The Pentagon for years has lacked a “coordinated approach” to detecting, analyzing and cataloging UFO sightings by U.S. service members, the Defense Department’s top watchdog said in a key report released publicly this week, warning that the various approaches across the military may have left dangerous national security gaps.
A classified version of the major study by the Defense Department inspector general was released last August. A declassified version was made public this week.
The study examines how various arms of the military approach sightings of what the government now calls “UAP,” or unidentified aerial phenomena, an issue that has been thrust to the forefront in recent years amid a string of high-profile sightings by military personnel, deep interest from lawmakers of both parties and shocking accusations of decades-long UFO coverups perpetrated by the federal government.
The inspector general’s report shines a light on how, until recently, the military has struggled to develop a uniform system to address UFOs. Specifically, the study says the department “has not used a coordinated approach to detect, report, collect, analyze, and identify UAP” and that military arms often used different processes to track and analyze UFO sightings.
“As a result, the DoD may not have developed a comprehensive and coordinated strategy for understanding, identifying and protecting against unidentified phenomena that may present a safety threat to military personnel and territory,” the inspector general’s office said in the public version of its report. “The DoD has not issued a comprehensive UAP response plan that identifies roles, responsibilities, requirements and coordination procedures for detecting, reporting, collecting, analyzing and identifying UAP incidents. As a result, the DoD response to UAP incidents is uncoordinated and concentrated within each military department.”
The Pentagon, combatant commands and military branches have each taken steps in recent months to address those shortfalls, and there has been a concerted effort across the military to streamline the process.
The Defense Department’s UAP task force, for example, has taken a lead role in setting up more uniform procedures across the military. The Pentagon last October even created an online “secure reporting mechanism” through which military personnel can report UFO sightings dating back to 1945.
But the watchdog report makes clear that the military for years struggled to develop a comprehensive approach to the issue. The study found that various military services went their separate ways on how UFO sightings should be reported, analyzed, and organized after the fact.
“We determined that the DoD has no overarching UAP policy and, as a result, it lacks assurance that national security and flight safety threats to the United States from UAP have been identified and mitigated,” the study said.
A raft of sightings, a surge of interest
The push to fix those problems has accelerated over the past several years as reports of UFO sightings by military personnel exploded and as public interest in the issue rose dramatically.
A report released last October found that U.S. military personnel and commercial pilots reported at least 291 UFO sightings since August 2022, with some of the craft exhibiting “high-speed travel,” “unusual maneuverability” and other strange characteristics.
Most of the reported sightings took place over U.S. military airspace, officials said. None of the incidents resulted in any injuries or “adverse health effects.”
“However, many reports from military witnesses do present potential safety-of-flight concerns and there are some cases where reported UAP have potentially exhibited one or more concerning performance characteristics such as high-speed travel or unusual maneuverability,” reads the report, produced by the federal government’s All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office.
As of last April, the AARO said it had received a total of 801 UAP reports, though the actual number of sightings is believed to be much higher.
The latest figures cover February 2022, when a suspected Chinese spy balloon traveled across the U.S. and was eventually shot down off the South Carolina coast. In the days afterward, the military shot down multiple unidentified craft traveling over North American airspace. They are believed to have been weather balloons or other small objects used for research.
It’s possible that many of the other sightings could also have been weather balloons, though the most recent AARO report makes clear that at least some of the craft exhibited unusual behaviors that could not easily be explained.
The Pentagon also has faced accusations of a massive cover-up, though officials strongly deny those claims.
Last July, former U.S. intelligence officer David Grusch told Congress under oath that he is aware of “a multi-decade UAP crash retrieval and reverse-engineering program.” He even suggested that the Pentagon has long been in possession of actual alien bodies.
Retired Gen. Mark A. Milley, former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told The Washington Times shortly after that hearing that he is aware of no such programs.
“I can tell you … that as the chairman, I have been briefed on several different occasions by the [Pentagon’s] UAP office. And I have not seen anything that indicates to me about quote-unquote ‘aliens’ or that there’s some sort of cover-up program. I just haven’t seen it,” Gen. Milley said in the August interview, just weeks before his retirement.
