Preliminary Assessment: Unidentified Aerial Phenomena
This preliminary report is provided by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) in response to the provision in Senate Report 116-233, accompanying the Intelligence Authorization Act (IAA) for Fiscal Year 2021, that the DNI, in consultation with the Secretary of Defense (SECDEF), is to submit an intelligence assessment of the threat posed by unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP) and the progress the Department of Defense Unidentified Aerial Phenomena Task Force (UAPTF) has made in understanding this threat.
This report provides an overview for policymakers of the challenges associated with characterizing the potential threat posed by UAP while also providing a means to develop relevant processes, policies, technologies, and training for the U.S. military and other U.S. Government (USG) personnel if and when they encounter UAP, so as to enhance the Intelligence Community's (IC) ability to understand the threat. The Director, UAPTF, is the accountable official for ensuring the timely collection and consolidation of data on UAP. The dataset described in this report is currently limited primarily to U.S. Government reporting of incidents occurring from November 2004 to March 2021. Data continues to be collected and analyzed.
ODNI prepared this report for the Congressional Intelligence and Armed Services Committees. UAPTF and the ODNI National Intelligence Manager for Aviation drafted this report, with input from USD(I&S), DIA, FBI, NRO, NGA, NSA, Air Force, Army, Navy, Navy/ONI, DARPA, FAA, NOAA, NGA, ODNI/NIM-Emerging and Disruptive Technology, ODNI/National Counterintelligence and Security Center, and ODNI/National Intelligence Council.
Assumptions
Various forms of sensors that register UAP generally operate correctly and capture enough real data to allow initial assessments, but some UAP may be attributable to sensor anomalies.
[...] The limited amount of high-quality reporting on unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP) hampers our ability to draw firm conclusions about the nature or intent of UAP.
[...] 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.
In a limited number of incidents, UAP reportedly appeared to exhibit unusual flight characteristics. These observations could be the result of sensor errors, spoofing, or observer misperception and require additional rigorous analysis.
[...] UAP clearly pose a safety of flight issue and may pose a challenge to U.S. national security. Safety concerns primarily center on aviators contending with an increasingly cluttered air domain. UAP would also represent a national security challenge if they are foreign adversary collection platforms or provide evidence a potential adversary has developed either a breakthrough or disruptive technology.
"Most of the UAP reported probably do represent physical objects"
Previously: Ex-Official Who Revealed UFO Project Accuses Pentagon of "Disinformation" Campaign
We're Not Saying It's Aliens: Unidentified Aerial Phenomena Report Available on June 25
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Ex-official who revealed UFO project accuses Pentagon of 'disinformation' campaign
The former Pentagon official who went public about reports of UFOs has filed a complaint with the agency's inspector general claiming a coordinated campaign to discredit him for speaking out — including accusing a top official of threatening to tell people he was "crazy," according to documents reviewed by POLITICO.
Lue Elizondo, a career counterintelligence specialist who was assigned in 2008 to work for a Pentagon program that investigated reports of "unmanned aerial phenomena," filed the 64-page complaint to the independent watchdog on May 3 and has met several times with investigators, according to his legal team.
The claim that the government is trying to discredit him comes weeks before the director of national intelligence and the Pentagon are expected to deliver an unclassified report to Congress about UFOs and the government's strategy for investigating such encounters. The report is expected to include a detailed accounting of the agencies, personnel and surveillance systems that gather and analyze the data.
"What he is saying is there are certain individuals in the Defense Department who in fact were attacking him and lying about him publicly, using the color of authority of their offices to disparage him and discredit him and were interfering in his ability to seek and obtain gainful employment out in the world," said Daniel Sheehan, Elizondo's attorney. "And also threatening his security clearance."
Previously:
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U.S. Finds No Evidence of Alien Technology in Flying Objects, but Can't Rule It Out, Either (archive)
American intelligence officials have found no evidence that aerial phenomena witnessed by Navy pilots in recent years are alien spacecraft, but they still cannot explain the unusual movements that have mystified scientists and the military, according to senior administration officials briefed on the findings of a highly anticipated government report.
The report determines that a vast majority of more than 120 incidents over the past two decades did not originate from any American military or other advanced U.S. government technology, the officials said. That determination would appear to eliminate the possibility that Navy pilots who reported seeing unexplained aircraft might have encountered programs the government meant to keep secret.
But that is about the only conclusive finding in the classified intelligence report, the officials said. And while a forthcoming unclassified version, expected to be released to Congress by June 25, will present few other firm conclusions, senior officials briefed on the intelligence conceded that the very ambiguity of the findings meant the government could not definitively rule out theories that the phenomena observed by military pilots might be alien spacecraft.
[...] The report concedes that much about the observed phenomena remains difficult to explain, including their acceleration, as well as ability to change direction and submerge. One possible explanation — that the phenomena could be weather balloons or other research balloons — does not hold up in all cases, the officials said, because of changes in wind speed at the times of some of the interactions.
[...] Many of the more than 120 incidents examined in the report are from Navy personnel, officials said. The report also examined incidents involving foreign militaries over the last two decades. Intelligence officials believe at least some of the aerial phenomena could have been experimental technology from a rival power, most likely Russia or China.
Previously: Ex-Official Who Revealed UFO Project Accuses Pentagon of "Disinformation" Campaign
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 26 2021, @06:52AM (3 children)
We're not saying it's physical objects, ... but it's physical objects.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by c0lo on Saturday June 26 2021, @08:26AM (2 children)
Weirdly enough, all the evidence is fuzzy, like captured on a black-and-white film by a consumer camera during the sixties (peak of UFO craze).
I reckon the US defense didn't evolve that much as one may think, if they are unable to do better.
https://www.youtube.com/@ProfSteveKeen https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 4, Informative) by choose another one on Saturday June 26 2021, @10:48AM (1 child)
This ain't surprising if you've worked in defence / defense industry. OTOH, at least:
a) Mil spec tech has to be all sorts of stuff consumer tech just isn't - rad-hard, shock, chemical resistant etc. etc., that takes time and reduces capability - so it might only be a potato cam but it'll be a hard-to-kill potato cam
b) Partly because of (a), but also for many other reasons, development times are long, really long. When you start you think you're going to be working on the cutting edge, you quickly find your team is begging manufacturers to keep ancient components in production, not for maintenance / spares, for projects that still haven't gone into production/service yet (been there). So the potato cam will also probably be a decade behind what's in today's phones
c) Capabilities of anything close to "current" are deliberately downgraded when anything is released to public, my educated guess is that that will include downgrading video footage. They may not bother downgrading for stuff that's been in service for a decade or so, but that means it's a decade or so old before you even start on effects (a) and (b)...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 26 2021, @06:17PM
So essentially what you are saying is that for a fraction of the price your average consumer is far better equipped than the military. This sounds very reassuring. It also sounds about right.
(Score: 2) by Rosco P. Coltrane on Saturday June 26 2021, @07:10AM (4 children)
The language used in this story. So many acronyms and bureaucratic rah-rah it would make a USSOCOM purchase officer's head spin.
Anyway, I'm glad to see the aforementioned acronyms are busy producing cryptic report about keeping us safe from unidentified threats from somewhere. My tax dollars at work right there.
(Score: 2) by Valkor on Saturday June 26 2021, @07:33AM
it's from the report itself. what do you expect from the government??
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 26 2021, @07:53AM (1 child)
In other words, you're illiterate.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Runaway1956 on Saturday June 26 2021, @01:18PM
That's pretty dumb. Throwing acronyms around is a favorite among government officials. It helps to confuse the uninitiated, and it can even confuse the initiated.
How many meanings can you find for CPA? I have three, one drilled into me by a business administration professor, another by my EMT instructor, and another learned while leaning over a radar screen. I'm quite certain others can offer more meanings.
If you don't live in the environment(s) in which acronyms are commonly used, they are just so much meaningless jargon. When you change environments, the jargon changes, leaving you feeling like a fish out of water.
“I have become friends with many school shooters” - Tampon Tim Walz
(Score: 3, Touché) by c0lo on Saturday June 26 2021, @08:29AM
Mars will speak Chinese [aljazeera.com].
https://www.youtube.com/@ProfSteveKeen https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Runaway1956 on Saturday June 26 2021, @11:51AM (5 children)
Nine pages of nothing. Seriously, nine pages of absolutely nothing. Any junior high schooler could have summarized those nine pages.
"Weird shit happens!"
Actually, I think the government has regressed. As soon as I opened the PDF, I did a search for 'swamp gas'. Nothing. It was then I looked at the page count box. Only nine pages. FFS - experts have written hundreds of books. Non-experts have written the equivalent of thousands of books. Newspapers have published the equivalent of thousands of books. And, government gives us 9 pages of nothing.
They could have given us swamp gas, at the least. Or maybe hinted at the supernatural. Or something.
“I have become friends with many school shooters” - Tampon Tim Walz
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 26 2021, @01:01PM (2 children)
Why would they hint at the supernatural? This is a thinly veiled ploy to raise more money for the military and advance longstanding agendas with regards to Russia, China, and Iran.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Saturday June 26 2021, @01:07PM
I mentioned supernatural only because some people have made such claims. That isn't mainstream even among the UFO crazies, but it's out there.
“I have become friends with many school shooters” - Tampon Tim Walz
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 28 2021, @07:36AM
Report coming out of Colorado Springs, Air Force Academy and Military Jesus Camp?
(Score: 2) by HiThere on Saturday June 26 2021, @02:58PM
My favorite was the "luminous owl" hypothesis. The UFO was actually an owl that had nested in a rotting tree and gotten covered with luminous saprophytes.
Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.
(Score: 3, Touché) by DannyB on Monday June 28 2021, @04:41PM
The aliens are only here to serve man.
The server will be down for replacement of vacuum tubes, belts, worn parts and lubrication of gears and bearings.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 26 2021, @01:54PM (4 children)
BBC says the report claims 143 cases of "more thorough investigation needed". Are they releasing the data, so that those interested can have a look?
Although I get the impression that bureaucrats would need explicit instructions to either
(1) release the data.
(2) throw more resources at analyzing the data.
My view is that (2) would be a waste of resources unless 6 months of (1) still leaves unexplained cases.
That should be plenty of time for people like Mick West https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCF3UCTZiVg9wrIEzO7Om6jw [youtube.com] to figure out whether there's anything worth looking more into.
By the way: weirdest thing about all of this? not ONE of the major news agencies has talked about Mick West, although they do talk about and to the "buy my book/documentary" crooks.
Phil Plait on fucking syfy.com does it, and I don't know of anyone else. Really. syfy.com is being the reasonable resource in a conversation about aliens (yes, the reasonable people are not talking about aliens, but society as a whole is talking about aliens).
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Saturday June 26 2021, @02:32PM (2 children)
So, major news outlets should seek out the opinions of rando youtube personalities? OK, if you say so.
Maybe, if you want us to listen to Mick West, you could cite some of his credentials? Like - is he a military veteran, or more specifically, a former foo fighter? Maybe he is retired from an alphabet soup intel agency? Who is Mick West? Is he just some guy who can rationalize a point of view popular with UFOlogists?
Please, tell us more about Mick.
“I have become friends with many school shooters” - Tampon Tim Walz
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 26 2021, @02:52PM (1 child)
he is the administrator of metabunk.org. here's a brief extract from his about page: "I'm a retired video game programmer. I co-founded the company Neversoft Entertainment, responsible for the Tony Hawk's Pro Skater series of games. I've trained as a private pilot, and flown a 400 mile trip solo. I do this purely out of personal interest, and nobody pays me in any way."
That said, I haven't actually checked his credentials before I looked them up for you. The explanations that he provided in his videos were good enough for me (and I am a trained physicist). In any case, I realize you don't have to trust my credentials, or his credentials. But I'd say it's reasonable to trust Phil Plait's credentials, he's fairly well-known as "the bad astronomer" --- and he's the first one pointing to Mick West's explanation videos (see his article [syfy.com]).
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Saturday June 26 2021, @03:14PM
lol, my eyes, or my mind, played a trick on me. I read "the bad astronaut", and I spent seconds trying to figure out which of the astronauts was the bad one. ;^)
OK, I'm somewhat intrigued . . .
“I have become friends with many school shooters” - Tampon Tim Walz
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 26 2021, @06:40PM
Wow, I was watching that channel and came across this video.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xnhci9y-xOw [youtube.com]
This guy does WAY better research than the military ... and for a fraction of the cost. The military should hire this guy, he'll save them money.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 26 2021, @04:34PM
What about Unidentified Submarine Phenomena?