Shomporko Online News Desk: According to a long-awaited intelligence study presented to the US Congress on Friday, the US military has no terrestrial explanation for the dozens of unidentified flying objects it has documented in recent decades — but that doesn’t mean the UFOs are proof of alien visits.
Since 2004, 144 experiences with what the government refers to as Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (UAP) have been reported, according to the unclassified nine-page report. It only manages to explain one of the sightings as a deflated weather balloon, and it offers no new footage or images of the other strange encounters.
Intelligence officials say that most of the sightings were likely physical objects and not tricks of the light. They say none of those objects were secret American projects, and they found no evidence that the UFOs might be advanced hypersonic technology from Russia or China.
They also found no evidence to suggest that the objects were spacecraft from another world, nor did they claim to have evidence of captured alien bodies or technology. The report itself does not include the word “alien” anywhere in its text.
“Of the 144 reports we are dealing with here, we have no clear indications that there is any non-terrestrial explanation for them — but we will go wherever the data takes us,” a senior U.S. official told CNN.
In other words, officials can’t say that these strange UFOs are — or are not — aliens. They simply remain unidentified.
The report says that 80 of the sightings showed up on multiple sensor devices, and that 11 cases involved “near-miss” collisions with American personnel.
Some of the objects “appeared to exhibit unusual flight characteristics,” the report says, echoing public comments made by pilots who claim to have seen UFOs firsthand. The report also acknowledges that these strange movements “could be the result of sensor errors, spoofing or observer misperception.”
It goes on to say that there is likely not one single explanation for the 143 mystery sightings.
Investigators compared many of the sightings to possible causes such as birds, weather balloons, military tests, foreign technology or natural occurring phenomena. They did not have enough data to fully categorize everything they found, and the 143 remaining sightings were simply listed as “other.”
The report acknowledges that there may be some bias in the data, as most of the documented sightings were made by pilots who were using advanced sensors in U.S. testing and training areas. It also cites “unit expectations and guidance to report anomalies” as potential issues with the data.
The report adds to the mystery surrounding these UAPs, acknowledging their existence while offering no evidence to point to their origins.
Several senior government officials spoiled the gist of the report earlier this month, when they shared details of an advance briefing with the New York Times. Those early reports underestimated the number of UFO sightings in recent years.
The report itself is unclassified, but it includes an appendix that remains classified.
Republican Sen. Marco Rubio, who had pushed for the report, hailed its release on Friday.
“For years, the men and women we trust to defend our country reported encounters with unidentified aircraft that had superior capabilities, and for years their concerns were often ignored and ridiculed,” he said.
“While this study is an important first step toward cataloging these incidents, it is only that. Before we can truly appreciate if these aerial threats pose a substantial national security threat, the Defense Department and Intelligence Community must do a lot of work.”
UAPs “certainly pose a safety of flight issue and may constitute a challenge to US national security,” according to the research. It further mentions that a consistent reporting method for such sightings has been in place since March of this year.
Source_globalnews.ca
