Are we the people just more in the know then our governments inept technology? One could only hope!
https://www.sfchronicle.com/us-world/us/article/Pentagon-doesn-t-rule-out-extraterrestrial-16276562.phphttps://gizmodo.com/read-the-pentagons-big-declassified-ufo-report-right-he-1847175792That’s the gist of an eagerly anticipated report on unidentified aerial phenomena that a national intelligence agency released on Friday. The 9-page preliminary assessment from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence confirms that, yes, military and civilian pilots have been seeing unexplainable objects in the skies for years, but doesn’t conclude what these phenomena are other than potential national security threats worthy of deeper investigation.
Perhaps most intriguingly, the highest profile government account to date of what used to be called UFOs doesn’t explicitly rule out the possibility of extraterrestrial origins.
“Some UAP appeared to remain stationary in winds aloft, move against the wind, maneuver abruptly, or move at considerable speed, without discernable means of propulsion,” the report states. “In a small number of cases, military aircraft systems processed radio frequency (RF) energy associated with UAP sightings.”
The national intelligence office and the Unidentified Aerial Task Force, which the Department of Defense created last August, analyzed 144 UAP events from November 2004 to March 2021, though most occurred in the last two years and were witnessed firsthand by military aviators.
The analysis, which included input from 17 national intelligence, military and scientific organizations, focused on more recent encounters because they fell under a standardized reporting process that the U.S. Navy established in March 2019. As a result, 80 of the 144 UAP incidents were recorded by multiple sensors, the report notes.
“Most of the UAP reported probably do represent physical objects given that a majority of UAP were registered across multiple sensors, to include radar, infrared, electro-optical, weapon seekers, and visual observation,” the report states.
The report bundles the phenomena into five possible categories: airborne clutter that could include drones, balloons and birds; natural atmospheric phenomena that may show up on radar in infrared sensors; classified government programs that the report’s authors had no knowledge of; foreign adversary systems; and “other.”
Of the latter category, the authors note that advances in science could be required to get to the bottom of these sightings, but that the UAP task force plans to conduct additional analysis on “the small number of cases where a UAP appeared to display unusual flight characteristics or signature management.”
Around the U.S. Capitol, reaction to the report was carefully calibrated.
Rep. Adam Schiff of California, who chairs the House Intelligence Committee, said in a statement that it has “become increasingly clear that unidentified aerial phenomena are not a rare occurrence,” and that the government needs a uniform way to study them, “whether they are the result of a foreign adversary, atmospheric or other aerial phenomena, space debris, or something else entirely.”
The Democratic congressman said his committee would host a classified briefing about the report later this year, but acknowledged the mounting and decreasingly fringe interest in whatever these airborne phenomena are.
“As we continue to receive updates, we will share what we can with the American people as excessive secrecy will only spur more speculation,” Schiff added.
Raheem Hosseini is The Chronicle’s race and equity editor. Email: raheem.hosseini@sfchronicle.com; Twitter: @raheemfh