An unclassified version of the Pentagon’s report on Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (UAPs, aka UFOs) was sent to Congress on Friday, showing that more than 140 instances of strange sightings by military aircraft remain a mystery. This is the public’s first glance at the 9-page report.
Last year, Congress gave the Defense Department a six-month deadline to share classified and unclassified versions of a report on UAPs cataloged by the Pentagon’s UAP Task Force. The task force’s existence was announced in August 2020 and its mission is “to detect, analyze and catalog UAPs that could potentially pose a threat to U.S. national security.” Today marks the deadline.
Senate committees received the classified version of the report on June 2nd. And leaks earlier this month to The New York Times, citing unnamed US intelligence officials, indicated the task force’s assessment has remained largely inconclusive, unable to identify the mysterious aircraft. The 180-day anticipation over the report, as well as scant public comments from the Pentagon, have spawned a swell of attention on the report.
In 2020, footage of four different sightings released by the Navy showed pill-shaped objects twisting and turning midair. The videos also revived conspiracy theories that the government has proof of alien UFOs, though the Times story on the report cites intelligence officials as saying no evidence backing up that theory had been found — but that it couldn’t be ruled out, either. The Times also says intelligence officials swiftly ruled out any possibility of the objects being secret US aircraft.
You can read the full report here, or below.