Government Investigation of UFOs Hampered by the "Limited Amount of High-Quality Reporting," Says Preliminary Assessment Report

The Office of the Director of National Intelligence released the unclassified portion of their much anticipated preliminary assessment report on UFOs last Friday, beginning the Executive Summary portion by saying "The limited amount of high-quality reporting on unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP) [the current government nomenclature for UFOs] hampers our ability to draw firm conclusions about the nature or intent of UAP."

As a result, read the report, the Unidentified Aerial Phenomena Task Force (UAPTF) "concentrated its review on reports that occurred between 2004 and 2021, the majority of which are a result of this new tailored process to better capture UAP events through formalized reporting," concluding that "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 admitted that, "In a limited number of incidents, UAP reportedly appeared to exhibit unusual flight characteristics," although "these observations could be the result of sensor errors, spoofing, or observer misperception and require additional rigorous analysis."

Five potential explanatory categories were provided for UFOs, including "airborne clutter, natural atmospheric phenomena, USG [United States Government] or U.S. industry developmental programs, foreign adversary systems, and a catchall 'other' bin."

As a result, it was concluded, UFOs "clearly pose a safety of flight issue and may pose a challenge to U.S. national security."

The report called for "Consistent consolidation of reports from across the federal government, standardized reporting, increased collection and analysis, and a streamlined process for screening all such reports against a broad range of relevant USG data," something it said "will allow for a more sophisticated analysis of UAP that is likely to deepen our understanding."

Because of the challenges involved with data collection, "the UAPTF focused on reports that involved UAP largely witnessed firsthand by military aviators and that were collected from systems we considered to be reliable," examining 144 reports from U.S. government sources. Of those reports, 80 involved observation with multiple sensors, and "most reports described UAP as objects that interrupted pre-planned training or other military activity."

18 incidents in which "observers reported unusual UAP movement patterns or flight characteristics" were also mentioned, noting that the objects reported "appeared to remain stationary in winds aloft, move against the wind, maneuver abruptly, or move at considerable speed, without discernable means of propulsion. In a small number of cases, military aircraft systems processed radio frequency (RF) energy associated with UAP sightings."

In addition, "The UAPTF holds a small amount of data that appear to show UAP demonstrating acceleration or a degree of signature management."

However, "Additional rigorous analysis are necessary by multiple teams or groups of technical experts to determine the nature and validity of these data," and the task force is "conducting further analysis to determine if breakthrough technologies were demonstrated."

Ultimately, the UAPTF stressed the need for greater interagency reporting and “indicated that additional funding for research and development could further the future study of the topics laid out in this report.”

This report represents increasingly public interest in UFOs by government officials, and was created as a result of the Senate Intelligence Committee, led at the time by Senator Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), including a directive in their Intelligence Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2021 ordering the Director of National Intelligence (DNI)—in consultation with the Secretary of Defense—to create a report regarding “unidentified aerial phenomena.” That bill led to the creation of the UAPTF, the group responsible for creating the report.

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