More than half of those new sightings—most of which came from Navy and Air Force pilots—displayed “extraordinary features,” according to the report: 26 were characterized as drones; 163 were called balloons or “balloon-like entities”; and six were described as “disordered”.
There are still 171 sightings, some of which “demonstrated unusual flight characteristics or performance capabilities”, the report said. Few other details were provided about these unidentified entities, although the report states that no American aircraft have ever been hit by a UFO, and that observing them has not yet resulted in any adverse health effects.
The 12-page report, which did not detail when each scene occurred, is an unclassified summary of a secret version that was given to Congress and required by last year’s National Defense Authorization Act.
It is the latest installment in a growing campaign by Congress in recent years to compel military and spy agencies to take the sightings more seriously and better coordinate efforts to study them as a potential national security threat. Lawmakers also want agencies to come forward with information that hasn’t been shared with oversight committees.
Other top officials have said in recent weeks that they have so far seen no evidence that the unidentified vehicles are extraterrestrial in origin or indicate the existence of a non-human entity.
But they insist they are keeping an open mind.
“We haven’t seen anything that … leads us to believe that any of the objects we’ve seen are of alien origin,” Ronald Moultrie, undersecretary of defense for intelligence and security, told reporters at a briefing before the release of the report, “If we find something like that, we’ll look into it and analyze it and take appropriate action.”
of the Pentagon recently installed pan-domain discrepancy resolution officeThe probe, which was mandated by Congress last year, is serving as the focal point for a government-wide investigation.
AARO director Sean Kirkpatrick said, “As a physicist, I have to follow the scientific method, and I will follow it wherever this data and science leads.”
But officials have also insisted they are at the beginning of a full-scale effort to study UFOs — involving multiple military and civilian agencies and government contractors.
DNI report also follows the passage National Defense and Intelligence Authorization Act for fiscal year 2023, which devotes 34 pages to the air incident and mandates a series of additional steps for the Defense Department and intelligence agencies.
Latest legislation, which President Joe Biden signed in december, does not shy away from seeking answers to some of the most provocative and hotly debated questions that have revolved around the UFO topic for decades. These include whether the government or its contractors are secretly hiding crashed UFOs or whether personnel have suffered health problems after encounters.
The Pentagon and the DNI need to create a secure system for incident reporting without fear of retaliation. This includes calling on the public to come forward with any knowledge of material recovered from the unidentified craft, or any covert attempts to reverse engineer UFO technology.
“We want to make sure that service members, and other members of the military, when they come forward with data and information and video, that they can access that information without it affecting their careers and without being dismissed or denigrated in any way can accurately deliver,” Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (DN.Y.), a member of the Armed Services and Intelligence committees who has been a major sponsor Reported on “The Brian Lehrer Show” on December 21, about recent UFO legislation.
The new defense bill also requires the AARO to provide within 18 months a historical record on government UFO efforts dating back to 1945, including “any program or activity that was protected by restricted access that was clearly and explicitly approved by Congress.” has not been reported.”
“It’s going to be quite the research project, if you’re going to go back in time and into the archives,” Kirkpatrick said.
Top Pentagon officials also insist they are committed to trying to uncover any hidden secrets about UFOs, which have been defended by congressional oversight committees on national security agencies and even by top officials of the executive branch. has been accused of doing.
“We’re going to go back and try to understand all the divided programs in this department,” Moultrie said.
The newly signed law also mandates an intelligence collection and analysis plan to study the characteristics, origins and intentions of vehicles.
Kirkpatrick said the Pentagon office is “developing a focused collection campaign using both conventional and non-conventional sources and sensors.”
This includes building a team of experts from within the DOD, from NASA, the CIA and other agencies, as well as from the private sector.
“More data will help build a more complete picture and support resolution of anomalous events,” Kirkpatrick said.
NASA is also stepping up its efforts to assist with the overall investigation. space agency established an independent study group in October, featuring prominent academics, computer scientists, oceanographers, space industry executives and others.
One focus is on determining whether any of its satellites or other space sensors have picked up any UFO activity.
“Our sensor data, on this particular satellite, looking back at Earth, does it contain any information that would clarify what that object is as identified by others?” NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said in a recent interview.
The NASA panel is due to release its report in July.