Declassified Pentagon UFO report reveals the US has NO idea what 140 craft spotted by American forces are - and it DOESN'T rule out aliens
A newly-declassified Pentagon report on a spate of UFO sightings by members of the US military has offered no explanation for their origin - and failed to rule out the possibility of aliens.
The report, submitted to Congress and released to the public on Friday, said defense and intelligence analysts lack sufficient data to determine the nature of mysterious flying objects.
Those objects were observed by military pilots, with experts considering whether they are advanced earthly technologies, atmospherics or of an extraterrestrial nature.
Friday's report encompasses 144 observations of what the government officially refers to as 'unidentified aerial phenomenon,' or UAP, dating back to 2004. The report was issued by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence in conjunction with a U.S. Navy-led UAP task force.
The report includes some UFO cases that previously came to light in the Pentagon's release of video from U.S. Naval aviators.
They showed mysterious aircraft off the U.S. East and West Coasts exhibiting speed and maneuverability exceeding known aviation technologies and lacking any visible means of propulsion or flight-control surfaces.
A senior U.S. official, asked about the possibility of extraterrestrial explanations for the observations, said: '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.
'Of the 144 reports we are dealing with here, we have no clear indications that there is any non-terrestrial explanation for them - but we will go wherever the data takes us,' the official added.
The USS Omaha filmed a round object making a controlled flight above the water for an extended period of time before it finally entered the ocean
The Pentagon's report was released to Congress on Friday, but offered no information on what the UFOs might be
All but four of the sightings, which were attributed to 'airborne clutter,' remain unexplained, subject to further analysis, U.S. officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, told reporters during a briefing describing the report's findings.
For the remaining 140 cases, the government has yet to rule in or out whether the sightings might be of extraterrestrial origin, the officials said.
Likewise, the task force lacks enough evidence to conclude whether any of those incidents represented some exotic aerial system developed either by a U.S. government or commercial entity, or by a foreign power, according to the officials.
'Of data we have, we don't have any clear indications that any of these unidentified aerial phenomena are part of a foreign (intelligence) collection program, and we don't have any clear data that is indicative of a major technological advancement by a potential adversary,' the senior official said.
'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,' the official added.
The government in recent years has adopted UAP as its preferred term for what are otherwise known as 'unidentified flying objects,' or UFOs, long associated with the notion of alien spacecraft.
A second senior official said that 21 of the reports show UAPs 'that appear to have some sort of advanced propulsion or advanced technology,' and appear to lack any means of propulsion or acceleration and exhibit speeds beyond what the United States believes foreign adversaries possess.
The report was ordered by Congress as part of broader intelligence legislation signed by former President Donald Trump in December. Senator Marco Rubio was instrumental in commissioning it.
Friday's report marks a turning point for the U.S. government after the military spent decades deflecting, debunking and discrediting observations of unidentified flying objects and 'flying saucers' backing back to the 1940s.
Many of those sightings are actually believed to have been experimental, top-secret US government aircraft, with officials gladly going along with UFO stories to keep attention off their cutting-edge projects.
But the Pentagon has taken a far more sober approach to the latest spate of sightings - perhaps because so many were caught on camera by respected military personnel.
'Anytime there is a safety-of-flight or counterintelligence concern we take those things very seriously and we will continue to take those things seriously,' the first senior official said.
The second senior official added, 'Our approach has been driven by science and data.'
A number of naval aviators have come forward in recent years to discuss their observations of UAPs with documentary filmmakers and news organizations including Reuters.
'A lot of the work that the task force has done to date has been on the de-stigmatization issue, ensuring that those who observe unidentified things are comfortable reporting that and that it's clear how they should report that,' the first official said.
He was referring to the fears of servicemen and women who were reluctant to report what they'd seen over fears they'd be laughed off as crackpots.
'I think DoD (the Department of Defense) has made very significant strides in recent months in getting the message out on that,' the official continued.
It is not the first official U.S. government report on the subject. For example, the U.S. Air Force carried out a previous UFO investigation called Project Blue Book , ended in 1969, that compiled a list of 12,618 sightings, 701 of which involved objects that officially remained 'unidentified.'
In 1994, the Air Force announced that it had completed a study to locate records relating to the 1947 'Roswell incident' in New Mexico.
That saw a silvery object smash into the desert near the remote town. It was initially reported as a downed flying saucer, but officials have since insisted that the Roswell object was in fact a downed balloon.
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