The U.S. has now collected 510 reports of unidentified flying objects, many of which are flying in sensitive military airspace. While there’s no evidence of extraterrestrials, they still pose a threat, the government said in a declassified report summary released Thursday.
Last year the Pentagon opened an office, the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office, solely focused on receiving and analyzing all of those reports of unidentified phenomena, many of which have been reported by military pilots. It works with the intelligence agencies to further assess those incidents.
The events “continue to occur in restricted or sensitive airspace, highlighting possible concerns for safety of flight or adversary collection activity,” the Office of the Director of National Intelligence said in its 2022 report.
The classified version of the report addresses how many of those objects were found near locations where nuclear power plants operate or nuclear weapons are stored.
The 510 objects include 144 objects previously reported and 366 new reports. In both the old and new cases, after analysis, the majority have been determined to exhibit “unremarkable characteristics,” and could be characterized as unmanned aircraft systems, or balloon-like objects, the report said.
In total, of the newly-included sightings, 25 were identified as drones or uncrewed aircraft systems; another 163 were classified as balloon-like objects; six sightings were airborne clutter, like birds or bags, and a remaining 171 were “uncharacterized and unattributed.”
But the office is also tasked with reporting any movements or reports of objects that may indicate that a potential adversary has a new technology or capability.
The Pentagon’s anomaly office is also to include any unidentified objects moving underwater, in the air, or in space, or something that moves between those domains, which could pose a new threat.
ODNI said in its report that efforts to destigmatize reporting and emphasize that the objects may pose a threat likely contributed to the additional reports.
“We continue to assess that this may result from a collection bias due to the number of active aircraft and sensors, combined with focused attention and guidance to report anomalies,” the ODNI wrote in part.
Interest in UAPs has been growing on Capitol Hill in recent years – but a cohesive reporting system for naval officers who spotted such phenomena did not exist prior to 2019, making data collection and evaluation all the more challenging. An ODNI report released in June 2021 did not come to any one official conclusion about the nature of the mystery sightings from various U.S. military personnel.
