The real reasons the US government is so secretive about UFOs

The real reasons the US government is so secretive about UFOs
by Tom Rogan | Washington Examiner | December 17, 2019 06:00 AM

Two years ago Sunday, the New York Times broke the stunning story of a secret Pentagon program to study unidentified flying objects. That story led me to delve into this strange world. I've learned some interesting stuff about UFOs ("unidentified aerial phenomena," or "UAP," as the Pentagon refers to them) since then. But there's one problem.

The United States government makes it very hard to figure out what and where UFO-related stuff is going on.

Is that because the government is behind some great conspiracy to cover up the proof of alien visitation to Earth? Is it because the government is in cahoots with alien species to create human-alien hybrids?

Perhaps, but I suspect not.

What I believe is really going on here is that the few individuals in the U.S. government who know about this issue believe the phenomena might be a threat. And that they don't know how to deal with it.

So, what informs the government's fear?

Well, first off, the nuclear issue.

If you ask a Pentagon representative about a specific UFO incident, as I did most recently last week, you'll get a boring response like: "Our aviators train as they fight. Any intrusions that may compromise the security of our operations, tactics, or procedures is of great concern. As the investigation of unidentified aerial phenomena sightings is ongoing, we will not discuss individual sighting reports or observations."


Inside the Magazine: December 17
By "aviators," the Pentagon is referencing the particular frequency with which UFOs tend to interact with U.S. naval aviators operating off aircraft carriers. But what the Pentagon is leaving out is why the UFOs tend to run into those naval aviators. And that cuts to the heart of why the Pentagon is concerned about UFOs.

Because the government's assessment, though they won't admit it, is that the UFOs are popping up near the aircraft carriers due to those carriers being nuclear-powered. Note also that UFOs also like to pop up near nuclear submarines and Air Force nuclear weapons bases. Now recognize that this paradigm has been occurring since the Manhattan Project operations at Los Alamos, New Mexico, and also at nuclear sites in the Soviet Union and Russia.

Oh, and as Robert Hastings documents, these UFOs have sometimes even temporarily shut down U.S. nuclear weapons systems. Interesting, right?

Now recall what I just said: The modern UFO phenomena really gets going at exactly the same time as the Manhattan Project. Has humanity's perfection of nuclear energy piqued someone or something's curiosity in us?

Don't get me wrong.

This isn't to say that these UFOs are hostile (although it must be noted that the diverging shapes, behaviors, and capability patterns of UFOs suggest more than one originating source). On the contrary, UFOs appear to be quite friendly, except when rather ill-advised Russian aircrews attempt to engage them.

But pretend you're a senior military or intelligence officer.

You see the nuclear connection point, and you're struck by something odd going on. Now, add to the nuclear issue that some UFOs are intelligently operated machines capable of instantaneously reaching hypersonic speeds. Oh, and that they're also anti-gravity and invisibility capable, and they have been tracked moving in and out of Earth orbit, the atmosphere, and underwater. Suddenly, you have something that is making the U.S. military's most advanced capabilities, and those of every other military on Earth, look like an absurd joke in comparison.

You're left with an unpleasant conclusion: If whatever is controlling these things intends harm, we don't have a chance.

Again, put yourself in the military officer's shoes. Something has repeatedly shown it can easily find carrier strike groups, which are designed and operated to be hidden in the far oceans, and to find nuclear ballistic missile submarines running near totally silent deep under the water. Something can penetrate the most securely guarded areas of the most important areas in the U.S. military and render our most critical deterrent platforms improbable. For Pentagon planners, this is Armageddon-level stuff.

But the truth is clear: If it wanted to, something strange could defeat America without raising a sweat.

The extension is that even if the U.S. government believes, as it does, that these UFOs aren't Chinese or Russian, publicizing the issue itself risks another danger. Namely, that if the U.S. shares what it knows about UFOs, China or Russia (the Russian government has long been very interested in UFOs) might learn enough to replicate the associated technologies behind UFOs for themselves. And seeing as those technologies are almost certainly built around space-time manipulation, if Beijing or Moscow figures it out before the U.S. does, we have a rather large problem.

This isn't to say that the U.S. government is sitting idle. Whatever one thinks about the claims of those such as Bob Lazar, who says he worked on crashed UFOs at Area 51, and I'm not convinced of his story, civilian and military government agencies retain active programs to ascertain the source, capabilities, and intent of UFOs. Indeed, at least some material from crashed UFOs is in U.S. government possession.

Just don't count on the military to share more of what it knows anytime soon. Their understanding of the phenomena and professional instincts weigh heavily toward more secrecy.

What of the politicians?

President Trump has admitted he has been briefed on UFOs, and Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama likely were too. Interestingly, when asked about it, both former presidents jump to joking nondenials. But seeing as they have few good answers, they likely believe there's no point in scaring folks and scarring social norms absent a solution.

Where does this leave us?

Well, with the need to keep pushing this issue. But also with confidence. It will take time, but we'll get to the truth eventually. After all, the UFOs keep popping up. And considering their ability to cloak, there's only one obvious answer as to why they let themselves be seen.

At least sometimes, they want to be seen.

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/the-real-reasons-the-us-government-is-so-secretive-about-ufos

Numerous pics, links, and story at https://www.yahoo.com/huffpost/navy-ufo-top-secret-090726606.html

In October 1963, three Argentinian women saw a mysterious non-identified object beaming a very strong and hot light. The story is so enigmatic that it even inspired Steven Spielberg's hit movie "Close Encounters Of The 3rd Kind".

People have wild imaginations and tend to buy into the mass hysteria that plagues the majority of the world's population.

There's no big secret, there's no aliens on this planet, there are no abductions.

Just a bunch of ignorant people of questionable intelligence that don't take the time and effort to question their beliefs and put them to the test of logic, reason, and common sense.

wizer wrote:

People have wild imaginations and tend to buy into the mass hysteria that plagues the majority of the world's population.

There's no big secret, there's no aliens on this planet, there are no abductions.

Just a bunch of ignorant people of questionable intelligence that don't take the time and effort to question their beliefs and put them to the test of logic, reason, and common sense.

Makes sense. Unless you've been probed like Lemon claimed she has been violated many times.

She probably has been. But first dates from guys she meets online don't count as alien abductions.

This is one of the most fascinating historical documents on the history of the US #SSP (Secret Space Program) which I have seen, yet. And the photos are equally cool, as well.

https://gatewaytovictory.wordpress.com/2016/07/31/cosmic-disclosure-ssp-testimonials-with-william-tompkins/

Published 14 hours ago
UFO video? Pentagon releases footage of 'unidentified aerial phenomena,' but says it's not out of the ordinary
By Louis Casiano | Fox News

The Pentagon on Monday released unclassified footage showing "unidentified aerial phenomena" captured by Navy aircraft that had circulated in the public for years.

The videos showing the UFOs were initially released by the Stars Academy of Arts & Science in 2017 and 2018 and were acknowledged by the Navy. One was taken in November 2004 and the other two were captured in January 2015.

"After a thorough review, the department has determined that the authorized release of these unclassified videos does not reveal any sensitive capabilities or systems, and does not impinge on any subsequent investigations of military air space incursions by unidentified aerial phenomena," said Pentagon spokesperson Sue Gough.

"DOD is releasing the videos in order to clear up any misconceptions by the public on whether or not the footage that has been circulating was real, or whether or not there is more to the videos,” Gough added. “The aerial phenomena observed in the videos remain characterized as ‘unidentified.’”

The 2004 incident occurred 100 miles out into the Pacific Ocean when two Navy pilots on a training mission were dispatched to investigate objects being tracked by a Navy cruiser for two weeks prior. The pilots found one oval-shaped aircraft hovering 50 feet above the water that quickly descended and fled when they moved closer.

"It accelerated like nothing I’ve ever seen,” one pilot told the New York Times.

When they were on their way to their rendezvous point 60 miles away, they were radioed by the ship that the object had been was there and had traveled the distance in less than a minute.

“Sir, you won’t believe it,” the radio operator said, “but that thing is at your cap point.”

The two other videos captured objects moving swiftly through the air.

"Dude, this is a f--king drone, bro," a pilot says on the video.

Former Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., said the footage "scratches the surface of research and materials" made available by the Pentagon.

"I’m glad the Pentagon is finally releasing this footage, but it only scratches the surface of research and materials available," Reid tweeted Monday. "The U.S. needs to take a serious, scientific look at this and any potential national security implications. The American people deserve to be informed."


Senator Harry Reid

@SenatorReid
I’m glad the Pentagon is finally releasing this footage, but it only scratches the surface of research and materials available. The U.S. needs to take a serious, scientific look at this and any potential national security implications. The American people deserve to be informed. https://twitter.com/CBSNews/status/1254802527595515906 …

CBS News

@CBSNews
Pentagon formally releases 3 Navy videos showing "unidentified aerial phenomena" https://cbsn.ws/2KFa3bC

12:16 PM - Apr 27, 2020


The former lawmaker has been a vocal supporter of investigating UFOs. At his urging, the Defense Department secretly created a program more than a decade ago to investigate UFO sightings.

Last year, the Navy overhauled its process to allow pilots to report sightings in an effort to destigmatize the reporting of them.

"There have been a number of reports of unauthorized and/or unidentified aircraft entering various military-controlled ranges and designated air space in recent years," the Navy said at the time. "As part of this effort, the Navy is updating and formalizing the process by which reports of any such suspected incursions can be made to the cognizant authorities."

President Trump said he was briefed on Navy pilots reported sightings of UFOs but remained skeptical.

"I was struck in the last few couple of weeks, we're reading more and more reports of Navy pilots seeing lots and lots of UFOs," ABC News' George Stephanopoulos said to Trump during an interview in the Oval Office last year. "Have you been briefed on that? What do you make of it?"

"I want them to think whatever they think," Trump replied, referring to the Navy pilots. "I did have one very brief meeting on it. But people are saying they’re seeing UFOs. Do I believe it? Not particularly."

Links to pics and videos at https://www.foxnews.com/science/ufo-video-pentagon-releases-footage-of-unidentified-aerial-phenomena-but-says-its-not-out-of-the-ordinary

Leaked Government Photo Shows ‘Motionless, Cube-Shaped’ UFO
Andrew Daniels | Esquire
Tue, December 8, 2020, 2:40 PM MST·

Leaked Government Photo Shows ‘Motionless, Cube-Shaped’ UFO


An unclassified image that’s reportedly been circulated among U.S. intelligence agencies shows what appears to be unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP), the Pentagon’s term for unidentified flying objects. The object in the photo has been described by U.S. officials as silver and “cube-shaped,” according to a report from The Debrief, which first shared the image.

The leaked photo dates back to 2018, when it materialized in an intelligence report from the Unidentified Aerial Phenomena Task Force (UAPTF), the Department of Defense’s (DoD) official unit that investigates UAP sightings.

In August, the Pentagon approved the establishment of the task force as the first on-the-books government UFO program since a 2000s-era unit lost its funding in 2012. However, multiple sources confirmed with Popular Mechanics earlier this year that the unit remained active in secrecy after its shuttering. According to The Debrief, the UATPF has briefed government and military officials on UAP matters for the last two years; the newly surfaced image appeared in a report issued by the task force during that time.

The Debrief’s Tim McMillan, a contributor to Popular Mechanics, learned of the photo’s existence from a “defense official who has been verified as being in a position to have access to the UAPTF’s intelligence reports,” he writes. Three other government officials confirmed with McMillan that the photo, which was shared on a secure network used by the U.S. Intelligence Community, comes from a 2018 task force report.

A military pilot reportedly encountered the object while flying over the Atlantic Ocean on the East Coast of the U.S. in 2018 and captured it with their personal cell phone. It’s likely that a backseat weapons system operator on an F/A-18F Super Hornet took the photo of the object, which McMillan calls “inverted” and “bell-shaped,” and describes it having “ridges or other protrusions along its lateral edges, extending toward its base.”

It’s possible the object may be a GPS dropsonde, a sensor on a parachute that provides info on the vertical profile of a storm. But as McMillan points out (and confirms with an atmospheric researcher), the actual dropsonde doesn’t appear in the photo—just the potential square-cone parachute. And there would obviously have to be an aircraft above the object to drop it, and no such craft is visible in the image.

Is the object a research balloon? Probably not, two defense officials tell McMillan. “Pilots who encountered the object described that, unlike a balloon under similar conditions, the object was completely motionless and seemingly unaffected by ambient air currents,” he writes.

While we await further details about the mysterious object in the photo, it continues to be a busy time for the advancement and disclosure of UAP research.

In a July New York Times article, Harry Reid, the former Nevada senator who was instrumental in funding the government’s original UFO program, said he believes “crashes of objects of unknown origin may have occurred and that retrieved materials should be studied.” Reid said he came to the conclusion that “there were actual materials that the government and the private sector had in their possession,” according to reports.

In the same Times article, the astrophysicist Eric Davis, who consulted with the Pentagon’s original UFO program and now works for the defense contractor Aerospace Corporation, said that after he examined certain materials, he came to the conclusion that “we couldn’t make [them] ourselves.” In fact, Davis briefed a DoD agency as recently as March about retrieving materials from “off-world vehicles not made on this Earth.”

The UAPTF will investigate matters like these—as long as President Donald Trump doesn’t veto the 2021 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) the annual bill that sets the budget and policies for the U.S. military.

The NDAA, which must be passed and signed before Congress adjourns on January 3, includes appropriations for fiscal year 2021 for the UAPTF and supports its efforts to reveal any links that UAP “have to adversarial foreign governments, and the threat they pose to U.S. military assets and installations.” But a Trump veto of the NDAA may stall the momentum of the task force.

As for other UAP-related events this year, in April, the U.S. Navy officially released three previously leaked videos taken by Navy pilots that indeed show UAP—but the service also said the footage should have never been released to the public in the first place.

The Pentagon released the videos in order to “clear up any misconceptions by the public on whether or not the footage that has been circulating was real, or whether or not there is more to the videos,” a spokesperson told Popular Mechanics at the time.

US has 'secret evidence of UFOs breaking sound barrier without a sonic boom and performing moves humans don't have the technology for', says Trump's Director of National Intelligence
By HARRIET ALEXANDER FOR DAILYMAIL.COM
PUBLISHED: 20:58 EDT, 21 March 2021 | UPDATED: 07:39 EDT, 22 March 2021

- In December a 180-day deadline was announced for a report into UFO sightings
- The Pentagon and intelligence agencies must release their report by June 1
- John Ratcliffe, former DNI, said there were more sightings than publicly known
- Ratcliffe said the observations were made by Navy and Air Force pilots
- They were recorded by 'multiple sensors' and had no obvious explanation
- The incidents included supersonic travel without a sonic boom
- Ratcliffe said it was in the public interest that the information be released

The U.S. has evidence of UFOs breaking the sound barrier without a sonic boom and making maneuvers impossible with known technology, the former Director of National Intelligence has revealed.

The revelations increased excitement about a forthcoming report detailing what the U.S. government has observed.

John Ratcliffe, who served as Donald Trump's Director of National Intelligence, said that many of the incidents still have no easy explanation.

'There are a lot more sightings than have been made public,' Ratcliffe told Fox News.  

'Some of those have been declassified.

'And when we talk about sightings, we are talking about objects that have seen by Navy or Air Force pilots, or have been picked up by satellite imagery that frankly engage in actions that are difficult to explain.

'Movements that are hard to replicate that we don't have the technology for. Or traveling at speeds that exceed the sound barrier without a sonic boom.'

John Ratcliffe appeared on Fox News on Friday to discuss the forthcoming report

Ratcliffe told host Maria Bartiromo that the sightings of 'unidentified aerial phenomena' had been observed all around the world.

'When we talk about sightings, the other thing I will tell you is, it's not just a pilot or just a satellite, or some intelligence collection,' Ratcliffe said.

'Usually we have multiple sensors that are picking up these things, and some of these are unexplained phenomenon, and there is actually quite a few more than have been made public.'

The government was, in December, given a 180-day deadline to disclose what it knew, meaning that the report should be out before June 1.

Ratcliffe said he had hoped to publish their findings before he left office on January 20.

'We weren't able to get it down into an unclassified format quickly enough,' he said.

The report was part of a $2.3 trillion COVID relief bill, which Trump signed into law in December.

The bill contained the Senate Intelligence Committee's Intelligence Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2021 that had in it a 'committee comment' section that addressed 'unidentified aerial phenomena.'

The report, produced by the Pentagon and the intelligence agencies, must identify, among other things, any threats posed by unidentified aerial phenomena and whether they may be attributed to foreign adversaries.

'Weather can cause disturbances, visual disturbances,' Ratcliffe said.

'Sometimes we wonder whether or not our adversaries have technologies that are a little bit further down the road than we thought or than we realized.

'But there are instances where we don't have good explanations for some of the things that we have seen.'

Avril Haines is now the Director of National Intelligence in the Biden administration.

The Defense Department announced in September the creation of an Unidentified Aerial Phenomena Task Force on August 4.

Videos from the Navy were released last year through the Freedom of Information Act that showed UFOs moving at incredible speeds and performing seemingly impossible aerial maneuvers.

One of the videos was shot in November 2004; the other two were shot in January 2015. The three videos were code-named 'FLIR1,' 'Gimbal,' and 'GoFast.'

In the 2015 videos, Navy pilots can be heard expressing disbelief. All three UFO videos were captured by Navy F/A-18 Super Hornets.

The videos were made public and published because of efforts by the New York Times, as well as through efforts by To The Stars Academy, which was founded by Tom Delonge, the founder and lead vocalist for the bands Blink-182 and Angels & Airwaves.

Ratcliffe said it would be 'healthy' for as much of this information as possible to be made public.

A week before Ratcliffe stepped down, in January, the CIA released a treasure trove of newly-unsealed records.

They showed chilling accounts of hundreds of UFO sightings across the globe dating back to the 1950s - along with the international intelligence community's efforts to understand them.

A dossier with nearly 3,000 pages of documents about Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (UAPs) - the government's official term for what are commonly called UFOs - was published on The Black Vault website.  

Thousands of paranormal enthusiasts pored through the collection of more than 700 individual documents, according to Black Vault's founder John Greenewald Jr, who has spent the past two decades suing the CIA to release the records and then scanning the pages into his database one by one.  

The CIA purports that the files account for its 'entire' collection of declassified UAP intel, but Greenewald cautions that there's no way to verify that claim and has vowed to continue searching for further records.  

The documents also show correspondence about UFO sightings between CIA officers and members of the military.

Sometimes the officials brush off observers' stories as purely superstitious, even when another explanation isn't clear. But in other instances the officers show genuine concern that perhaps something dangerous is at play.

In December it emerged that two Pentagon reports had been produced, providing detailed classified information about strange sightings.

The DoD's Unidentified Aerial Phenomena Task Force issued the two classified intelligence 'position reports' in 2018 and summer 2020, and they circulated widely in the U.S. intelligence community, according to a detailed account from The Debrief based on interviews with multiple intelligence sources.

The position reports' startling contents included a leaked photo that has never before been made public, accounts of 'Unidentified Aerial Phenomena' (UAP) emerging from the ocean and soaring through the sky, and an admission that extraterrestrial origins for the objects cannot be ruled out.

This leaked photo, published by The Debrief in December, was included in the 2018 position report, two DoD and one intelligence source told the outlet

The photo was previously described as depicting an 'unidentified silver 'cube-shaped' object' hovering over the ocean at an altitude of roughly 30,000 to 35,000

The leaked photo was was captured in 2018 off the East Coast of the United States by a military pilot using his cell phone camera, the sources said.

The photo was previously described as depicting an 'unidentified silver 'cube-shaped' object' hovering over the ocean at an altitude of roughly 30,000 to 35,000.

It appears that the image was captured by the backseat weapons systems operator of what appears to be an F/A-18 fighter jet.

Experts were baffled by the photo, but noted that the object somewhat resembles a GPS dropsonde, an atmospheric profiling device designed to be dropped from aircraft, typically over a hurricane.

'These revelations are extraordinary, and give the public a genuine peek behind the curtain when it comes to how the US government is handling the UFO issue,' Nick Pope, who investigated UFOs for the UK Ministry of Defence, told DailyMail.com.

'What this new information does is confirm that the US government is taking the UFO phenomenon more seriously than ever before,' he added. 'I anticipate further revelations shortly.'

The Pentagon has not confirmed the existence of the two position reports, as well as the authenticity of a leaked cockpit photo included in one of the reports.

Even more shocking were the revelations contained in a second, revised report issued by the Unidentified Aerial Phenomena Task Force in early 2020.

The report delved deeply into the possibility that UAP are able to freely move both through the air and underwater, zipping through the ocean undetected and emerging into the air at incredible speeds.

The report contained an 'extremely clear' photograph of an unidentifiable triangular aircraft that emerged from the ocean in front of a F/A-18 Hornet fighter pilot, sources told The Debrief.

An artist's recreation (above) shows the image in the 2020 report as described by sources: a large equilateral triangle with rounded edges and large, spherical white 'lights' in each corner +10
An artist's recreation (above) shows the image in the 2020 report as described by sources: a large equilateral triangle with rounded edges and large, spherical white 'lights' in each corner

Researcher Dave Beaty created this image to depict the object as described by sources who had seen the report from the Unidentified Aerial Phenomena Task Force

That photo has not been leaked publicly, but artist and researcher Dave Beaty's recreation shows it as described by sources: a large equilateral triangle with rounded or 'blunted' edges and large, perfectly spherical white 'lights' in each corner.

The encounter occurred off the East Coast in 2019, according to officials who had seen the latest report.

Two officials said said the photo was taken after the triangular craft emerged from the ocean and shot straight upwards.

Officials say the latest report focused specifically on the possibility of 'transmedium' craft that are able to operate both underwater and in the air.

All photos and numerous videos at https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9387129/There-lot-sightings-public-Anticipation-mounts-ahead-UFO-report.html

UFO report: Government can't explain mysterious flying objects, blames limited data
COURTNEY KUBE AND ADAM EDELMAN, NBC Universal
June 25, 2021, 3:26 PM

UFO report: Government can't explain mysterious flying objects, blames limited data

The U.S. government can't explain 143 of the 144 cases of unidentified flying objects reported by military planes, according to a highly anticipated intelligence report released Friday.

That report, released by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, was meant to shed light on the mystery of those dozens of flying objects, spotted from 2004 to 2021, but instead said it didn't have adequate data to put all but one of them into a category.

That one UAP — shorthand for "unidentified aerial phenomena" — was a large, deflating balloon, the report said.

"The others remain unexplained," the report, which was required by Congress, added.

While the report explicitly stated that "unusual" activity had been reported on multiple occasions, it also did not rule out that those incidents were the result of errors or "spoofing."

"In a limited number of incidents, UAP reportedly appeared to exhibit unusual flight characteristics. These observations could be the result of sensor errors, spoofing, or observer misperception and require additional rigorous analysis," the report said.

The report does not mention aliens or even vaguely hint at an extraterrestrial explanation for the reported sightings, but makes clear that much of the phenomena may be beyond the existing means the government has to identify such objects.

A senior U.S. government official said ahead of the report's release Friday that, "We have no clear indications that there is any nonterrestrial explanation for them — but we will go wherever the data takes us."

The official added: “We do not have any data that indicates that any of these unidentified air phenomena are part of a foreign collection program nor do we have any data that is indicative of a major technological advancement by a potential adversary."

Last month, speaking about the upcoming report, officials told NBC News the government had not ruled out the possibility that the flying objects seen by U.S. military planes were highly advanced aircraft developed by other nations. These officials also said that the objects did not appear to be evidence of secret U.S. technology, but didn't definitively rule that out, either.

However, the report — the result of a provision in the $2.3 trillion coronavirus relief and appropriations bill that former President Donald Trump signed last year — said these "unidentified aerial phenomena" represented safety of flight issues and potential operational security issues. Parts of the report remained classified.

“There is a wide, wide range of phenomena that we observe that are ultimately put into the UAP category. There is not one single explanation for UAP, it’s rather a series of things," the senior U.S. official said Friday.

The Department of Defense established the Unidentified Aerial Phenomena Task Force in August to investigate and "gain insight" into the "nature and origins" of unidentified flying objects. Earlier that year, the Department of Defense declassified three videos taken by Navy pilots — one from 2004 and two from 2015 — that showed mysterious objects flying at high speeds across the sky.

"The aerial phenomena observed in the videos remain characterized as 'unidentified,'" Pentagon officials said in a statement at the time.

The three videos had leaked years earlier, but Pentagon officials said they declassified the footage to "clear up any misconceptions by the public on whether or not the footage that has been circulating was real, or whether or not there is more to the videos."

No additional incidents or videos were released Friday as part of the report.

According to the report, there were 18 incidents reported in which the UAPs that were seen featured some sort of "unusual movement patterns or flight characteristics" including propulsion or other technology that wasn't evident and that could be advanced. Eleven of the incidents reported were near misses with military planes, the report said.

"Some UAP appeared to remain stationary in winds aloft, move against the wind, maneuver abruptly, or move at considerable speed, without discernable means of propulsion," the report said, in describing those incidents. "In a small number of cases, military aircraft systems processed radio frequency (RF) energy associated with UAP sightings," the report added.

The report also said "there was some clustering of UAP observations regarding shape, size, and, particularly, propulsion" and that "UAP sightings also tended to cluster around U.S. training and testing grounds."

The report, however, concluded that "this may result from a collection bias as a result of focused attention, greater numbers of latest-generation sensors operating in those areas, unit expectations, and guidance to report anomalies."

All videos of the incidents that have so far been released remain unexplained, the report said.

The report noted that the limited amount of anecdotal data — as opposed to scientific data — and inconsistencies in reporting due to the lack of a standardized system make evaluating UFOs a challenge.

"The limited amount of high-quality reporting on unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP) hampers our ability to draw firm conclusions about the nature or intent of UAP. The Unidentified Aerial Phenomena Task Force (UAPTF) considered a range of information on UAP described in U.S. military and IC (Intelligence Community) reporting, but because the reporting lacked sufficient specificity, ultimately recognized that a unique, tailored reporting process was required to provide sufficient data for analysis of UAP events," the report said.

“We quite frankly have a bit of work yet to do in order to truly assess and address the threat posed by UAP," the senior U.S official said Friday. “Not all UAP are the same thing.”

The Pentagon, the report said, would prefer to rely on a scientific and data-driven approach to collecting information on the UAP, instead of the anecdotal observations reported by military planes.

To that end, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and the Pentagon are making efforts to create a new collection strategy to standardize data reporting on UFOs, according to the report. The agencies said they will update Congress on their progress within the next 90 days, the report said.

In a statement after the report's release, Pentagon Press Secretary John Kirby said the intelligence office had been ordered to develop a plan to formalize that mission.

Lawmakers from both parties demanded the government do more to investigate.

“The United States must be able to understand and mitigate threats to our pilots, whether they’re from drones or weather balloons or adversary intelligence capabilities,” said Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va. “Today’s rather inconclusive report only marks the beginning of efforts to understand and illuminate what is causing these risks to aviation in many areas around the country and the world.”

Sen. Marco Rubio, the top Republican on that committee, added: “This report is an important first step in cataloging these incidents, but it is just a first step.”

“The Defense Department and Intelligence Community have a lot of work to do before we can actually understand whether these aerial threats present a serious national security concern,” added Rubio, who pushed the government to conduct the UFO report.

House Intelligence Committee Chairman Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., said, “We should approach these questions without preconceptions to encourage a thorough, systematized analysis of the potential national security and flight safety risks posed by unidentified aerial phenomena, whether they are the result of a foreign adversary, atmospheric or other aerial phenomena, space debris, or something else entirely."