A report released Friday by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) highlights the national security implications of unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP).
The report emphasizes that most UAP “remain unidentified due to limited data or challenges to collection processing or analysis.” The Senate Intelligence Committee requested in June 2020 that the ODNI deliver a report on UAP within 180 days. A provision requiring that the report be declassified and released was included in the December 2020 COVID-19 relief package. (RELATED: Former DNI John Ratcliffe Says The Government Has Proof Of UFO’s Doing Things Humans Don’t Have The Tech For)
Today, ODNI submitted to Congress a preliminary report regarding Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (UAP) that relays the progress made by the UAP Task Force. Read the report here: https://t.co/gjDUf42XMR
— Office of the DNI (@ODNIgov) June 25, 2021
The report claims that most UAP falls into one of four categories. They may be “airborne clutter, [including] birds, balloons, recreational unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV), or airborne debris like plastic bags … natural atmospheric phenomena … developments and classified programs by U.S. entities … [or] technologies deployed by China, Russia, another nation, or a non-governmental entity.”
That last scenario is most concerning to intelligence officials, particularly because “some UAP have been detected near military facilities or by aircraft carrying the USG’s most advanced sensor systems.”
“UAP pose a hazard to safety of flight and could pose a broader danger if some instances represent sophisticated collection against U.S. military activities by a foreign government or demonstrate a breakthrough aerospace technology by a potential adversary,” according to the report.
The Department of Defense (DOD) announced a UAP task force in August 2020 following a series of reports of unknown aircraft.
“The Department of Defense and the military departments take any incursions by unauthorized aircraft into our training ranges or designated airspace very seriously and examine each report. This includes examinations of incursions that are initially reported as UAP when the observer cannot immediately identify what he or she is observing,” the DOD said at the time.
The report confirms that the DOD task force is investigating eleven separate instances of UAP. In one case, Navy personnel observed a triangle-shaped aircraft surrounded by smaller glowing orbs.
Multiple lawmakers have declared their interest in and concern about the reports.
“Some of my colleagues are very interested in this topic and some kinda, you know, giggle when you bring it up. But I don’t think we can allow the stigma to keep us from having an answer to a very fundamental question,” Republican Florida Sen. and Senate Intelligence Committee chairman Marco Rubio said in May.
“There is information uncovered by the government’s covert investigations into unidentified aerial phenomena that can be disclosed to the public without harming our national security. The American people deserve to know more,” retired Democratic Nevada Sen. Harry Reid wrote in the New York Times in May.