purporting to show unidentified anomalous phenomena, this recent deal with the military portrays a different side of To the Stars: as a potential technology company.

The government is interested, specifically, in studying:

inertial mass reduction (a type of far-future propulsion)

mechanical/structural meta materials

electromagnetic meta material wave guides

quantum physics

active camouflage

quantum communications

beamed energy propulsion

In recent months, DeLonge’s organization has made a big deal out of obtaining those “exotic” metals that it believes may come from UFOs. Though the contract doesn’t specifically mention the origin of any of those metals, it does say that To the Stars and the U.S. Army will use government labs to study “meta materials,” which could refer to these alloys.

"Government shall: Perform assessments, testing, and characterization of Collaborator-provided technologies. The Government is interested in a variety of the Collaborator's technologies, such as, but not limited to inertial mass reduction, mechanical/structural meta materials, electromagnetic meta material wave guides, quantum physics, quantum communications, and beamed energy propulsion," the contract states.

The contract lasts for five years. The government isn’t paying TTSA anything, rather, it is agreeing to collaborate with TTSA on researching new technologies and has committed to spend at least $750,000 on the research.

“To the Stars Academy of Arts and Science is a company with materiel and technology innovations that offer capability advancements for Army ground vehicles. These technology innovations have been acquired, designed, or produced by [TTSA], leveraging advancements in meta materials and quantum physics to push performance gains," the contract states. "The Collaborator will share their discoveries with [the Army] who will use Government laboratories and resources to characterize the technologies and find applications on ground vehicles.”

Kari DeLonge, Tom’s sister and the Chief Content Officer of TTSA, told Motherboard that it hopes to use government resources to speed up its materials development.

“Our only goal at this time is to accelerate our R&D through strategic partnerships, both within the government as well as independent organizations, that will broaden our access to important resources such as skilled scientists and specialists that have access to high caliber laboratories,” she said.

“As a technological leader, the USG can provide exceptional resources to accelerate testing and analysis that otherwise would be cost-prohibitive to a small startup-like TTSA,” she added. “The U.S. Army's positive response to the high profile nature of this agreement and our mutual approval to publicly release the details of the CRADA, should display our willingness and desire to be transparent with the public.”

Dr. Joseph Cannon, Deputy Product Manager of Science and Technology in the Vehicle Protection Systems Division of the GVSC, stated in the press release that “our partnership with TTSA serves as an exciting, non-traditional source for novel materials and transformational technologies to enhance our military ground system capabilities. At the Army's Ground Vehicle Systems Center, we look forward to this partnership and the potential technical innovations forthcoming.” The U.S. Army did not give Motherboard a comment in time for publication.

According to the contract document, which was first posted online by government document archivist John Greenewald, TTSA is to provide samples of “metamaterials” to the US government for testing and analysis, as well as any documentation regarding “quantum communication,” any data or “obtained” vehicles that use “beamed energy propulsion,” and any information or technology related to “active camouflage.”

Motherboard reported in July that TTSA acquired metals of alleged “exotic” origin, and that some of those materials were dubiously sourced from an anonymous individual who delivered them to the late Coast to Coast AM host Art Bell. In a press release, TTSA explained that those metals were in the care of investigative journalist and UFO researcher Linda Moulton Howe.

“In April 1996, I began the first research into two shipments of metal pieces allegedly from the bottom of a wedge-shaped craft that came down in the late 1940s between Sierra Blanca Mountain and the San Mateo Mountain range on White Sands Proving Ground,” Howe, who reports extensively on aliens, conspiracy theories, and UFOs, told Motherboard. She explained that the second box of metals contained the now infamous “micron-layered bismuth alternating with magnesium-zinc layers” that, according to a lecture Howe gave in 2004, would levitate when exposed to certain electromagnetic frequencies.

Howe explained that she gave one of the pieces to TTSA Co-Founder Dr. Hal Puthoff at the Institute for Advanced Studies in Austin, Texas for study in 1996. The piece returned to Puthoff for additional study in 2012, 2018 and then, according to Howe, was “purchased in 2019.” Howe did not respond for comment regarding the details of the sale.

“TTSA has acquired material from various sources and does not comment on the specifics of each sample,” DeLonge told Motherboard.

In online UFO circles, To the Stars has been a controversial organization. The fact that the US Army’s research and development arm is now working with it has given many pause. Some prominent experts have speculated that TTSA is an intelligence operation; they point to the fact that much of the TTSA team has worked with the military, as well as private government weapons contractors and with government intelligence agencies.

It has now become abundantly clear that even the most respected government officials are interested in the UFO phenomenon. The public can only speculate, and it is far too early to tell what, if any, results will come from this partnership.

“Material science innovations made through R&D contracts similar to the CRADA during the space race alone resulted in thousands of breakthrough commercial products and created entirely new industries,” DeLonge explained.