A total of 143 UFO sightings since 2004 cannot be explained, says a new, highly anticipated report by US intelligence.
The report, by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), said that of that total, there were 21 reports of unknown phenomena related to eighteen reported events, that were beyond the known technological capabilities of America.
The report, which has been sent to Congress and made available to the general public, will only intensify speculation about the existence of life beyond our solar system.
It also underscores a rapid and remarkable shift in the official view of UFOs, or “unidentified aerial phenomenon” (UAP), and the people who report them.
Once dismissed as the confused or misguided beliefs of conspiracy theorists, the issue has taken on a far more solid position in public discourse, mainly because so many of those reporting the sightings were members of the military. Indeed, the US Navy worked with the ODNI as part of a taskforce to probe UAP.
“This report provides an overview for policymakers of the challenges associated with characterising the potential threat posed by UAP while also providing a means to develop relevant processes, policies, technologies, and training for the US military and other US Government (USG) personnel if and when they encounter UAP, so as to enhance the Intelligence community’s ability to understand the threat,” says the report.
It adds: “UAP clearly pose a safety of flight issue and may pose a challenge to US national security. Safety concerns primarily centre on aviators contending with an increasingly cluttered air domain. UAP would also represent a national security challenge if they are foreign adversary collection platforms or provide evidence a potential adversary has developed either a breakthrough or disruptive technology.”
Senior US officials briefing reporters anonymously about the report pointed out many of the UAP cases included in the report had been detailed by US naval aviators who told of craft showing impossible-to-explain speeds and manoeuvrability.
Because of the repeated reported sightings by US military, and the support of politicians such as Harry Reid and more recently Marco Rubio, there is a determination to ensure the sightings are not of craft being tested by Russia or China. Most experts in the US, suspect that those nations do not possess such technology.
The report says: “We currently lack data to indicate any UAP are part of a foreign collection program or indicative of a major technological advancement by a potential adversary.
“We continue to monitor for evidence of such programs given the counter intelligence challenge they would pose, particularly as some UAP have been detected near military facilities or by aircraft carrying the USG’s most advanced sensor systems.”
The official who briefed reporters was asked asked about the possibility of extraterrestrial explanations for the observations. The official replied: “That’s not the purpose of the task force, to evaluate any sort of search for extraterrestrial life. ... That’s not what we were charged with doing.”
The official said that of the 144 reports “we have no clear indications that there is any non-terrestrial explanation for them, but we will go wherever the data takes us”.
All but one of them, an instance attributed to “airborne clutter”, remained unexplained, subject to further analysis, officials said. For the remaining cases, the government has yet to rule in or out whether the sightings might be of extraterrestrial origin.
“We continue to put a lot of effort and energy into tracking those types of developments, and we watch that very carefully. Nothing in this data set clearly points us into that direction,” one official added.
Congressman Adam Schiff, chair of the House intelligence committee, said in a statement: “It has become increasingly clear that unidentified aerial phenomena are not a rare occurrence and our government needs a unified way to gather, analyze, and contextualise these reports.”
Additional reporting by Reuters
