US Pentagon Releases UFO Report

Facts

• According to a report on unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP), or UFOs, published by the US Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) on Thursday, as of August 2022, the US military has fielded more than 500 reports of UAPs in the last 17 years.
• The report, compiled by the ODNI’s National Intelligence Manager for Aviation and the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO), classified more than 170 of these sightings over the past two years as “uncharacterized and unattributed.”
• Around 366 of the new reports have reportedly been received since March 2021.
• Of the sightings ODNI identified, 163 were listed as balloons or balloon-like entities and 26 as drones or drone-like entities. ODNI also said, however, that these are initial characterizations that don’t mean they’ve been “positively resolved or unidentified.”
• The majority of these sightings were reported by US Navy and Air Force personnel through official channels.
• AARO — succeeding the Unidentified Aerial Phenomena Task Force of the Office of Naval Intelligence — was established last year to study and evaluate UAPs and their potential risks. NASA has launched a similar study, with its report expected in July.

Sources: Independent, NBC, Business Insider, and Space.

Narratives

• Narrative A, as provided by New York Post. Although a reassuring number of UAP sightings have been classified as benign, the increase in sightings poses a very real national security risk: Many have been spotted in restricted or sensitive airspace, pointing to possible foreign adversaries. The US must keep its guard up.
• Narrative B, as provided by ABC. This is nothing to panic about. The increase in recorded sightings is likely due to the normalization of submitting such reports. More than anything, this provides greater awareness of objects in the air to pilots — making the skies safer for everyone — and paves the way to world-changing explorations.

Predictions