UFOs shadowed army pilots, mysterious drones flew over U.S. nuclear websites: Pentagon report

The Pentagon received more than 700 reports of UFO sightings from May 2023 through June 1 of this year, with hundreds still unexplained, including at least three instances in which mysterious craft shadowed U.S. military aircraft, the Defense Department said in a major report made public Thursday.

The latest study from the Pentagon’s All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office, or AARO, was released the day after a bombshell Capitol Hill hearing in which former military personnel alleged that the federal government has operated a decades-long “unidentified anomalous phenomena” (UAP) recovery program and is secretly in possession of otherworldly spacecraft. The Pentagon addressed such allegations in its report.

“It is important to underscore that, to date, AARO has discovered no evidence of extraterrestrial beings, activity, or technology,” the report reads in part.

But the report does acknowledge hundreds of mysterious encounters, most in the air but some also taking place in outer space. The AARO said it received 757 reports of UAP encounters during the reporting period, with 485 taking place between May 2023 and June 1, and another 272 taking place between 2021 and 2022 but not reported until recently.

The reports came from both military personnel and other sources, such as the Federal Aviation Administration.

At least 118 of those cases have been resolved and were attributed to balloons, birds or drones. Another 174 cases are “queued for closure,” meaning the AARO believes it knows what the objects in question are. Some sightings over U.S. nuclear launch sites were attributed to drones, though it’s not clear who was piloting those craft.

DOCUMENT: DOD report on Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena

But the rest of the sightings remain unexplained and several presented apparent security hazards.

“U.S. military aircrews provided two reports that identified flight safety concerns, and three reports described pilots being trailed or shadowed by UAP,” the report reads in part. “To date, AARO has no indication or confirmation that these activities are attributable to foreign adversaries. AARO continues to coordinate with the intelligence community to identify whether these activities may be the result of foreign adversarial activities.”

Twenty-one cases “merit further analysis based on reported anomalous characteristics and/or behaviors,” the AARO said, suggesting that those sightings join hundreds of other alleged UAP encounters in which the craft demonstrated unusual flight patterns or seemed to operate outside the bounds of known aerospace technology.

The 757 reports are in addition to hundreds more received by the AARO over the past several years. The Pentagon’s acknowledgment of the UAP issue, and the creation of a serious body to study it, represents a major change. The issue used to be mostly dismissed as science fiction but now is the subject of major government-funded research and on-the-record congressional hearings.

Wednesday’s hearing, before two subcommittees of the House Oversight and Accountability Committee, was in many ways stunning.

Testifying witnesses had serious exchanges with lawmakers about whether the U.S. has communicated with alien life-forms, whether UAP are controlled by interdimensional beings, and whether unidentified objects at sea could have secret alien bases far below the surface of the ocean.

One witness, former NASA official Michael Gold, said it’s likely that the vast majority of UFOs are drones, experimental aircraft, or even rare weather phenomena that produce strange lights or reflections, echoing the position taken by the AARO.

“But there is a percentage that isn’t. And looking into those anomalies is how discoveries will be made,” said Mr. Gold, who served as the associate administrator of space policy and partnership at the agency.

There is a deep fear in national security circles that America’s adversaries, such as China or Russia, may possess some cutting-edge technologies, perhaps evidenced by the still-unexplained drone swarm that flew over Langley Air Force Base earlier this year.

The AARO report identified another 18 instances in which drones flew over U.S. nuclear infrastructure, weapons and launch sites.