- Title: "They need to be investigated" - At UFO hearing, more questions than answers
- Date: 17th May 2022
- Summary: WASHINGTON, D.C., UNITED STATES (MAY 17, 2022) (UNRESTRICTED POOL) UNDER SECRETARY OF DEFENSE FOR INTELLIGENCE AND SECURITY RONALD MOULTRIE AND DEPUTY DIRECTOR OF NAVAL INTELLIGENCE SCOTT BRAY ARRIVING FOR HEARING WIDE OF HEARING ROOM (SOUNDBITE) (English) SUBCOMMITTEE CHAIRMAN REP. ANDRE CARSON SAYING: "Unidentified aerial phenomena are a potential national security threa
- Embargoed: 31st May 2022 18:52
- Keywords: Congress Hearing UAP UFO
- Location: WASHINGTON, D.C., UNITED STATES / UNKNOWN LOCATION
- City: WASHINGTON, D.C., UNITED STATES / UNKNOWN LOCATION
- Country: USA
- Topics: Government/Politics,United States
- Reuters ID: LVA001864417052022RP1
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: Two senior U.S. defense intelligence officials said on Tuesday (May 17) the Pentagon is committed to determining the origins of what it calls "unidentified aerial phenomena" - commonly termed UFOs - but acknowledged many remain beyond the government's ability to explain.
The two officials, Ronald Moultrie and Scott Bray, appeared before a House of Representatives intelligence subcommittee for the first public U.S. congressional hearing on the subject in a half century. It came 11 months after a government report documented more than 140 cases of unidentified aerial phenomena, or UAPs, that U.S. military pilots had observed since 2004.
Bray, deputy director of naval intelligence, said the number of UAPs officially cataloged by a newly formed Pentagon task force has grown to 400 cases. Both officials chose their words carefully in describing the task force's work, including the question of possible extraterrestrial origins, which Bray said defense and intelligence analysts had not ruled out.
The 2021 report, a nine-page "preliminary assessment" by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and a Navy-led task force, said 80% of UAP instances it reviewed were recorded on multiple instruments.
Both officials pledged that the Pentagon would follow the evidence wherever it leads and made clear that the primary interest is addressing possible national security threats.
"We know that our service members have encountered unidentified aerial phenomena, and because UAP pose potential flight safety and general security risks, we are committed to a focused effort to determine their origins," said Moultrie, who oversees the latest Pentagon-based UAP investigation team as U.S. defense undersecretary for intelligence and security.
Bray presented two UAP video clips. One showed flashing triangle-shaped objects in the sky, later determined to be visual artifacts of light passing through night-vision goggles. The other showed a shiny, spherical object zipping past a military aircraft's cockpit window - an observation Bray said remained unexplained.
The 2021 report included some UAPs revealed in previously released Pentagon video of enigmatic objects exhibiting speed and maneuverability exceeding known aviation technology and lacking any visible means of propulsion or flight-control surfaces. Bray said those incidents, including one described by Navy pilots as resembling flying Tic Tac breath mints, are among cases still categorized as "unresolved."
Moultrie and Bray said the Pentagon was determined to remove the stigma long associated with such sightings by encouraging pilots to come forward if they observe such phenomena.
Subcommittee chairman Andre Carson stressed the importance of the taking UAPs seriously.
"UAPs are unexplained, it's true. But they are real," Carson said, raising concerns that Pentagon officials have previously focused on "low-hanging fruit," cases that are relatively easy to explain, while "avoiding the ones that cannot be explained."
The 2021 report and Tuesday's hearing marked a turnaround for the U.S. government after decades spent deflecting, debunking and discrediting observations of UFOs and "flying saucers" dating back to the 1940s. Read full story
There had been no open congressional hearing on the subject since the Air Force terminated an inconclusive UFO program code-named Project Blue Book in 1969.
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