A new Pentagon office set up to track reports of unidentified flying objects, or UFOs, has received “many hundreds” of new claims, but no evidence of alien life has been found thus far, according to the agency’s director.
The Office of the Director of National Intelligence revealed in June 2021 that there were 144 such interactions between 2004 and 2021, with 80 of them being captured on multiple sensors.
Since then, “we’ve had lots more reporting,” said anomaly office director Sean Kirkpatrick on Friday.
Kirkpatrick responded “several hundred” when pressed to quantify the amount.
The All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO) was established in July and is in charge of tracking unexplained objects not just in the sky but also underwater or in space — or perhaps an object with the ability to migrate from one domain to another.
Officials expect an updated report from the Director of National Intelligence before the end of the year, with particular numbers on additional reports received since 2021.
The office was established not just to investigate the possibility of extraterrestrial life, but also to address the security danger caused by the numerous encounters with strange flying objects at military sites or military aircraft.
Congress hearing on the subject of UFOs
This May, Congress conducted its first hearing on the subject in more than a half-century, with many members expressing worry that the unknown, whether the objects are alien or potentially new, unknown technology flown by China, Russia, or another prospective opponent, constitutes a security danger.
So far, “we have not seen anything, and we’re still very early on, that would lead us to believe that any of the objects that we have seen are of alien origin,” said Ronald Moultrie, undersecretary of defense for intelligence and security.
According to Moultrie, the office is also working on ways to increase its capacity to recognize unfamiliar things, such as recalibrating sensors that may be focused solely on known opponent aircraft or drone signatures.
One factor for the hundreds of increased complaints could be the department’s campaign to de-stigmatize reporting prospective contacts.
‘Blue’ programs
Aside from unidentified objects, there is a lot of modern technology that may be mistaken for a UFO, such as future stealth bombers and stealth fighters, drones, and hypersonic missiles being produced by both the US and China.
Kirkpatrick stated that the new agency has been liaising with the Pentagon and the US intelligence community to obtain signatures of US technology to rule out those aircraft or drones.
“We are setting up very clear mechanisms with our blue programs, both our DOD and IC programs, to de-conflict any observations that come in with blue activities, and ensure that we weed those out and identify those fairly early on,” Kirkpatrick said, referring to the Pentagon’s or intelligence agencies’ “blue” US aircraft programs.