A US congressional committee on May 17 will hold a public hearing on unidentified flying objects (UFOs), the first in more than 50 years.
Top Pentagon officials told a House panel on Tuesday that there are now nearly 400 reports from service members of UFO encounters – a substantial increase over the number. 144 was tracked in a major report released by the US intelligence community last year.
A Navy official also said at Tuesday’s hearing that investigators were “completely confident” that the pyramid-shaped objects were captured on a leaked, widely viewed military video. Possibly drones.
Indiana Representative André Carson, Democratic Chairman of the House Subcommittee on Terrorism, Counterintelligence, and Non-Proliferation, convened a hearing on May 17, the first of its kind. over 50 years focused on aerial incidents.
The unidentified aerial phenomenon (UAP) “is a potential national security threat and they need to be addressed,” Carson said.
Deputy Director of Naval Intelligence Scott Bray. US officials say these reports do not provide conclusive evidence of extraterrestrial activity, but the possibility cannot be ruled out. According to a report by the US Office of the Director of National Intelligence, these objects can compromise flight safety and may present a broader danger if it is the operation of a foreign government against foreign aircraft carriers. U.S. military operations or demonstrate a breakthrough in aviation technology by a potential U.S. adversary.
According to Scott Bray, deputy director of the Naval Intelligence Service, the number of UAP reports has grown to “about 400”, a significant increase from the 144 from 2004 to 2021 tracked in last year’s report. . Bray told the House panel that the spike was due to a “reduced stigma” associated with moving forward to reporting such incidents after the 2021 report.
“We have seen an increasing number of unauthorized and unidentified aircraft or objects in military control training areas and training ranges and other designated airspace,” Bray said. “Reports of sightings are frequent and ongoing”.
At the same time, Ronald Moultrie, the top Pentagon intelligence official who also testified at the hearing, said: “We want to know what’s out there just as you want to know what’s out there.”
Bray emphasized that the above results are due to the efforts of the US Army, as well as technological advances. But he said the Pentagon has found no evidence of an extraterrestrial origin behind the phenomena. Some may be due to the presence of drones or birds of the air, confusing the radar systems of military aircraft. Others may be tests of military equipment or technology by other countries.
Moultrie said the Pentagon is creating an office to expedite “the systematic, streamlined, and standardized identification of previously unidentified or unidentified objects in the air.”
“We also understand that there has been a cultural stigma around UAP,” said Moultrie. “Our goal is to remove stigma by fully incorporating our operators and employees into a standardized data collection process.”
“Our goal is to strike that delicate balance: one that allows us to maintain public confidence while maintaining capabilities that are critical to human support,” he said. our waiter”.
“Naval and Air Force crews now have step-by-step procedures for reporting UAPs right in the cockpit,” said Bray, and these efforts have resulted in more reports.
Deputy Director of Naval Intelligence Scott Bray (left), and under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence and Security Ronald Moultrie, speaking during a hearing of the House Intelligence Subcommittee, Counterterrorism, Counterintelligence and Nonproliferation on “Unidentified Aerial Phenomena,” on Capitol Hill, May 17, 2022, in Washington, DC.
Growing mainstream interest in UFOs and UAPs has been rekindled in recent years by the leaks of classified videos and the release of footage from the Navy’s own encounters by the Navy. their merit.
At Tuesday’s hearing, defense officials played three clips to help briefly explain the aerial incidents, making it difficult to determine what was seen in the videos.
Bray broadcast footage taken in July 2019 off the coast of California from the deck of the destroyer USS Russell, which appears to show several pyramid-shaped objects hovering above the ship.
Bray admitted that investigators initially had no explanation for what was seen in the video, until they were able to contrast it with a more recent video of an incident that occurred off the coast of the Atlantic Ocean. . And the conclusion that these phenomena are likely from drones was seen on sensors from a Navy instrument.
Bray explains: “We now reasonably believe that these triangles correlate with drone systems in the area. The triangular shape is the result of light passing through. night vision goggles and then recorded with an SLR camera”.
“The purpose of the hearing is to give the public the opportunity to hear first-hand from experts and intelligence agency leaders about one of the great mysteries,” said Adam Schiff, chairman of the House Intelligence Committee. best of the times.
Ahead of the hearing, Jeremy Corbell, a documentary filmmaker and UFO enthusiast who made that “pyramid” video public last year, said he was pleased to have noticed an increase in awareness. and government action.
According to Indiana Representative André Carson, the live-streamed hearing is an attempt by legislators to bring a level of transparency to the investigation of unexplained witnessing incidents, and to guide reporting. strange phenomena in the sky.
The last time an investigation of this kind took place was in 1969, when the United States Air Force’s investigation into UFOs dubbed “Project Blue Book” came to an end due to the assumption that there were no unexplained flying objects. verified and no flying object has ever been assessed as a threat to national security.