Truth is still out there: Intel report is inconclusive about UFOs
A long-awaited US Government report on UFOs released yesterday makes at least one thing clear: The truth is still out there.
Investigators did not find extraterrestrial links in reviewing 144 sightings of aircraft or other devices apparently flying at mysterious speeds or trajectories.
But they drew few other conclusions and instead highlighted the need for better data collection about what’s increasingly seen by Democrats and Republicans as a national security concern.
In all but one of the sightings investigated, there was too little information for investigators to even broadly characterise the nature of the incident.
Long the domain of science fiction and so-called ufologists, the subject of UFOs has in recent years drawn serious study from the Pentagon and intelligence agencies. The prospect of an adversary spying with unknown technology has alarmed lawmakers in both parties.
Congress last year required the creation of the report delivered on Saturday. While its lack of conclusions has already been made public, the report still represents a milestone in the study of the issue.
US officials who briefed reporters on condition of anonymity said there were “no clear indications” that the sightings could be linked to alien life.
There is also no definitive linkage of sightings to potentially unknown technology of an adversary like Russia or China.
“It’s clear that we need to improve our capacity to further analyse remaining UAP observations, even as we accept that there are some limits to our capacity to characterise and understand some of the observations that we have,” one official said.
The report was published online and delivered to the House and Senate intelligence committees with a classified annex.
Lawmakers were given a briefing last week on the investigation.
One person who attended the classified briefing and spoke on condition of anonymity said lawmakers were given little information beyond what’s publicly available and that the only videos shown had already been made public.
The Department of Defence will over the next three months develop a new strategy for collecting and tracking information on potential sightings. Part of the data collection effort is destigmatising UAPs and pushing pilots to report what they see, even when what they see is implausible.
“The Defence Department and Intelligence Community have a lot of work to do before we can actually understand whether these aerial threats present a serious national security concern,” US Senator Marco Rubio said.