UFOs are no longer a joke
Every so often, over dinner with a journalist friend, we would play a game. We would name the three biggest stories that we wanted to write. The only trouble was, we had to stand them up.
Variously, we covered financial and political scandals and unsolved crimes. Always, the top one was the same. The hack in us meant we had a headline ready to go: “We are not alone”.
We were referring of course to the discovery of aliens in space, that there are other beings in the galaxy apart from those on Earth. It was, we agreed, the biggest story of all.
Last week, the prospect of it being published moved a giant step closer. While British media eyes were fixated on a grainy picture of a man and woman snogging behind a door, the Pentagon released this report.
On its face, this nine-page document is not as arresting as Matt Hancock breaking social distancing rules, but it is of much greater significance. The reason I say it like that is because the document is carefully worded. The US military does not say “UFOs are real” but it is clear the Pentagon is treating the sightings not as hallucinations or mistakes, as was always claimed in the past by officials, but as genuine events – which they cannot explain.
But they do not say this explicitly or directly in the language of the report. Which is clearly deliberate. If you are an ordinary news reporter faced with the study you cannot tease anything sensational out of its language. The sensation is in the interpretation, which most journalists are not qualified to deal with, not when they’re in a hurry to file online, to deadline, not when they’ve got to convince a hard-bitten editor of its merit. “What’s the headline?” they’re asked. “We’re not sure about UFOs, say the Americans.” “Forget that. More Matt Hancock.”
In fact, the very admission that UFOs can’t be explained is a very big deal indeed – far bigger dare I say it than the ex-health secretary’s relationship with his aide.
What was once dismissed as nuts is now the subject of intense scrutiny by a US task force comprising military and scientific experts. The conclusion of their preliminary assessment, a summary of a much longer report sent to the Congressional Services and Armed Forces Committees, is stark. While the bulk of the 144 sightings reported mostly by defence pilots and service personnel between 2004 and 2021 appear to be the result of natural phenomena, such as the light playing tricks or other explainable causes, 21 of the objects “appeared to remain stationary in winds aloft, move against the wind, manoeuvre abruptly, or move at considerable speed, without discernible means of propulsion. In a small number of cases, military aircraft systems processed radio frequency (RF) energy associated with UAP [Unidentified Aerial Phenomena] sightings.”
In other words, says the Pentagon: “A handful of UAP appear to demonstrate advanced technology”.
For people like this to admit to not knowing is enormous. These are the best brains in the field, they were picked for this assignment. They are not doubting the veracity of the evidence. They make it clear these aren’t accounts collated from farmers out in the countryside on their way home after a skinful. They are reports from military units and the objects were definitely real, they existed, they were picked up across “multiple sensors, to include radar, infrared, electro-optical, weapon seekers, and visual observation.”
They’ve got no idea what lies behind them. These are words that no expert, not least those charged with such a sensitive task, would want to write.
The suggestion is that some of these objects may be being controlled because they are defying the wind. They can move incredibly quickly without causing a sonic boom or displaying any means of propulsion. They emit radio frequency energy, so they may be electro-magnetic.
It could be that they are the result of secret advanced technology programmes developed by the Chinese or Russians. In which case, there is no sign of this breakthrough science (no aircraft currently flying can break the speed of sound without causing a sonic boom – these do) spreading into other areas of transportation. Why would the Chinese or Russians if it is them, or indeed any other Blofeld-like fiend, keep sending the craft near US airplanes where they can be witnessed? It does not make sense.
What’s happened here is that we’ve gone from a situation where UFOs were dismissed by the institution of the US military, and nothing good would come from probing them because they clearly belonged in the category marked “can be explained” such as rare, unreported natural phenomena, to one where they’re not. It’s the presence of technology that is so much better than ours that is making the mighty US defence establishment sit up and is proving so unsettling for them and for the rest of us.
That’s why this report is so important, not because it says, “we’re not alone” but because it says, “we don’t know” and it’s the Pentagon no less, saying so. They would do anything to avoid saying it but they can’t.
The most telling admission is this: “UAP clearly pose a safety of flight issue and may pose a challenge to US national security.”
UFOs are no longer a joke. They carry national security implications. And they don’t know anything about them. They haven’t even a clue. More research is urgently required. Suddenly, the biggest story does not appear so fanciful after all.