Leo Shane III
Tue, May 17, 2022,
Defense Department officials on Tuesday confirmed that unidentified flying objects are real and pose a potential serious threat to the country.
However, they aren’t panicking about aliens invading America anytime soon.
That’s because military officials believe that nearly all of the unexplained events could be explained with more research and observation. To do that, they need military members to be more open to reporting the mystery objects without fear of being laughed off as science fiction conspiracy theorists.
“We are attempting to explain what may be natural phenomenon, or sensory phenomenon, or legitimate counterintelligence threats to places where we have [military] bases or platforms,” said Ronald Moultrie, under secretary of defense for intelligence, in testimony before the House Intelligence Committee.
“Hopefully, if we get more information out there, we’ll start to lessen the impact of some of those spurious reports.”
During the hearing — the first public hearing on UFOs before Congress in more than 50 years — military officials acknowledged that sightings of “unidentified aerial phenomena” have jumped significantly over the last two decades.
Scott Bray, deputy director of Naval Intelligence, said the reports are “frequent and continuing,” especially around military bases and training areas.
Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence and Security Ronald Moultrie, right, and Deputy Director of Naval Intelligence Scott Bray speak with a UFO on a screen, during a hearing of the House Intelligence, Counterterrorism, Counterintelligence, and Counterproliferation Subcommittee hearing
A Defense Department intelligence report last year detailed 144 UFO encounters between 2004 and 2020. Bray said there have been 11 “near misses” with military aircraft from the unknown objects.
Pentagon leaders are establishing a new office focused on the UAPs, “to facilitate the identification of previously unknown or unidentified airborne objects in a methodically logical and standardized manner,” Moultrie said.
Officials said most of those events likely have mundane explanations — things like commercial drones and “airborne clutter” — that cannot be proven because of a lack of data on the incidents.
In many cases, the reports come from pilots flying by objects at high speed, spotting something amiss for only a second or less. But Bray said at least some could pose significant threats, either from foreign adversaries or accidental collisions.
Less likely (though, officials acknowledged, not completely debunked) is the possibility of alien life watching humans from the skies above.
“We have no material, we have detected no emanations within the UAP Task Force that would suggest it’s anything non-terrestrial in origin,” Bray said.
Both lawmakers and the defense witnesses said public hearings like Tuesday’s are important to calm conspiracy theories about the military hiding proof of alien life. Public discussions are also key to encouraging the collection of more information on sightings so there can be a rigorous scientific analysis of every incident, officials said.
Several committee members pressed the defense officials for any additional evidence of extraterrestrial encounters. They also acknowledged that the Pentagon’s explanations are unlikely to stop public speculation about possible alien encounters being covered up by military leaders.
Indeed, after the public session, the committee held a closed, classified briefing continuing discussion on the topic, a move they conceded was both problematic and necessary to protect sensitive military information.
Moultrie, who confessed to being a big science fiction fan during his testimony, said the Defense Department is open to all potential explanations for the UFOs.
But rather than looking to outer space for answers, officials are looking anywhere they can for better data.
“We are all curious and we seek to understand the unknown,” Moultrie said. “And as a lifelong intelligence professional, I’m impatient. I want the immediate explanations for this as much as anyone else.
“However, understanding can take significant time and effort.”
Congress dives into UFOs, but no signs of extraterrestrials
NOMAAN MERCHANT
Tue, May 17, 2022
WASHINGTON (AP) — Congress held its first hearing in half a century Tuesday on unidentified flying objects. And no, there is still no government confirmation of extraterrestrial life.
Testifying before a House Intelligence subcommittee, Pentagon officials did not disclose additional information from their ongoing investigation of hundreds of unexplained sightings in the sky. But they said they had picked a director for a new task force to coordinate data collection efforts on what the government has officially labeled “unidentified aerial phenomena.”
Ronald Moultrie, the undersecretary of defense for intelligence, said the Pentagon was also trying to destigmatize the issue and encourage pilots and other military personnel to report anything unusual they see.
“We want to know what's out there as much as you want to know what's out there,” Moultrie told lawmakers, adding that he was a fan of science fiction himself. “We get the questions not just from you. We get it from family and we get them night and day.”
Lawmakers from both parties say UFOs are a national security concern. Sightings of what appear to be aircraft flying without discernible means of propulsion have been reported near military bases and coastlines, raising the prospect that witnesses have spotted undiscovered or secret Chinese or Russian technology.
But the sightings are usually fleeting. Some appear for no more than an instant on camera — and then sometimes end up distorted by the camera lens. The U.S. government is believed to hold additional technical information on the sightings that it has not disclosed publicly.
An interim report released by intelligence officials last year counted 144 sightings of aircraft or other devices apparently flying at mysterious speeds or trajectories. In all but one of the sightings investigated, there was too little information for investigators to even broadly characterize the nature of the incident.
A top Pentagon official on Tuesday briefly demonstrated the challenge. Scott Bray, deputy director of naval intelligence, stood next to a television to show a short video taken from an F-18 military plane. The video shows a blue sky with passing clouds. In a single frame — which it took several minutes for staff in the room to queue up — there is an image of one balloon-like shape.
“As you can see, finding UAP is harder than you may think," Bray said, using the acronym for “unidentified aerial phenomena.”
Rep. André Carson, an Indiana Democrat who chaired the hearing, called on investigators to show they “are willing to follow the facts where they lead.”
Rep. Rick Crawford, an Arkansas Republican, noted that the investigations were not “about finding alien spacecraft but about delivering dominant intelligence."
“The inability to understand objects in our sensitive operating areas is tantamount to intelligence failure that we certainly want to avoid,” he said.
Pentagon now reports about 400 UFO encounters: 'We want to know what's out there'
LUIS MARTINEZ
Tue, May 17, 2022
Top Pentagon officials told a House panel on Tuesday that there are now close to 400 reports from military personnel of possible encounters with UFOs -- a significant increase from the 144 tracked in a major report released last year by the U.S. intelligence community.
A Navy official also said at Tuesday's hearing that investigators are "reasonably confident" the floating pyramid-shaped objects captured on one leaked, widely seen military video were likely drones.
That footage, which the military confirmed last year was authentic, had helped spur interest in purported UFOs, also referred to as "unidentified aerial phenomena" or UAPs.
Indiana Rep. André Carson, the Democratic chairman of the House Intelligence Counterterrorism, Counterintelligence, and Counterproliferation Subcommittee, called Tuesday's hearing, the first in more than 50 years focused on the aerial incidents.
UAPs, Carson said, "are a potential national security threat and they need to be treated that way."
"For too long the stigma associated with UAPs has gotten in the way of good intelligence analysis," he added. "Pilots avoided reporting or were laughed at when they did."
MORE: Few answers in unclassified UFO report
PHOTO: Deputy Director of Naval Intelligence Scott Bray, left, and Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence and Security Ronald Moultrie, speak during a hearing on Capitol Hill, May 17, 2022, in Washington, D.C. (Alex Brandon/AP)
The number of UAP reports has risen to "approximately 400," a significant increase from the 144 between 2004 and 2021 that were tracked in last year's report, according to Scott Bray, the deputy director of Naval Intelligence. Bray told the House panel that the spike was due to a reduction in the stigma associated with stepping forward to report such incidents in the wake of the 2021 report.
"We've seen an increasing number of unauthorized and or unidentified aircraft or objects and military control training areas and training ranges and other designated airspace," Bray said. "Reports of sightings are frequent and continuous."
But Bray believes many of the newly disclosed accounts are actually "historic reports that are narrative-based" from prior incidents that people are only now coming forward with, which leads him to believe there will be fewer new accounts in the future.
Last year's intelligence report could only explain one of the documented 144 encounters and did not contain the words "alien" or "extraterrestrial." The report stated then that the UAP incidents would require further study.
At Tuesday's hearing, Bray echoed last year's conclusion that most of the phenomena were likely physical objects and noted that "the UAP task force doesn't have any wreckage that ... isn't consistent with being a terrestrial origin."
Even so, Bray said, questions remain.
"I can't point to something that definitively was not man-made, but I can point to a number of examples which remain unresolved," Bray said, citing video of a 2004 incident in which a Navy pilot recorded an unusual, Tic Tac-like object over the water.
"We want to know what's out there as much as you want to know what's out there," said Ronald Moultrie, the Pentagon's top intelligence official, who also testified at the hearing.
Moultrie said the Pentagon is establishing an office to speed up "the identification of previously unknown or unidentified airborne objects in a methodical, logical and standardized manner."
"We also understand that there has been a cultural stigma surrounding UAP," Moultrie said. "Our goal is to eliminate the stigma by fully incorporating our operators and mission personnel into a standardized data gathering process."
"Our goal is to strike that delicate balance: one that enables us to maintain the public's trust while preserving those capabilities that are vital to the support of our service personnel," he said.
Bray said "Navy and Air Force crews now have step-by-step procedures for reporting on a UAP on their kneeboard in the cockpit" and that these efforts have led to more reporting.
LUIS MARTINEZ
Tue, May 17, 2022
Top Pentagon officials told a House panel on Tuesday that there are now close to 400 reports from military personnel of possible encounters with UFOs -- a significant increase from the 144 tracked in a major report released last year by the U.S. intelligence community.
A Navy official also said at Tuesday's hearing that investigators are "reasonably confident" the floating pyramid-shaped objects captured on one leaked, widely seen military video were likely drones.
That footage, which the military confirmed last year was authentic, had helped spur interest in purported UFOs, also referred to as "unidentified aerial phenomena" or UAPs.
Indiana Rep. André Carson, the Democratic chairman of the House Intelligence Counterterrorism, Counterintelligence, and Counterproliferation Subcommittee, called Tuesday's hearing, the first in more than 50 years focused on the aerial incidents.
UAPs, Carson said, "are a potential national security threat and they need to be treated that way."
"For too long the stigma associated with UAPs has gotten in the way of good intelligence analysis," he added. "Pilots avoided reporting or were laughed at when they did."
MORE: Few answers in unclassified UFO report
PHOTO: Deputy Director of Naval Intelligence Scott Bray, left, and Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence and Security Ronald Moultrie, speak during a hearing on Capitol Hill, May 17, 2022, in Washington, D.C. (Alex Brandon/AP)
The number of UAP reports has risen to "approximately 400," a significant increase from the 144 between 2004 and 2021 that were tracked in last year's report, according to Scott Bray, the deputy director of Naval Intelligence. Bray told the House panel that the spike was due to a reduction in the stigma associated with stepping forward to report such incidents in the wake of the 2021 report.
"We've seen an increasing number of unauthorized and or unidentified aircraft or objects and military control training areas and training ranges and other designated airspace," Bray said. "Reports of sightings are frequent and continuous."
But Bray believes many of the newly disclosed accounts are actually "historic reports that are narrative-based" from prior incidents that people are only now coming forward with, which leads him to believe there will be fewer new accounts in the future.
Last year's intelligence report could only explain one of the documented 144 encounters and did not contain the words "alien" or "extraterrestrial." The report stated then that the UAP incidents would require further study.
At Tuesday's hearing, Bray echoed last year's conclusion that most of the phenomena were likely physical objects and noted that "the UAP task force doesn't have any wreckage that ... isn't consistent with being a terrestrial origin."
Even so, Bray said, questions remain.
"I can't point to something that definitively was not man-made, but I can point to a number of examples which remain unresolved," Bray said, citing video of a 2004 incident in which a Navy pilot recorded an unusual, Tic Tac-like object over the water.
"We want to know what's out there as much as you want to know what's out there," said Ronald Moultrie, the Pentagon's top intelligence official, who also testified at the hearing.
Moultrie said the Pentagon is establishing an office to speed up "the identification of previously unknown or unidentified airborne objects in a methodical, logical and standardized manner."
"We also understand that there has been a cultural stigma surrounding UAP," Moultrie said. "Our goal is to eliminate the stigma by fully incorporating our operators and mission personnel into a standardized data gathering process."
"Our goal is to strike that delicate balance: one that enables us to maintain the public's trust while preserving those capabilities that are vital to the support of our service personnel," he said.
Bray said "Navy and Air Force crews now have step-by-step procedures for reporting on a UAP on their kneeboard in the cockpit" and that these efforts have led to more reporting.
The increasingly mainstream interest in UFOs and UAPs has been sparked in recent years by leaks of once-classified videos and the Navy's release of footage from their pilots' own encounters.
At Tuesday's hearing, the defense officials played three clips to help explain how brief the aerial incidents could be, making it very difficult to determine what was seen in the videos.
In one of the more notable cases, the officials detailed how "considerable effort" went into determining a theory for what was observed.
Bray played footage taken in July 2019 off the California coast from the deck of the destroyer USS Russell that seemed to show several pyramid-shaped objects hovering above the ship.
Bray acknowledged that investigators did not initially have an explanation for what was seen in the green night scope video -- until they were able to contrast it with a more recent video of an incident that occurred off the coast of the Atlantic Ocean.
Officials who looked at that video found a similar pyramid shape. They concluded the phenomena were likely from drones that had been seen on sensors from another Navy asset.
"We're now reasonably confident that these triangles correlate to unmanned aerial systems in the area," Bray explained. "The triangular appearance is a result of light passing through the night vision goggles and then being recorded by an SLR camera."
"This is a great example of how it takes considerable effort to understand what we're seeing in the examples that we are able to collect," he added.
Ahead of the hearing, Jeremy Corbell, a documentary filmmaker and UFO enthusiast who made public that "pyramid" video last year, said he was happy to see increasing awareness and government action.
"What is so great is that this is a direct response to public will," Corbell told ABC News. "It is direct response to public pressure. It is representative government representing the citizens and their interest."
"I am encouraged by the public desire to know and find out the truth of what UFOs represent to humankind," Corbell said then. "It's the biggest story of our time. And finally we're beginning to have the conversation without ridicule and stigma that has so injured the search for scientific truth on this topic."
Moultrie, the Pentagon official, said at Tuesday's hearing that he wasn't immune to a bit of the zeal himself as a science fiction fan.
"I have gone to conventions -- I'll say it on the record. Got to break the ice somehow," he told the panel in one lighthearted line of questioning, adding, "We have our we have our inquisitiveness. We have our questions."
ABC News' Matthew Seyler contributed to this report.
Tues. May 17 when the US House of Representatives hold a hearing on unidentified aerial phenomena.
Read the CNET article: Congress to Hold First Public Hearing on UFOs in 50 years: How to Watch https://cnet.co/38q3fhu
Green pyramid-shaped objects were spotted over the destroyer USS Russell in 2019
Studies had shown that drones, recorded on video in that way, would appear as green triangles, he said.
He added: “Reports of sightings are frequent and continuing. Recently, I received a call from a senior [Naval] aviator with over 2,000 flight hours. He called me personally from the flight line to talk about what he had just experienced.”
Last year, Avril Haines, the director of national intelligence who oversees President Joe Biden’s daily intelligence briefing, released a highly anticipated report into UFOs.
It examined 144 events since 2004, some reported by US military pilots, but could only explain one.
The Pentagon has since established a new UFO squad called the Airborne Object Identification and Management Synchronisation Group. It has authority to check with secret US military test programmes as it investigates UFO sightings, the hearing was told.
The unit is also working with Nasa, and experts have been drafted in from the Space Force, along with physicists, meteorologists, and even metallurgists.
Defence officials accused of cover up
Mr Bray said they have so far detected “no material, no emanations, that would suggest anything extraterrestrial in origin”.
UFOs are officially called unidentified aerial phenomena [UAPs] by the Pentagon.
Mr Bray said there had been no communication with a UAP, and no extraterrestrial wreckage had been recovered.
André Carson, the Democrat chairman of the Congressional committee, suggested defence officials could be “sweeping things under the carpet” and focusing on “low-hanging fruit with easy explanations”.
But Ronald Moultrie, Mr Biden’s undersecretary of defence for intelligence and security, denied the Pentagon was “covering up,” citing his own passion for science fiction.
Mr Moultrie said: “I enjoy the challenge of what may be out there. Yes, I have followed science fiction. I have gone to conventions, I have done that, but there’s nothing wrong with that. I don’t necessarily dress up.
“We have our inquisitiveness, we have our questions. We want to know what’s out there as much as you want to know what’s out there. We get the questions, not just from you, we get it from family, and we get them night and day.”
UFOs spotted 400 times by US military, Pentagon reveals
Nick Allen
Tue, May 17, 2022
Scott Bray, the deputy director of US Naval Intelligence, testified on UFO sightings in a special Congress hearing on Tuesday - JOEY ROULETTE
The US military has had 11 close encounters with UFOs, a top Pentagon intelligence official has told Congress.
In the first public hearing of its kind for over half a century, intelligence chiefs revealed they had recorded around 400 UFO sightings in total.
That figure has more than doubled in the last year as reduced stigma led to a flood of reports from military personnel about historic events.
Senior Pentagon officials said no evidence of extraterrestrial origins had been discovered so far, but they vowed to “go wherever the data takes us” in an “all hands on deck” approach.
Scott Bray, the deputy director of naval intelligence, told the hearing there were sightings he “can’t explain” due to the “flight characteristics” or radar readings from the objects.
Senior Pentagon officials told the hearing they vowed to take an 'all hands on deck' approach towards the sightings - JIM LO SCALZO/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock
He showed a video of one such incident, in which a fleeting, shiny, spherical object zipped past the cockpit of an F-18 jet.
Mr Bray said: “I do not have an explanation for what this specific object is.”
Asked if there had been any collisions between “US assets” and UFOs, he said: “We have not had a collision, we’ve had at least 11 near misses though.”
He said Pentagon investigators had managed to explain one of the most famous UFO sightings ever.
In July 2019, green pyramid-shaped objects were spotted over the destroyer USS Russell, off California, and 18 seconds of footage was leaked, becoming a fascination for UFO hunters.
Mr Bray said: “We are [now] reasonably confident these relate to unmanned aerial systems [drones] in the area.”
He said the triangle shapes resulted from “light passing through night vision goggles and then being recorded by a single-lens reflex camera. [It was] some type of drone.”
Nick Allen
Tue, May 17, 2022
Scott Bray, the deputy director of US Naval Intelligence, testified on UFO sightings in a special Congress hearing on Tuesday - JOEY ROULETTE
The US military has had 11 close encounters with UFOs, a top Pentagon intelligence official has told Congress.
In the first public hearing of its kind for over half a century, intelligence chiefs revealed they had recorded around 400 UFO sightings in total.
That figure has more than doubled in the last year as reduced stigma led to a flood of reports from military personnel about historic events.
Senior Pentagon officials said no evidence of extraterrestrial origins had been discovered so far, but they vowed to “go wherever the data takes us” in an “all hands on deck” approach.
Scott Bray, the deputy director of naval intelligence, told the hearing there were sightings he “can’t explain” due to the “flight characteristics” or radar readings from the objects.
Senior Pentagon officials told the hearing they vowed to take an 'all hands on deck' approach towards the sightings - JIM LO SCALZO/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock
He showed a video of one such incident, in which a fleeting, shiny, spherical object zipped past the cockpit of an F-18 jet.
Mr Bray said: “I do not have an explanation for what this specific object is.”
Asked if there had been any collisions between “US assets” and UFOs, he said: “We have not had a collision, we’ve had at least 11 near misses though.”
He said Pentagon investigators had managed to explain one of the most famous UFO sightings ever.
In July 2019, green pyramid-shaped objects were spotted over the destroyer USS Russell, off California, and 18 seconds of footage was leaked, becoming a fascination for UFO hunters.
Mr Bray said: “We are [now] reasonably confident these relate to unmanned aerial systems [drones] in the area.”
He said the triangle shapes resulted from “light passing through night vision goggles and then being recorded by a single-lens reflex camera. [It was] some type of drone.”
Green pyramid-shaped objects were spotted over the destroyer USS Russell in 2019
Studies had shown that drones, recorded on video in that way, would appear as green triangles, he said.
He added: “Reports of sightings are frequent and continuing. Recently, I received a call from a senior [Naval] aviator with over 2,000 flight hours. He called me personally from the flight line to talk about what he had just experienced.”
Last year, Avril Haines, the director of national intelligence who oversees President Joe Biden’s daily intelligence briefing, released a highly anticipated report into UFOs.
It examined 144 events since 2004, some reported by US military pilots, but could only explain one.
The Pentagon has since established a new UFO squad called the Airborne Object Identification and Management Synchronisation Group. It has authority to check with secret US military test programmes as it investigates UFO sightings, the hearing was told.
The unit is also working with Nasa, and experts have been drafted in from the Space Force, along with physicists, meteorologists, and even metallurgists.
Defence officials accused of cover up
Mr Bray said they have so far detected “no material, no emanations, that would suggest anything extraterrestrial in origin”.
UFOs are officially called unidentified aerial phenomena [UAPs] by the Pentagon.
Mr Bray said there had been no communication with a UAP, and no extraterrestrial wreckage had been recovered.
André Carson, the Democrat chairman of the Congressional committee, suggested defence officials could be “sweeping things under the carpet” and focusing on “low-hanging fruit with easy explanations”.
But Ronald Moultrie, Mr Biden’s undersecretary of defence for intelligence and security, denied the Pentagon was “covering up,” citing his own passion for science fiction.
Mr Moultrie said: “I enjoy the challenge of what may be out there. Yes, I have followed science fiction. I have gone to conventions, I have done that, but there’s nothing wrong with that. I don’t necessarily dress up.
“We have our inquisitiveness, we have our questions. We want to know what’s out there as much as you want to know what’s out there. We get the questions, not just from you, we get it from family, and we get them night and day.”
After Congress' first hearing on UFOs in 50 years, some scientists want to be let in on the investigation
Paola Rosa-Aquino
Tue, May 17, 2022
Researchers hope to leverage instruments like Chile's Vera Rubin Observatory, pictured in September 2019, to study unidentified aerial phenomena.Wil O'Mullane/Wikimedia Commons
Congress held a public hearing on unidentified aerial phenomena, better known as UFOs, for the first time in 50 years.
Some researchers say scientific instruments — not just the intelligence community — should study these objects.
A growing number of private research groups are focused on detecting unidentified flying objects.
Congress held an open congressional hearing on Tuesday on unidentified aerial phenomena, or UAPs — better known as unidentified flying objects — for the first time in five decades.
The hearing, held before a US House Intelligence subcommittee, included testimony from defense officials following a nine-page report released last year, which investigated more than 140 instances of strange sightings by fighter aircraft instruments and pilots. Officials were only able to explain one of the incidents — a large, deflated balloon.
Rep. Andre Carson, a Democrat from Indiana and chairman of the subcommittee, said at the start of the hearing that UAPs "are a potential national security threat, and they need to be treated that way."
Unexplained objects have fascinated and puzzled people for decades, but studying them has often been dismissed as pseudoscience or tabloid fodder. As these mystery sightings reenter the mainstream, however, some researchers say they need to be investigated by scientists, not just the intelligence community, in order to find answers.
Beyond tin foil hats
Last year's report confirmed the existence of unexplained aerial phenomenon, but prompted more questions than answers, Jacob Haqq-Misra, a research scientist at the Blue Marble Space Institute of Science, a non-profit that promotes space exploration, told Insider.
Some science experts theorize that these mystery objects could be anything from drones to weather-related phenomena to artifacts to sensor glitches — or even the handiwork of aliens. But the report did not include enough data to conclusively make that determination.
Since UAPs have long inspired conspiracy theories, researchers like Haqq-Misra believe the government should give scientists more access to data and allow inquiries to happen in the open, rather than behind closed doors.
Tuesday's public hearing was followed by a closed session, which scientists like Haqq-Misra expect will have the information they really want: "We really need transparency and new data if we want to solve this problem," he said.
The report included first-person accounts, which have the potential for human error. Haqq-Misra said UAPs should be studied with satellites, fast-tracking cameras, or audio sensors at locations where the unusual signals have been spotted: "What we need is to collect data in a systematic way — stare at this whole sky in many locations for long periods of time, and with many different instruments, and see how many things, if any, show up that you can't identify."
For decades, it's also been a taboo subject for scientists and dismissed as pseudoscience. Government officials even rebranded UFOs as unidentified aerial phenomena, in part, to avoid the stigma attached to claims of alien visitors. Researchers hope a scientific pursuit for answers, and more transparency, could help overcome that stigma, according to Ravi Kopparapu, a planetary scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center.
"There is a process to understand unknown phenomena," Kopparapu told Insider. "We should not jump to conclusions one way or another, about either dismissal or jumping to some exotic explanation."
From the fringes to serious science
Pilots EJ Smith, Kenneth Arnold, and Ralph E. Stevens look at a photo of an unidentified flying object, which they sighted while en route to Seattle, Washington, in 1947.
Paola Rosa-Aquino
Tue, May 17, 2022
Researchers hope to leverage instruments like Chile's Vera Rubin Observatory, pictured in September 2019, to study unidentified aerial phenomena.Wil O'Mullane/Wikimedia Commons
Congress held a public hearing on unidentified aerial phenomena, better known as UFOs, for the first time in 50 years.
Some researchers say scientific instruments — not just the intelligence community — should study these objects.
A growing number of private research groups are focused on detecting unidentified flying objects.
Congress held an open congressional hearing on Tuesday on unidentified aerial phenomena, or UAPs — better known as unidentified flying objects — for the first time in five decades.
The hearing, held before a US House Intelligence subcommittee, included testimony from defense officials following a nine-page report released last year, which investigated more than 140 instances of strange sightings by fighter aircraft instruments and pilots. Officials were only able to explain one of the incidents — a large, deflated balloon.
Rep. Andre Carson, a Democrat from Indiana and chairman of the subcommittee, said at the start of the hearing that UAPs "are a potential national security threat, and they need to be treated that way."
Unexplained objects have fascinated and puzzled people for decades, but studying them has often been dismissed as pseudoscience or tabloid fodder. As these mystery sightings reenter the mainstream, however, some researchers say they need to be investigated by scientists, not just the intelligence community, in order to find answers.
Beyond tin foil hats
Last year's report confirmed the existence of unexplained aerial phenomenon, but prompted more questions than answers, Jacob Haqq-Misra, a research scientist at the Blue Marble Space Institute of Science, a non-profit that promotes space exploration, told Insider.
Some science experts theorize that these mystery objects could be anything from drones to weather-related phenomena to artifacts to sensor glitches — or even the handiwork of aliens. But the report did not include enough data to conclusively make that determination.
Since UAPs have long inspired conspiracy theories, researchers like Haqq-Misra believe the government should give scientists more access to data and allow inquiries to happen in the open, rather than behind closed doors.
Tuesday's public hearing was followed by a closed session, which scientists like Haqq-Misra expect will have the information they really want: "We really need transparency and new data if we want to solve this problem," he said.
The report included first-person accounts, which have the potential for human error. Haqq-Misra said UAPs should be studied with satellites, fast-tracking cameras, or audio sensors at locations where the unusual signals have been spotted: "What we need is to collect data in a systematic way — stare at this whole sky in many locations for long periods of time, and with many different instruments, and see how many things, if any, show up that you can't identify."
For decades, it's also been a taboo subject for scientists and dismissed as pseudoscience. Government officials even rebranded UFOs as unidentified aerial phenomena, in part, to avoid the stigma attached to claims of alien visitors. Researchers hope a scientific pursuit for answers, and more transparency, could help overcome that stigma, according to Ravi Kopparapu, a planetary scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center.
"There is a process to understand unknown phenomena," Kopparapu told Insider. "We should not jump to conclusions one way or another, about either dismissal or jumping to some exotic explanation."
From the fringes to serious science
Pilots EJ Smith, Kenneth Arnold, and Ralph E. Stevens look at a photo of an unidentified flying object, which they sighted while en route to Seattle, Washington, in 1947.
Bettmann/Getty Images
Kopparapu said that there are a growing number of privately funded research groups focused on the systematic study of unidentified aerial phenomena, such as Harvard's Galileo Project and UAPx, a research non-profit. (The Galileo Project is helmed by Avi Loeb, a prominent and controversial astronomy professor, who has been criticized for including outspoken UFO proponents, without science backgrounds, on the project.)
"I think this is a great opportunity for scientists to show the public how a scientific investigation can be done of something that is unknown," Kopparapu told Insider.
NASA does not actively search for UAPs, according to the agency's website. "If we learn of UAPs, it would open up the door to new science questions to explore," according to NASA. "Atmospheric scientists, aerospace experts, and other scientists could all contribute to understanding the nature of the phenomenon. Exploring the unknown in space is at the heart of who we are."
In the meantime, the Galileo Project is designing software to screen data coming from large telescopes for interstellar objects, and developing a network of sky cameras searching for signs of alien life. This spring, the team plans to install the first of hundreds of cameras — which capture both infrared and visible light — and audio sensors on the roof of Harvard College Observatory, to record everything that moves through the sky, 24 hours a day.
"We are moving away from a time where we were just thinking about them as some sort of tabloid news," Kopparapu said, adding, "These objects exist. And if we want to understand them, we need to use the same technologies and scientific instruments that we use to study our everyday world around us."
Sightings of unexplained objects in the sky have long captured human imagination and raised questions about national security and even potential alien life. But these questions will remain unanswered if they're not subjected to rigorous scientific inquiry, researchers say.
"I think it's significant that branches of the military are acknowledging that there's a thing that's supposed to be in their jurisdiction that they don't understand," Haqq-Misra told Insider. "If they're willing to do that, I think then it really, truly is a puzzle and we've got to figure out what this is."
Kopparapu seemed to agree: "Science should be the forefront in understanding this unknown phenomena," he said, adding, "I hope there is more interest from scientists and I'm eager to see what's going to happen in the next couple of weeks with all this news."
Kopparapu said that there are a growing number of privately funded research groups focused on the systematic study of unidentified aerial phenomena, such as Harvard's Galileo Project and UAPx, a research non-profit. (The Galileo Project is helmed by Avi Loeb, a prominent and controversial astronomy professor, who has been criticized for including outspoken UFO proponents, without science backgrounds, on the project.)
"I think this is a great opportunity for scientists to show the public how a scientific investigation can be done of something that is unknown," Kopparapu told Insider.
NASA does not actively search for UAPs, according to the agency's website. "If we learn of UAPs, it would open up the door to new science questions to explore," according to NASA. "Atmospheric scientists, aerospace experts, and other scientists could all contribute to understanding the nature of the phenomenon. Exploring the unknown in space is at the heart of who we are."
In the meantime, the Galileo Project is designing software to screen data coming from large telescopes for interstellar objects, and developing a network of sky cameras searching for signs of alien life. This spring, the team plans to install the first of hundreds of cameras — which capture both infrared and visible light — and audio sensors on the roof of Harvard College Observatory, to record everything that moves through the sky, 24 hours a day.
"We are moving away from a time where we were just thinking about them as some sort of tabloid news," Kopparapu said, adding, "These objects exist. And if we want to understand them, we need to use the same technologies and scientific instruments that we use to study our everyday world around us."
Sightings of unexplained objects in the sky have long captured human imagination and raised questions about national security and even potential alien life. But these questions will remain unanswered if they're not subjected to rigorous scientific inquiry, researchers say.
"I think it's significant that branches of the military are acknowledging that there's a thing that's supposed to be in their jurisdiction that they don't understand," Haqq-Misra told Insider. "If they're willing to do that, I think then it really, truly is a puzzle and we've got to figure out what this is."
Kopparapu seemed to agree: "Science should be the forefront in understanding this unknown phenomena," he said, adding, "I hope there is more interest from scientists and I'm eager to see what's going to happen in the next couple of weeks with all this news."
Pentagon Unveils Shocking New UFO Footage in Congressional Hearing
Kyle Mizokami
Kyle Mizokami
POP MECH
Wed, May 18, 2022
Photo credit: Kevin Dietsch - Getty Images
Congress has held its first hearing on unidentified flying objects (UFOs) in more than 50 years.
The hearings addressed military sightings of UFOs in training areas and whether they posed a threat to pilots or national security.
The Pentagon officials did not entirely rule out an extraterrestrial origin for the sightings.
Members of Congress quizzed government officials tasked with investigating sightings of unidentified flying objects for more than an hour yesterday.
The hearing, held by the House Intelligence Subcommittee on Counterterrorism, Counterintelligence and Counterproliferation, was the first on the subject of UFOs since 1968. Questions included whether or not the government had crashed UFOs in its possession and whether or not the Pentagon was investigating reports of flying saucers interfering with nuclear weapons.
Although the C3 Subcommittee may seem like a strange host for a hearing on UFOs, the questions primarily focused on sightings of unidentified aerial phenomena (UAPs) on military training ranges, and whether they represented a safety or security threat to U.S. military personnel. The reasoning is that if UAPs have a man-made origin, they could be intelligence operations against U.S. military forces conducting training.
Two Pentagon officials, Deputy Director of Naval Intelligence Scott Bray and Undersecretary of Defense for Intelligence and Security Ronald Moultrie, answered questions on the Pentagon’s recent UAP efforts.
The 2022 defense budget mandated that the Department of Defense create an agency to track UAP sightings. That agency, the Airborne Object Identification and Management Synchronization Group (AOIMSG), was tasked with, “scientific, operational, and technical analysis of data gathered by field investigations…to better understand and explain unidentified aerial phenomena.”
“Tuesday's hearing was a step forward,” Nick Pope, a former UFO investigator for the United Kingdom’s Ministry of Defence, tells Popular Mechanics, “For far too long, this subject was unfairly stigmatized, and witnesses were disbelieved or ridiculed. That discouraged pilots and radar operators from speaking out, but a few brave ones did, and what happened on Tuesday is a testament to their courage and a vindication of their experiences.”
Photo credit: Mario Tama - Getty Images
Bray explained during the hearing that UAP incidents likely resolve into five main categories: airborne clutter, natural atmospheric phenomena, U.S. government or industry developmental programs (secret aircraft), foreign adversary systems (drones), or an “other” bin that allows for “difficult cases and for the possibility of surprise and scientific discoveries.”
The “other” bin could allow for foreign adversaries that have developed breakthrough technologies, but the other obvious implication is that it could also allow for extraterrestrials and extraterrestrial technology. Both officials however stated they would not speculate on some of the more unusual sightings gathered by AOIMSG. Bray said that, like everyone, he wanted immediate explanations but that “understanding can take significant time and effort.” This, he suggested, is why the Office of Naval Intelligence embarked on a “data driven, facts-based approach.”
At one point in the hearing, Moultrie talked about being “open to all hypotheses.” Pope sees this as a positive sign. “It's a fascinating indication that the extraterrestrial hypothesis apparently hasn't been ruled out,” he says. “That should give believers some hope—and should give everyone else pause for thought.”
Rep. Adam Schiff reiterated a point made in the Pentagon’s June 2021 UAP report: Of the 144 UAP incidents between 2004 and 2021, 80 percent were recorded on multiple instruments. So-called “multi-sensor data” includes smartphones, video cameras, infrared cameras, and radar. Eighteen of the 144 incidents appeared to demonstrate “unusual flight characteristics that appeared to demonstrate advanced technology.”
Schiff asked if any of the 18 sightings appearing to demonstrate strange tech involved craft that emitted radiofrequency energy—possibly nodding to a 2004 incident when U.S. Navy pilots believed they were encountering anti-radar jamming from UAPs. Bray said some of the objects that did emit radiofrequency energy were not behaving “oddly otherwise,” which suggests that some of the radio wave-emitting UAPs could have been some form of man-made drone.
In response to another question, Bray admitted he was not aware of an adversary that could move an object “without a discernible means of propulsion,” but later said sensor artifacts could accidentally hide evidence of conventional propulsion. For example, a blurry pixel and a lack of detail might obscure a jet engine nozzle or a propeller. He also said some of the objects appeared to have “signature management,” which might include masking an object’s infrared or radar signatures in a similar manner to stealth aircraft such as the B-2 Spirit stealth fighter and the F-22 Raptor fighter.
The Pentagon officials exhibited two clips of video evidence. The first, apparently captured from a smartphone, shows a small spherical object that whisks past the cockpit of a U.S. Navy strike fighter in the blink of an eye. “I do not have an explanation for what this particular object is,” Bray said.
Bray and Moultrie then showed another video, taken off the West Coast in 2018, of what appears to be a flashing triangle, similar to a "swarm" of other objects reported by multiple U.S. Navy assets off a different coast.
“We are now reasonably confident these triangles correlate to unmanned aerial systems in the area,” Bray stated. The UAP’s triangular appearance, he explained, was the result of light “passing through the night vision goggles and then passing through the SLR camera,” and that the actual flying objects were not triangular in nature.
Rep. Mike Gallagher asked if the UAP Task Force was aware of the so-called “Malmstrom Incident,” in which ten nuclear-tipped intercontinental ballistic missiles at Malmstrom Air Force Base were “de-alerted” and rendered inoperable, allegedly by a nearby UFO. The officials replied they had heard of incidents like it but that this particular incident was not in the AOIMSG database.
Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi asked if there had been any communication with the objects (initiated by either side) or if any weapons had ever been discharged at the UAPs. Bray replied that no communication had been established and that no weapons have been fired at the objects. Next, Krishnamoorthi asked if the government had come across any “wreckage.” According to Bray, the Pentagon does not possess any object of terrestrial origin that cannot be explained.
The questions, Pope tells Popular Mechanics, did not include any actual assessments of what is going on: “A key question that wasn't asked is this: If specific high-profile cases like the USS Nimitz 'Tic Tac' incident in 2004 remain unexplained, what's the best current assessment in the DOD and the intelligence community?”
Photo credit: Barney Wayne - Getty Images
“In any high-profile intelligence analysis, I would expect there to be a best current assessment. But we haven't heard what it is, and the DOD won't even comment on its existence,” Pope says. “It would also be interesting to hear the most popular competing theories—classified US technology, adversary drones, and extraterrestrials—ranked, using words of estimative probability.”
One of the most revealing exchanges between Bray, Moultrie, and members of Congress took place when Rep. Krishnamoorthi asked if “our encounters with UAPs have altered the development of our offensive, defensive capabilities or even our sensor capabilities.”
Bray's answer was a mysterious and tantalizing. “We’ll save that for the closed session,” he replied.
It may be a while before we find out much more information. Closed sessions are hearings closed to the public, restricted to members of Congress and their staff only, where classified and other secret information is discussed.
Ultimately, the hearing did not reveal much. To the contrary, it spurred a number of important questions about the unidentified aerial phenomenon we've recently encountered.
Wed, May 18, 2022
Photo credit: Kevin Dietsch - Getty Images
Congress has held its first hearing on unidentified flying objects (UFOs) in more than 50 years.
The hearings addressed military sightings of UFOs in training areas and whether they posed a threat to pilots or national security.
The Pentagon officials did not entirely rule out an extraterrestrial origin for the sightings.
Members of Congress quizzed government officials tasked with investigating sightings of unidentified flying objects for more than an hour yesterday.
The hearing, held by the House Intelligence Subcommittee on Counterterrorism, Counterintelligence and Counterproliferation, was the first on the subject of UFOs since 1968. Questions included whether or not the government had crashed UFOs in its possession and whether or not the Pentagon was investigating reports of flying saucers interfering with nuclear weapons.
Although the C3 Subcommittee may seem like a strange host for a hearing on UFOs, the questions primarily focused on sightings of unidentified aerial phenomena (UAPs) on military training ranges, and whether they represented a safety or security threat to U.S. military personnel. The reasoning is that if UAPs have a man-made origin, they could be intelligence operations against U.S. military forces conducting training.
Two Pentagon officials, Deputy Director of Naval Intelligence Scott Bray and Undersecretary of Defense for Intelligence and Security Ronald Moultrie, answered questions on the Pentagon’s recent UAP efforts.
The 2022 defense budget mandated that the Department of Defense create an agency to track UAP sightings. That agency, the Airborne Object Identification and Management Synchronization Group (AOIMSG), was tasked with, “scientific, operational, and technical analysis of data gathered by field investigations…to better understand and explain unidentified aerial phenomena.”
“Tuesday's hearing was a step forward,” Nick Pope, a former UFO investigator for the United Kingdom’s Ministry of Defence, tells Popular Mechanics, “For far too long, this subject was unfairly stigmatized, and witnesses were disbelieved or ridiculed. That discouraged pilots and radar operators from speaking out, but a few brave ones did, and what happened on Tuesday is a testament to their courage and a vindication of their experiences.”
Photo credit: Mario Tama - Getty Images
Bray explained during the hearing that UAP incidents likely resolve into five main categories: airborne clutter, natural atmospheric phenomena, U.S. government or industry developmental programs (secret aircraft), foreign adversary systems (drones), or an “other” bin that allows for “difficult cases and for the possibility of surprise and scientific discoveries.”
The “other” bin could allow for foreign adversaries that have developed breakthrough technologies, but the other obvious implication is that it could also allow for extraterrestrials and extraterrestrial technology. Both officials however stated they would not speculate on some of the more unusual sightings gathered by AOIMSG. Bray said that, like everyone, he wanted immediate explanations but that “understanding can take significant time and effort.” This, he suggested, is why the Office of Naval Intelligence embarked on a “data driven, facts-based approach.”
At one point in the hearing, Moultrie talked about being “open to all hypotheses.” Pope sees this as a positive sign. “It's a fascinating indication that the extraterrestrial hypothesis apparently hasn't been ruled out,” he says. “That should give believers some hope—and should give everyone else pause for thought.”
Rep. Adam Schiff reiterated a point made in the Pentagon’s June 2021 UAP report: Of the 144 UAP incidents between 2004 and 2021, 80 percent were recorded on multiple instruments. So-called “multi-sensor data” includes smartphones, video cameras, infrared cameras, and radar. Eighteen of the 144 incidents appeared to demonstrate “unusual flight characteristics that appeared to demonstrate advanced technology.”
Schiff asked if any of the 18 sightings appearing to demonstrate strange tech involved craft that emitted radiofrequency energy—possibly nodding to a 2004 incident when U.S. Navy pilots believed they were encountering anti-radar jamming from UAPs. Bray said some of the objects that did emit radiofrequency energy were not behaving “oddly otherwise,” which suggests that some of the radio wave-emitting UAPs could have been some form of man-made drone.
In response to another question, Bray admitted he was not aware of an adversary that could move an object “without a discernible means of propulsion,” but later said sensor artifacts could accidentally hide evidence of conventional propulsion. For example, a blurry pixel and a lack of detail might obscure a jet engine nozzle or a propeller. He also said some of the objects appeared to have “signature management,” which might include masking an object’s infrared or radar signatures in a similar manner to stealth aircraft such as the B-2 Spirit stealth fighter and the F-22 Raptor fighter.
The Pentagon officials exhibited two clips of video evidence. The first, apparently captured from a smartphone, shows a small spherical object that whisks past the cockpit of a U.S. Navy strike fighter in the blink of an eye. “I do not have an explanation for what this particular object is,” Bray said.
Bray and Moultrie then showed another video, taken off the West Coast in 2018, of what appears to be a flashing triangle, similar to a "swarm" of other objects reported by multiple U.S. Navy assets off a different coast.
“We are now reasonably confident these triangles correlate to unmanned aerial systems in the area,” Bray stated. The UAP’s triangular appearance, he explained, was the result of light “passing through the night vision goggles and then passing through the SLR camera,” and that the actual flying objects were not triangular in nature.
Rep. Mike Gallagher asked if the UAP Task Force was aware of the so-called “Malmstrom Incident,” in which ten nuclear-tipped intercontinental ballistic missiles at Malmstrom Air Force Base were “de-alerted” and rendered inoperable, allegedly by a nearby UFO. The officials replied they had heard of incidents like it but that this particular incident was not in the AOIMSG database.
Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi asked if there had been any communication with the objects (initiated by either side) or if any weapons had ever been discharged at the UAPs. Bray replied that no communication had been established and that no weapons have been fired at the objects. Next, Krishnamoorthi asked if the government had come across any “wreckage.” According to Bray, the Pentagon does not possess any object of terrestrial origin that cannot be explained.
The questions, Pope tells Popular Mechanics, did not include any actual assessments of what is going on: “A key question that wasn't asked is this: If specific high-profile cases like the USS Nimitz 'Tic Tac' incident in 2004 remain unexplained, what's the best current assessment in the DOD and the intelligence community?”
Photo credit: Barney Wayne - Getty Images
“In any high-profile intelligence analysis, I would expect there to be a best current assessment. But we haven't heard what it is, and the DOD won't even comment on its existence,” Pope says. “It would also be interesting to hear the most popular competing theories—classified US technology, adversary drones, and extraterrestrials—ranked, using words of estimative probability.”
One of the most revealing exchanges between Bray, Moultrie, and members of Congress took place when Rep. Krishnamoorthi asked if “our encounters with UAPs have altered the development of our offensive, defensive capabilities or even our sensor capabilities.”
Bray's answer was a mysterious and tantalizing. “We’ll save that for the closed session,” he replied.
It may be a while before we find out much more information. Closed sessions are hearings closed to the public, restricted to members of Congress and their staff only, where classified and other secret information is discussed.
Ultimately, the hearing did not reveal much. To the contrary, it spurred a number of important questions about the unidentified aerial phenomenon we've recently encountered.
