The U.S. government is reportedly tracking more than 650 potential UFO sightings, a Pentagon official revealed April 19.
Sean Kirkpatrick, director of the Defense Department’s All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office, announced before a subcommittee of the Senate Armed Services Committee on Wednesday that the U.S. government is currently tracking potential UFO sightings along the eastern and western coasts of the United States. In addition, Kirkpatrick also revealed potential UFO sightings concentrated in the Middle East and in the South China Sea, CBS News reported.
In a newly declassified video, an American military drone in the Middle East captured a small metallic object zipping in and out of frame. The origin of the metallic sphere has baffled experts at the Pentagon, the outlet stated.
The US government is tracking more than 650 potential cases of so-called “unidentified aerial phenomenon,” commonly known as UFOs https://t.co/P0w4YxxVwE
— CNN Politics (@CNNPolitics) April 19, 2023
Though the Pentagon maintains there is no credible evidence that any of the objects currently being tracked by the U.S. government are extraterrestrial in nature, a small number of them have been observed to use advanced flight features, CBS News reported. Those heightened characteristics indicate to experts the objects were possibly developed by China or Russia, CNN reported.
“They are less risk averse at technical advancement than we are. They are just willing to try things and see if it works,” Kirkpatrick explained, according to the outlet. “Are there capabilities that could be employed against us in both ISR (Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance) and a weapons fashion? Absolutely. Do I have evidence they’re doing it in these cases? No, but I have concerning indicators,” he continued. (RELATED: US Establishes ‘Interagency Team’ To Study UFOs)
Kirkpatrick’s testimony comes after the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) acknowledged in a report released in January that its office had been tracking a total of 510 UFOs since 2004, the outlet stated. In 2021, however, the ODNI only admitted to tracking 144 total sightings.
Of the 366 new sightings reported in January by the ODNI, 26 were believed to be drones, 163 were classified as balloon-like objects and six as aerial clutter, the outlet stated. The remaining 171 were characterized as unexplained, and some exhibited “unusual flight characteristics or performance, and require further analysis,” CBS News reported.