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U.S. Navy drafting new guidelines for reporting UFOs
The service says it has also 'provided a series of briefings by senior Naval Intelligence officials as well as aviators who reported hazards to aviation safety.'
The U.S. Navy is drafting new guidelines for pilots and other personnel to report encounters with "unidentified aircraft," a significant new step in creating a formal process to collect and analyze the unexplained sightings — and destigmatize them.
The previously unreported move is in response to a series of sightings of unknown, highly advanced aircraft intruding on Navy strike groups and other sensitive military formations and facilities, the service says.
"There have been a number of reports of unauthorized and/or unidentified aircraft entering various military-controlled ranges and designated air space in recent years," the Navy said in a statement in response to questions from POLITICO. "For safety and security concerns, the Navy and the [U.S. Air Force] takes these reports very seriously and investigates each and every report.
"As part of this effort," it added, "the Navy is updating and formalizing the process by which reports of any such suspected incursions can be made to the cognizant authorities. A new message to the fleet that will detail the steps for reporting is in draft."
To be clear, the Navy isn’t endorsing the idea that its sailors have encountered alien spacecraft. But it is acknowledging there have been enough strange aerial sightings by credible and highly trained military personnel that they need to be recorded in the official record and studied — rather than dismissed as some kooky phenomena from the realm of science-fiction.
Chris Mellon, a former Pentagon intelligence official and ex-staffer on the Senate Intelligence Committee, said establishing a more formal means of reporting what the military now calls "unexplained aerial phenomena" — rather than "unidentified flying objects" — would be a “sea change.”
“Right now, we have situation in which UFOs and UAPs are treated as anomalies to be ignored rather than anomalies to be explored,” he said. “We have systems that exclude that information and dump it.”
For example, Mellon said “in a lot of cases [military personnel] don’t know what to do with that information — like satellite data or a radar that sees something going Mach 3. They will dump [the data] because that is not a traditional aircraft or missile.”
The development comes amid growing interest from members of Congress following revelations by POLITICO and the New York Times in late 2017 that the Pentagon established a dedicated office inside the Defense Intelligence Agency to study UAPs at the urging of several senators who secretly set aside appropriations for the effort.
That office spent some $25 million conducting a series of technical studies and evaluating numerous unexplained incursions, including one that lasted several days involving the USS Nimitz Carrier Strike Group in 2004. In that case, Navy fighter jets were outmaneuvered by unidentified aircraft that flew in ways that appeared to defy the laws of known physics.
Raytheon, a leading defense contractor, used the reports and official Defense Department video of the sightings off the coast of California to hail one of its radar systems for capturing the phenomena.
The Pentagon's UFO research office, known as the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program, was officially wound down in 2012 when the congressional earmark ran out.
"In response to requests for information from Congressional members and staff, Navy officials have provided a series of briefings by senior Naval Intelligence officials as well as aviators who reported hazards to aviation safety," the service said in its statement to POLITICO.
The Navy declined to identify who has been briefed, nor would it provide more details on the guidelines for reporting that are being drafted for the fleet. The Air Force did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Advocates for treating such sightings as a potential national security threat have long criticized military leaders for giving the phenomenon relatively little attention and for encouraging a culture in which personnel feel that speaking up about it could hurt their career.
Luis Elizondo, the former Pentagon official who ran the so-called AATIP office, complained after he retired from government service that the Pentagon's approach to these unidentified aircraft has been far too blasé.
"If you are in a busy airport and see something you are supposed to say something," Elizondo said. "With our own military members it is kind of the opposite: 'If you do see something, don't say something.'"
He added that because these mysterious aircraft "don't have a tail number or a flag — in some cases not even a tail — it's crickets. What happens in five years if it turns out these are extremely advanced Russian aircraft?"
Elizondo will be featured in an upcoming documentary series about the Pentagon UFO research he oversaw. He said the six-part series will reveal more recent sightings of UAPs by dozens of military pilots.
Both Elizondo and Mellon are involved with the To The Stars Academy of Arts and Sciences, which supports research into explaining the technical advances these reported UAPs demonstrate.
CORRECTION: An earlier version of this report misstated the name of Pentagon's UFO research office. It is called the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program.
I want to hear what they tell the pilots right before they send them up to respond to ones these UAPs, or the conversation that happens right after they land!!
After ALL these decades keeping track and studying these things, surely they know a little bit about them, (more so than we do anyway), supposedly they can determine what type of extraterrestrial it is, by the shape and/or propulsion method of the craft they use, there is said to be 6 separate races/species engaging us here on earth.
Yes. I saw that article earlier today. Interesting.
Regarding the Correction: I was never sure if the second word in the title of the study was Aerospace or Aviation, but thought most had settled on it being Aviation.
At any rate, there will be a short series on the History Channel starting May 31 with the guy who headed up the program (at least he'll be on to some extent), and also about Tom DeLonge's efforts.
All this can only be a good sign for the coming release of more information and to make the whole subject not so much of a ridiculed subject.
What I want to know is what caused this change of heart (or "sea change") and why.
Now that more or less everyone knows these things are whizzing about, it makes sense to have some kind of formal procedure to report them. Do you think we will get to know about these reports though?
I want to hear what they tell the pilots right before they send them up to respond to ones these UAPs, or the conversation that happens right after they land!!
"Use the Force!"
Quote:
Originally Posted by rstevens62
After ALL these decades keeping track and studying these things, surely they know a little bit about them, (more so than we do anyway),
What makes you think that? Pilots have been seeing these objects for decades. Sometimes they show up on radar. Sometimes they don't. That's all we know, and it seems to be all the military knows.
I have seen a UFO three times in my life, once at night and twice in broad daylight. I can describe what I saw, but I cannot identify it. I have no idea what it was.
Quote:
Originally Posted by rstevens62
supposedly they can determine what type of extraterrestrial it is, by the shape and/or propulsion method of the craft they use,
Hang on. Supposed by whom? Who said anything about extraterrestrials? These are Unidentified Flying (and sometimes Underwater) Objects. We don't know what they are.
They might be extraterrestrials. They might be time travelers from our future. They might be from another dimension of Earth. Or they might be something else entirely. We don't know.
Quote:
Originally Posted by rstevens62
there is said to be 6 separate races/species engaging us here on earth.
Said by whom?
I have read the articles and watched the documentaries on the supposed grays, reptiloids, and all the rest. Lots of speculation and heresay but a remarkable lack of evidence to back up their claims. All the exposed or confessed hoaxes over the years don't exactly help their case.
Personally, I find it more credible that elves exist in Iceland than six alien races are vying for control of Earth.
In my opinion, it's far more likely that these devices are surveillance tools, and possibly weapons deployment vehicles (biologic or chemical weapons most likely) from an unfriendly foreign power than from extraterrestrials. The Navy and Air Force mission is to protect us from attack by foreign powers, so discouraging reports was actually counter to their mission, but they didn't want to cause any panic among the public, so the information was kept "on the down-low". Now that the current administration wants to start creating a "Space Force", it makes sense to let this info out to influence public support for more military expenditures to counter what seems to be a real threat. If we have unknown foreign powers from unidentified countries on this planet, or anywhere else, blatantly invading our airspace for unknown purposes, it's time to bring it out to the public and will no doubt drum up support.
In my opinion, it's far more likely that these devices are surveillance tools, and possibly weapons deployment vehicles (biologic or chemical weapons most likely) from an unfriendly foreign power than from extraterrestrials.
That makes a certain amount of sense, but it begs several questions.
First of all, what foreign powers might have tech that the United States does not? Russia? China? Seems unlikely that they are more technologically advanced than the United States.
Does that mean the U.S. has similar tech? Maybe. Then why can't they counter-act the foreign tech?
And if that is all true, that makes this whole thing one big misinformation campaign, and the conspiracy theorists are right.
So which is more likely? That hundreds --- perhaps thousands --- of military personnel and civilian contractors are keeping one of the greatest secrets in human history without a single credible leak in decades? Or that the military is just as clueless as the rest of us?
No proof for either, but I'm betting on cluelessness as the most likely explanation.
All I know is that a lot of highly trained personnel are seeing something they have no explanation for, and that someone, from somewhere, is apparently invading our airspace with impunity.
It's certainly possible that a foreign power such as Russia or China could have tech that we don't. We have tech that they don't, so why should the reverse not be true? It's a lot more plausible than aliens in my mind. And it makes sense that they would be spying on military facilities and training activities, since that's what most of our enemies would be interested in.
The capabilities of even inexpensive drones that we have today were hardly even thought of 20 years ago, now you can buy them at Walmart. Imagine what we haven't been told about.
All I know is that a lot of highly trained personnel are seeing something they have no explanation for, and that someone, from somewhere, is apparently invading our airspace with impunity.
It's certainly possible that a foreign power such as Russia or China could have tech that we don't. We have tech that they don't, so why should the reverse not be true? It's a lot more plausible than aliens in my mind. And it makes sense that they would be spying on military facilities and training activities, since that's what most of our enemies would be interested in.
The capabilities of even inexpensive drones that we have today were hardly even thought of 20 years ago, now you can buy them at Walmart. Imagine what we haven't been told about.
I would agree that there are more than likely some truly incredible experimental/secret aircraft that exists (this is what Area 51 does)...But the catch is...aircraft DO NOT remain experimental/secret FOREVER...eventually they become public knowledge, like the stealth bomber.
Lots of 'UFO reports' were made when people saw the stealth bomber being tested and run thru its paces...but again, EVENTUALLY, the public learned what these craft truly were.
Plus, like many people say about other secrets/conspiracies, the Govt/military would not be able to keep these types of aircraft secret forever either, eventually they would be leaked out to the public.
Except that UFO reports of a very similar nature have been surfacing for hundreds of years. Isn't it likely that these are NOT all military craft ?
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Hang on. Supposed by whom? Who said anything about extraterrestrials? These are Unidentified Flying (and sometimes Underwater) Objects. We don't know what they are. 
