An unidentified flying object (UFO),or unidentified anomalous phenomenon (UAP),is any perceived airborne,submerged or transmedium phenomenon that cannot be immediately identified or explained. Upon investigation,most UAPs are identified as known objects or atmospheric phenomena,while a small number remain unexplained.
Extraterrestrial intelligence (ETI),a subset of non-human intelligence (NHI),refers to hypothetical intelligent extraterrestrial life. No such life has ever been proven to exist in the Solar System except for humans on Earth,and its existence in other star systems is still speculative. The question of whether other inhabited worlds might exist has been debated since ancient times. The modern form of the concept emerged when the Copernican Revolution demonstrated that the Earth was a planet revolving around the Sun,and other planets were,conversely,other worlds. The question of whether other inhabited planets or moons exist was a natural consequence of this new understanding. It has become one of the most speculative questions in science and is a central theme of science fiction and popular culture.
Ufology is the investigation of unidentified flying objects (UFOs) by people who believe that they may be of extraordinary origins. While there are instances of government,private,and fringe science investigations of UFOs,ufology is generally regarded by skeptics and science educators as an example of pseudoscience.
The extraterrestrial hypothesis (ETH) proposes that some unidentified flying objects (UFOs) are best explained as being physical spacecraft occupied by extraterrestrial intelligence or non-human aliens,or non-occupied alien probes from other planets visiting Earth.
Christopher Karl Mellon,is a private equity investor,former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Intelligence in the Clinton and George W. Bush administrations and later for Security and Information Operations. He formerly served as the Staff Director of the United States Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. He is a member of the influential Mellon family out of the Greater Pittsburgh area. Mellon has lobbied for U.S. government investigations into UFO/UAP.
Bryan Bender is a communications executive and former award-winning national security reporter and editor who advises tech companies,nonprofits and research universities for SMI,a Washington,DC,government affairs firm,and is an adjunct professor at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University.
The Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program (AATIP) was an unclassified but unpublicized investigatory effort funded by the United States Government to study unidentified flying objects (UFOs) or unexplained aerial phenomena (UAP). The program was first made public on December 16,2017. The program began in 2007,with funding of $22 million over the five years until the available appropriations were ended in 2012. The program began in the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency.
Luis Elizondo is a media personality and former U.S. Army Counterintelligence Special Agent and former employee of the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence.
Unidentified:Inside America's UFO Investigation is a History Channel TV series purportedly exposing the US government's secret programs investigating unidentified flying objects (UFOs). It features former military counter-intelligence officer Luis Elizondo,who directed the Defense Intelligence Agency's Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program,and Christopher Mellon,former United States Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Intelligence. Elizondo says that he resigned after he became frustrated that the government was not taking UFOs,which he considered to be a national security threat,seriously enough.
To the Stars Incorporated,formerly known as To The Stars Academy of Arts &Sciences (TTSA),is a San Diego-based company co-founded by Tom DeLonge,Harold E. Puthoff (engineer),and Jim Semivan. The company,which is composed of aerospace,science,and entertainment divisions,has produced music recordings,books,television shows and films. A focus of the company is the promotion of UFOs and other fringe science.
The Pentagon UFO videos are selected visual recordings of FLIR targeting from United States Navy fighter jets based aboard aircraft carriers USS Nimitz and USS Theodore Roosevelt in 2004,2014 and 2015,with additional footage taken by other Navy personnel in 2019. The four grainy,monochromic videos,widely characterized as officially documenting UFOs,have received extensive coverage in the media since 2017. The Pentagon later addressed and officially released the first three videos of unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP) in 2020,and confirmed the provenance of the leaked 2019 videos in two statements made in 2021. Footage of UAPs was also released in 2023,sourced from MQ-9 military drones.
The All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO) is an office within the United States Office of the Secretary of Defense that investigates unidentified flying objects (UFOs) and other phenomena in the air,sea,and/or space and/or on land:sometimes referred to as "unidentified aerial phenomena" or "unidentified anomalous phenomena" (UAP). Its first director was physicist Sean Kirkpatrick,and its current acting director is Tim Phillips who reports to Deputy Defense Secretary Kathleen Hicks.
Mara Elizabeth Karlin is an American foreign policy and defense advisor. In April 2021,President Joe Biden nominated Karlin to serve as the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Strategy,Plans and Capabilities. She was confirmed by the U.S. Senate by voice vote on August 9,2021. Previously,she served as the Acting Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs. In her role,she served as the main advisor to Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin on U.S. security policies related to every country in Europe,the Middle East,Africa,Eurasia,and the Western Hemisphere. Her portfolio included shaping U.S. defense policy related to NATO.
Preliminary Assessment:Unidentified Aerial Phenomena,also known as the UAP Report and colloquially named the Pentagon UFO Report,is a United States federally mandated assessment,prepared and published by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence on June 25,2021,summarizing information regarding unidentified aerial phenomena (UAPs) which include unidentified flying objects (UFOs). Substantial public attention had been given to the mandated June 25 report,fueled by statements by former high level officials in the U.S. government,including former president Barack Obama,who stated in June 2021 "...there's footage and records of objects in the skies,that we don't know exactly what they are."
On 17 May 2022,members of the United States House Intelligence Subcommittee on Counterterrorism,Counterintelligence and Counterproliferation held congressional hearings with top military officials to discuss military reports of unexplained aerial phenomena (UAPs). It was the first public congressional hearing into UFO sightings in the US in over 50 years.
In 2023,David Grusch,a United States Air Force (USAF) officer and former intelligence official,was interviewed by journalists and testified in a U.S. House of Representatives hearing. Grusch claimed that the U.S. federal government,in collaboration with private aerospace companies,has highly secretive special access programs involved in the recovery and reverse engineering of "non-human spacecraft" and their dead pilots.
The NASA Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena Independent Study Team (UAPIST) was a panel of sixteen experts assembled in 2022 by the United States National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and chaired by David Spergel to recommend a roadmap for the analysis of unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAPs) by NASA and other organizations.
The National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2024 is a United States federal law which specifies the budget,expenditures,and policies of the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) for fiscal year 2024.
Investigation and analysis of reported UFO incidents under the federal government of the United States has taken place under multiple branches and agencies,past and current,since 1947. In spite of decades of interest,there remains no evidence that there are any purported UFOs with extraordinary provenance and,indeed,those identified all have been shown to be natural phenomena,human technology,misapprehensions,delusions,or hoaxes.
