The Pentagon has received nearly 300 reports of unidentified anomalous phenomena or unidentified flying objects, known as UAPs or UFOs, within the past eight months, officials said on Oct. 18.
Approximately 291 reports were made to the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO), which investigates unidentified flying objects and other phenomena, between August 31, 2022 and April 30, 2023.
A total of 274 of those reports occurred during that eight-month time period, officials said, while another 17 took place from 2019–2022 but were not included in previous annual reports.
This brings the total cases that AARO is currently reviewing to over 800 as of April 30, 2023, officials said.
The report notes that most of the alleged sightings appear to take place around military bases and restricted airspace, which the report attributes to something it calls “collection bias.”
The alleged sightings are also prominently being reported by military personnel, officials said.
“During the reporting period, AARO received no reports indicating UAP sightings have been associated with any adverse health effects,” the report said. “However, many reports from military witnesses do present potential safety of flight concerns, and there are some cases where reported UAP have potentially exhibited one or more concerning performance characteristics such as high-speed travel or unusual maneuverability.”
‘UAP in Airspace Represents Potential Hazard’
“While the mere presence of UAP in the airspace represents a potential hazard to flight safety, none of these reports suggest the UAP maneuvered to an unsafe proximity to civil or military aircraft, positioned themselves in flight paths, or otherwise posed a direct threat to the flight safety of the observing aircraft,” the report continued.The report also noted that none of the UFO reports have been confirmed as being foreign in origin or attributed to foreign activities but the possibility is being investigated.
Additionally, officials said they believe most of the sightings are owing to “ordinary phenomena” which will likely “significantly reduce the amount of UAP case submissions.”
In a statement Thursday, Pentagon press secretary Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder said analyzing and understanding the potential threats posed by UFOs is an “ongoing collaborative effort involving many departments and agencies.”
“The safety of our service personnel, our bases and installations, and the protection of U.S. operations security on land, in the skies, seas, and space are paramount. We take reports of incursions into our designated space, land, sea, or airspaces seriously and examine each one, ” Brig. Gen. Ryder said.
Whistleblower’s UFO Claims
The Pentagon report echoes many of the same findings in a NASA report published in September which found no signs of extraterrestrial origins for reported sightings. Still, the agency said it has appointed a new director of research to further study the phenomenon.Tuesday’s report comes after lawmakers held a congressional hearing on UAPs in July following claims made by former intelligence official turned whistleblower, David Grusch.
Mr. Grusch previously worked at the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency and the National Reconnaissance Office and was a member of the Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (UAP) Task Force from 2019 to 2021.
The whistleblower also told lawmakers that he believes the U.S. government has probably been aware of “non-human” activity for nearly 100 years but that there was an “active disinformation campaign within our government to deny the existence of [unidentified anomalous phenomena], although the Pentagon has denied those claims.
In a June statement to NewsNation, the Pentagon said that, to date, “AARO has not discovered any verifiable information to substantiate claims that any programs regarding the possession or reverse engineering of extraterrestrial materials have existed in the past or exist currently.”
“AARO is committed to following the data and its investigation wherever it leads,” the statement added.
