PENTAGON LAUNCHES NEW UFO OFFICE

A new office in the Pentagon will investigate sightings of unidentified flying objects – but longtime extraterrestrial enthusiasts are sceptical

- Stephanie Pappas

Putting the new Unidentified Aerial Phenomena program in the purview of the office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence & Security has some ufologists upset, as they don’t exactly trust the US military to reveal whatever truth is out there.

“This is a subject with a provable history of secrecy, and anything that lacks a new openness about the information is subject to possibly inappropriate control,” Ron James, a spokesperson for the nonprofit Mutual UFO Network, which investigates such sightings, said.

The creation of the new office was codified in the National Defense Authorisation Act, passed in December, which simply calls for the “establishment of office, organisational structure and authorities to address unidentified aerial phenomena.” The topic has received renewed interest in recent years after the publication of videos taken by US military pilots seeming to show objects moving at impossible speeds and executing complex aerial manoeuvres.