Pentagon officials told the US Congress .
that they are sure that their soldiers have encountered unidentified aerial objects or phenomena ( UAP ) and raised.
The number of alerts received since 2004 to 400.
For the first time in more than 50 years , Congress hosted a hearing on UFOs in which US Deputy Secretary of Defense for Intelligence and Security Ronald Moultrie and US Deputy Director of Naval Intelligence testified. Scott Bray.
During the session before an Intelligence subcommittee of the House of Representatives, several legislators emphasized that the reason for the hearing was to end the stigma on this subject so that the military inform their superiors when they encounter a phenomenon of this type. .
The chairman of the subcommittee, Democrat André Carson, recalled that more than half a century ago the US government put an end to the “Blue Book” project, which analyzed 12,618 UFOs detected by the US Air Force between 1952 and 1969.
Years later, in 2017, lawmakers learned that the Department of Defense had quietly started a similar project to track what the US has moved from calling UFOs to unidentified aerial phenomena, and last year Congress drafted rules for this initiative.
An office to analyze UFOs
Moultrie explained that in fiscal year 2022 (which began last October) the Pentagon has created an office to oversee the collection, treatment and analysis of any encounters with UFOs or phenomena of this type that are not always objects.
For his part, Bray mentioned an official report published almost a year ago stating that the country has detected a total of 144 unidentified aerial phenomena between 2004 and 2021 , and added that that figure has risen to 400.
The reason for this increase is that soldiers have begun to report more of this type of phenomenon, thanks to the work that is being done to end the stigma; the rise of systems like drones in US airspace and the improvement of sensors and radars to detect them.
The deputy director of Naval Intelligence noted that, after completing the analysis, the UFOs are likely to fall into categories such as radar jamming, natural atmospheric phenomena, US government or industry development programs, or foreign adversary systems.
“And there is another box that allows us to put difficult cases, and the possibility of surprises and potential scientific discoveries,” he said.
Despite his estimates, Bray did not rule out that the number of 400 will drop, since some of these alerts are based only on testimonies of people, while many others are supported by more objective measurement systems, such as sensors and radars.
18 UFOs with no means of propulsion in sight
Democratic legislator Adam Schiff was intrigued since the report from June last year, released by the office of the Director of National Intelligence of the United States , collected 18 unidentified aerial phenomena, which apparently had sophisticated technology and that they flew without “any discernible means of propulsion”.
In that regard, he asked Bray if the US knows of any foreign adversaries capable of making objects fly without a distinguishable means of propulsion, to which the deputy director of Naval Intelligence replied that they are not aware of any rival that can do so.
“I would just say that there are a number of events that we don’t have any explanation for,” Bray said, adding that these types of objects are what they are most interested in.
During the session, those responsible for the Pentagon illustrated their words with videos of UFOs, although many times the explanation can be simple.
