"I Think We Should Take the Phenomenon Seriously and Try to Investigate It," Says Secretary of the Air Force about UFOs

Following an almost 50-year career in military acquisition, Frank Kendall III was sworn in as the 26th Secretary of the Air Force on July 28th, 2021, making him responsible for acquisition and auditing, comptroller issues (including financial management), inspector general matters, legislative affairs, and public affairs within the Department of the Air Force.

“I think we should take the phenomenon seriously and try to investigate,” newly-appointed Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall said of UFOs in a statement to Politico senior correspondent Bryan Bender last Tuesday; although, Secretary Kendall added, he doesn’t “consider it an imminent threat to the United States or the human race.”

Bender asked Secretary Kendall "if he has been briefed on UAPs [the current government nomenclature for UFOs] and if he has thought about what the service’s role should be in defending American airspace against unidentified craft," to which he replied:

I’ve given a great deal of thought to defending American airspace but not against UFOs. If asked to do that then we will do it. This is a thing that’s been around for a great many years. I’ve given a great deal of thought to defending American airspace but not against UFOs.
I know a lot people take it very seriously and I think we should take the phenomenon seriously and try to investigate it. I don’t consider it an imminent threat to the United States or the human race, these phenomenon [sic] occurring. But they obviously tweak a lot of peoples’ curiosity and encourage speculation. So if we’re asked to take that on, we will.
I would have to see evidence that it was something worthy of the attention of the…Air Force as a threat. Our job is to protect…against threats. I have a lot of known threats out there that we’re working very hard to protect the [US] against. I’d like to focus on those.

Secretary Kendall’s statement comes less than two months after the Office of the Director of National Intelligence released the unclassified portion of their much anticipated preliminary assessment report on UFOs.

That report provided five potential explanatory categories 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," and concluded that they "clearly pose a safety of flight issue and may pose a challenge to U.S. national security."

This conclusion would appear to be at odds with Secretary Kendall’s statement, which has caused speculation within the UFO community that he perhaps has insider knowledge of the phenomenon that would lead him to believe they aren’t a threat.

However, the level of briefing Secretary Kendall has so far received on the subject is unknown, and it is unclear on what information, exactly, he is basing his opinion.