The department will create an integrated group to handle UFO reports, formally known as Unknown Aerial Phenomena (UAP), in military branches and other government agencies.
The UAP issue has fueled Washington’s years of infighting, including bureaucratic battles within the Pentagon and pressure from Congress to take the report seriously.
But the release of the report was a sign that the US government was finally taking seriously what was so long a minor issue. The Navy led the UAP task force, but no other service made a similar effort to catalog and analyze UFO sightings. Most of the 144 scenes included in the ODNI report were recorded by Navy pilots.
After the report was released, Hicks directed the Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence and Security to develop a plan to deal more seriously and thoroughly with the UAP.
The new integrated group, called the Airborne Object Identification and Management Synchronization Group (AOIMSG), will standardize the process for reporting UAP incidents, as well as “identifying and bridging gaps in operational and intelligence detection capabilities for operations, collect and analyze intelligence, and counter-intelligence data; recommend policy, regulatory or statutory changes as appropriate; identify approaches to prevent or reduce any risk posed by air objects of interest; and director other activities as may be deemed necessary by the U.S.,” Deputy Defense Secretary Kathleen Hicks wrote in a memo.
The newly created AOIMSG, led by a director, will now serve as the Navy’s UAP Task Force as the Department of Defense works to gain a better understanding of what is behind UFO sightings and how much of a threat they can pose to national security. . , The work of the AOIMSG will be overseen by an Executive Council.
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