UFO sightings revealed

THE Pentagon has acknowledged funding a secret multimillion-dollar program to investigate sightings of UFOs.

The program yielded documents describing sightings of unidentified flying aircraft that apparently moved very fast with no visible sign of propulsion or hovered with no apparent means of lift, the New York Times reported.

Program officials also examined video of encounters between unknown objects and US military aircraft.

This included one report released in August of a whitish oval object about the size of a jetliner being pursued by two navy fighter jets from an aircraft carrier off the California coast in 2004, the paper added.

The US Navy anti-aircraft cruiser USS Princeton radioed the pilots of two FA/18F Super Hornets that were engaged in combat exercises about 150km off the coast of San Diego.

It had picked up an unusual radar contact in its vicinity and wanted the US navy pilots to investigate.

“The objects appeared suddenly at 80,000 feet (24km high) and then hurtled toward the sea, eventually stopping at 20,000 feet (6km) and hover- ing. Then they either dropped out of radar range or shot straight back up,” the US Navy report states.

“Hovering 50 feet (15m) above the churn was an aircraft of some kind — whitish — that was around 40 feet (12m) long and oval in shape.”

The object initially rose to- wards the fighter jets as they circled to get a good look at it, but then broke off as the US aircraft approached.

“It accelerated like nothing I’ve ever seen,” one of the pilots reported.

The cruiser detected it 65km away less than one minute later, before it vanished.

“I have no idea what I saw,” Commander Fravor replied to the pilot. “It had no plumes, wings or rotors and outran our F-18s . . . I want to fly one.”

The so-called Advanced Aviation Threat Identification Program operated from 2007 to 2012 and had $22 million a year in funding tucked away in the Pentagon’s gargantuan budget, the Times said.

The program ended in 2012, according to the Department of Defence, but the Times reported it is still running.

The Department of Defence said in a statement the program was now over.

The program was initially funded at the request of then Senator Harry Reid, a longtime enthusiast of space phenomena, the Times said.

Most of the money in the program went to an aerospace research company run by billionaire Robert Bigelow, a longtime friend of Mr Reid, the Times said.