The U.S. government has officially investigated 510 reports of UFOs, many of them flying in sensitive military airspaces, the AP reports.
The truth is out there. And though visitation of Earth by extraterrestrial intelligence remains iffy at best, one truth most certainly is out there: The U.S. government is talking about UFOs again.
Its declassified 2022 report on "Unidentified Aerial Phenomena" (the military's preferred parlance these days) noted that UAP sightings have increased in restricted or sensitive airspaces, such as those over nuclear installations and plants. This highlights "possible concerns for safety of flight or adversary collection activity."
Adversary collection activity. Or what civilians would call spying.
More than 350 reports of unidentified objects have been recorded since March 2021, more than half of them unexplained.
The Pentagon's newest office studying UAP events, the All-Domain Anomaly Resolution Office, which opened last year, is supposed to work with our own spooks to figure out what's up, literally. So far, progress--at least that which is reported--has been slow.
Five years ago, the military was forced to talk about UFOs/UAP again following a leaked story to The New York Times which reported the Pentagon secret investigations into such reports. The newspaper also revealed the existence of the famous Navy "Tic-Tac" video footage.
In these videos, flying objects--at least one of them shaped like a breath mint--were recorded by Navy pilots off the coast of California doing things that defy mankind's understanding of physics. Since then, former Navy pilots and sailors have come forth with more stories of strange encounters, including with crafts that could seamlessly transition from flight to submersion.
The military seems to be acknowledging there are things out there that officials can't as yet identify. That includes sources and intentions.
That trained Navy pilots and submariners with nothing to gain would come forth and share these experiences is significant. These aren't the rural yokels as depicted in pop culture who claim to have been abducted and seduced by aliens. These are professionals making claims that might have, once upon a time, made them the butt of jokes. And made their yearly evaluation reports that may have kept them from being promoted.
The Pentagon says the recent increase in UAP events can be attributed to a reduced stigma in reporting such events. UFOs are mainstream now. But there's another possibility, also acknowledged in the report:
"We continue to assess that this may result from a collection bias due to the number of active aircraft and sensors, combined with focused attention and guidance to report anomalies."
This is more serious than most people probably think. Even if there isn't much chance of travel between solar systems, much less between galaxies, these "events" as the military terms them are dangerous.
If some other countries are playing cat-and-mouse above nuclear plants in the United States, you can see the clear and present danger. Which could lead to an act of war.
But if these things are instrumentation problems--if pilots and ship officers are seeing blips on the screen that don't really exist--then that could lead to serious mechanical problems. If crazy UAPs fuzz up the screen and distract pilots, what about the mountain behind the blips?
ET jokes aside, that the brass has a new office studying this problem--even if given that unfortunate named All-Domain Anomaly Resolution Office--is a step in the right direction. Because this stuff is going to cause a crash one day.
Or worse.