An in-depth overview of UAPs (Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena)
Background to the UAP phenomenon
In the past, the term UFO (Unidentified Flying Objects) has been unfairly associated with crackpots, delusional individuals, or conspiracy theorists. In 2022, to help reduce the stigma, the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) started using the term UAPs, or “Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena,” to describe objects in airspace that cannot be identified.
The topic of UAPs and UFO encounters remains controversial, and opinion remains heavily divided between believers, including ex-military personnel, and sceptics who blame natural phenomena, black ops or human-created technologies. However, video evidence released in recent years and the various congressional hearings in the United States have given credence to something that cannot be readily explained in every case. However, the debate is far from resolved, and there does not appear to be overwhelming evidence of extra-terrestrial visitors. However, this may change as new secret documents and videos are released.
According to the All-Domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO) that reports to the DoD per the NDAA FY23 Section 1673(d)(8)), Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAP) means:
Airborne objects that are not immediately identifiable
Trans-medium objects or devices
Submerged objects or devices that are not immediately identifiable and that display behavior or performance characteristics suggesting that the objects or devices may be related to the objects or devices described above
The DoD considers UAP as “sources of anomalous detections in one or more domains (airborne, seaborne, space-borne, and/or trans-medium) that are not yet attributable to known actors and that demonstrate behaviors that sensors or observers do not readily understand”. Anomalous detections include but are not limited to phenomena that demonstrate apparent capabilities or material that exceed known performance envelopes. A UAP may consist of one or more unidentified anomalous objects and may persist over an extended period.
Furthermore, UAP represents objects demonstrating sophisticated technology that cannot be explained by current military hardware or knowledge. Governments worldwide, notably in the United States, have reported hundreds of cases, including those from military personnel who have observed objects flying over sensitive or restricted airspace, posing a potential risk to flight safety and national security.
Luis “Lue” Elizondo, the former director of the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program (AATIP) and senior counterintelligence officer for the Department of Defense, described the observable characteristics of UAPs in his August 2024 book, “Imminent.” He identified them as anti-gravity, instantaneous acceleration, hypersonic velocity, low observability, and trans-medium travel.
Luis Elizondo
US intelligence agencies delivered a UAP report to Congress in June 2021 as a result of a provision in the $2.3 trillion coronavirus relief and appropriations signed by President Donald Trump that called for a “detailed analysis of unidentified aerial phenomena data and intelligence” from the Office of Naval Intelligence, the Unidentified Aerial Phenomena Task Force and the FBI. Since then, through various hearings during 2023 and 2024, as well as legislation passed into law, US lawmakers have improved disclosure and scrutiny, and subjecting whistleblowers to less risk has been enacted.
Many UAE believers think that the sightings result from advanced extraterrestrial technology. Others believe the mysterious craft used classified technology deployed by the U.S. or foreign military powers. However, the technological leap would appear incredible if this were done secretly in facilities at Nevada’s Nellis Air Force base, also known as Area 51. However, some speculate that technology found in alleged UFO crashes like the Roswell Incident in July 1947 could have provided knowledge from more advanced beings from the far reaches of the solar system and this has been shared with multinational aerospace and defense companies such as Lockheed Martin or Northrop Grumman.
The ASA
Investigators, including the ASA (Americans for Safe Aerospace), have raised the profile of UAPs, and politicians, other interested parties, and the general public are moving toward the consensus that cases being reported deserve serious scientific analysis.
According to the ASA their mission is to “a military pilot led nonprofit organization dedicated to aerospace safety and national security with a focus on Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAP). ASA was founded by Ryan Graves, a former Lieutenant U.S. Navy F/A-18 pilot, who was the first active duty pilot to come forward to Congress about UAP. Identifying objects in our airspace and eliminating domain awareness gaps is critical to U.S. aviation safety and national security.”
Ryan Graves Founder // Executive Director Safeaerospace.org
Furthermore, they say that “Pilots have reported seeing UAP in the air for decades, but have had little support or recourse for their observations. ASA’s goal is to destigmatize the UAP issue and empower pilots to come forward with their accounts. We believe military and commercial pilot experiences are some of the most important tools we have to investigate UAP.”
Donald Trump’s former intelligence director, John Ratcliffe, said, “US military pilots and satellites have recorded a lot more sightings of unidentified flying objects, or UFOs than have been made public. Some of those have been declassified. And when we talk about sightings, we are talking about objects that have been 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.
We always look for a plausible explanation. Sometimes, we wonder whether our adversaries have technologies that are a little bit farther down the road than we thought or that we realized. But there are instances where we don’t have good explanations. So, in short, things that we are observing that are difficult to explain – and so there’s actually quite a few of those, and I think that that info has been gathered and will be put out in a way the American people can see.”
When asked where the unidentified phenomena were sighted, Ratcliffe replied, “Actually, there have been sightings all over the world.”
Focus of efforts on UAP cases
Of all the UAP incidents, which ones are real?
What is their source - natural, foreign power or extra-terrestrial?
Are they a threat to national security?
In June 2022, NASA announced an independent study to determine how it could contribute to the study of the phenomenon. Congressional hearings took place in 2022 and 2023, the first since the 1960s, which have meant that U.S. government transparency is a major area of focus.
Government agencies worldwide increasingly recognize publicly that strange phenomena in the skies are worthy of attention.
In 2022, the Pentagon established the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office to coordinate U.S. government reports of UAPs and help analysts determine whether UAPs pose threats. The National UFO Reporting Center, a nonprofit established in 1974, and other organizations continue to collate reports from the public.
By bringing UAPs into the realm of science, the hope is to make the unexplained explainable.
Where do UAP sightings occur?
Since its founding, the NUFORC has kept a database of UAP sightings for over 25 years, with over 100,000 sightings. It is the largest independently collected set of UFO / UAP sighting reports online.
NUFORC staff review each report and highlight a small group of the most credible or interesting cases, which tend to be reported by trained observers such as pilots, anomalous structured craft seen at close range, and those with interesting and clear video or photographic evidence.
An analysis, “An environmental analysis of public UAP sightings and sky view potential” by R M Medina , S C Brewer , S M Kirkpatrick, of nearly 99,000 UAP sightings highlighted U.S. counties with a particularly high number of reports per 10,000 people.
They concluded that “Sightings of unidentified flying objects (UFOs) or unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAP) have been reported throughout history. Given the potential security and safety risks they pose and scientific curiosity, there is increasing interest in understanding what these sighting reports represent. We approach this problem as an important part of the human experience that can be examined through a geographical lens: What local factors may increase or decrease the number of sighting reports? Using a Bayesian regression method, we test hypotheses based on variables representing sky view potential (light pollution, tree canopy, and cloud cover) and the potential for objects to be present in the sky (aircraft and military installations). The dependent variable includes over 98,000 publicly reported UAP sightings in the conterminous United States during the 20 years from 2001 to 2020. The model results find credible correlations between variables that suggest people see more "phenomena" when they have more opportunity to. This analysis is one of few investigations of UAP sighting reports at a national scale, providing context to help examine individual reports. Given that these objects are labeled unidentifiable in the personal sense, there are many natural and/or human-based explanations worth exploring.”
As expected, UAP sightings weren’t as frequent in counties with a lot of tree cover and large amounts of nighttime light pollution, the researchers reported in Scientific Reports. Average cloud cover didn’t seem to affect the number of sightings one way or another — but maybe that’s because the team looked at average cloud cover over the course of the year, not the amount of cloud cover at the time of the sighting, Medina suggests.
The proximity to airports or military installations substantially increased the number of sightings. At such sites, aircraft are likely to be closer to the ground and more visible than at other places, and many of those aircraft could have been classified as experimental craft, according to a report issued by the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office. After undertaking an analysis of reports made to or by the government since 1945, that office found that many sightings could be attributed to never-before-seen craft such as rockets, drones or aircraft incorporating stealth technologies. The analysis found no evidence that any UAPs were signs of extraterrestrials and no evidence that the U.S. government ever had access to alien technology.
The counter view - Are UAPs just natural or man-made phenomena?
Unlike organisations like the ASA, others like Metabunk take a different perspective and try to debunk apparent alien encounters.
Although the cause of several UAP encounters remains very puzzling despite significant analysis, investigators have concluded that many UAP cases can be explained by:
Cloud formations, especially saucer-shaped lenticular
Birds in flight
Temperature changes in the atmosphere
Celestial objects such as Venus.
Weather balloons
Satellites, particularly StarLink
Drones and rockets such as SpaceX and Boeing Starliner
Shasta Trinity National Forest lenticular cloud hovering near Mt. Shasta on February 12, 2020
Starlink Satellites Pittsburgh Dec 4 2021
Metabunk.org describes itself as “dedicated to the art and pastime of honest, polite, scientific investigating of unusual claims. It is primarily a discussion forum, however the focus is on providing concise useful resources, and attempting to avoid repetitive debate and arguments. Metabunk.org is run by me, Mick West. It started as a spin-off from the Contrail Science site, as the regular posters needed a more flexible forum for discussing a wider range of topics. The "Contrails and Chemtrails" forum is still the most popular here. Discussion topics tend to focus around the bunk in 21st century topics such as 9/11, claims of false flags, recent claims of pseudoscience, and modern manifestations of the "New World Order" theory, like Agenda 21. The focus is not so much about the paranormal, cryptozoology or religion - unless there is some interesting new claim of evidence.
Mick West is a retired video game programmer who co-founded Neversoft Entertainment, which is responsible for the Tony Hawk's Pro Skater series of games. He trained as a private pilot and pointed out that “I do this purely out of personal interest, and nobody pays me in any way.”
Mick states that people are often too quick to jump from “I saw some lights in the sky” to “Aliens!” With so many possibilities for what UAPs might be—optical illusions, meteorological phenomena, aviation-related sightings, and more, the observation generally turns out to be mundane, “We’re not really looking for aliens. We’re looking to explain what people are seeing.”
He then points out that suitable data is key to deciphering UAPs, but this often isn’t available. Although many reports by pilots include images taken by onboard sensors or with handheld video cameras, those instruments often aren’t sophisticated enough to capture the necessary details. The same is true for sightings reported from the ground, where the specifics of a presumed object’s direction and speed, as well as general environmental conditions, are often lacking.
However, astrophysicist Thomas Zurbuchen, a former associate administrator of NASA’s Science Mission Directorate, has stated that NASA has a wealth of data from satellites that monitor Earth. However, they don’t have the resolution to spot relatively small objects the size of most UAPs. NASA satellites could be key in providing details on any environmental conditions that may coincide with UAPs, according to the NASA team’s report, released in September 2023. Data collected by commercial satellites can play a similar role.
Zurbuchen says. “We should be excited about things we don’t understand, whether they’re natural phenomena, balloons or other things.
U.S Defence Department AATIP program
In 2007, the U.S. Defense Department established a secret Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program (AATIP) for $22 million to investigate UFO sightings. The program was terminated in 2012 and acknowledged for the first time in December 2017, following a report about it published by The New York Times. The Times reported that the program’s initial funding came largely at the request of former Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid.
In 2019, the U.S. Navy issued new guidelines for pilots to report “unidentified aircraft” to investigate these phenomena properly. It responded to “many reports of unauthorized and/or unidentified aircraft entering various military-controlled ranges and designated air space in recent years.”
In August 2020, the Department of Defense established the Unidentified Aerial Phenomena Task Force to investigate the “nature and origins” of unidentified flying objects.
The official release of UFO Videos by the Pentagon
UAP Video still officially released April 2020
On December 16, 2017, The New York Times reported on three UAP incidents termed “FLIR,” “GIMBAL,” and “GOFAST” taken by US Navy pilots, one from 2004 and two others from 2015, that showed UFOs flying at high speeds. and on April 27, 2020, the Pentagon formally declassified these three videos.
The videos, featuring cockpit display data and infrared imagery along with audio of communications between the pursuing pilots, were initially provided to the press by Luis Elizondo, the former head of the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program, the Department of Defense’s investigation. Elizondo resigned from the Pentagon in October 2017 to protest government secrecy and opposition to the investigation, stating in a resignation letter to Defense Secretary James Mattis that the program was not being taken seriously. In September 2019, a Pentagon spokeswoman confirmed that naval aviators made the released videos and are "part of a larger issue of an increased number of training range incursions by unidentified aerial phenomena in recent years".
FLIR Video - Forward Looking Infrared - Video of a U.S. Navy F/A-18 jet crew’s encounter with an unexplained anomalous phenomena (UAP)
GIMBAL Video - Video of a U.S. Navy F/A-18 jet crew’s encounter with an unexplained anomalous phenomena (UAP).
GIMBAL DOD Video April 2020
GOFAST - Video of a U.S. Navy F/A-18 jet crew’s encounter with an unexplained anomalous phenomena (UAP).
Following the official release, the Department of Defence said, “The aerial phenomena observed in the videos remain unidentified”. The videos had been made public 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.”
On November 14, 2004, fighter pilot Commander David Fravor of the USS Nimitz Carrier Strike Group investigated radar indications of a possible target off the coast of southern California. He said the operator had told him that the USS Princeton, part of the strike group, had been tracking unusual aircraft for two weeks before the incident. The aircraft would appear at 80,000 feet before descending rapidly toward the sea, stopping at 20,000 feet, and hovering.
Fravor reported seeing an object, white and oval, hovering above an ocean disturbance. He estimated that the object was about forty feet long, and four people (two pilots and two weapons systems officers in the backseats of two airplanes) witnessed the object for about 5 minutes. When Fravor spiraled down to get closer to the object, the thing ascended, mirroring the trajectory of his airplane, until it disappeared. The second wave of fighters, including pilot Lieutenant Commander Chad Underwood, took off from Nimitz to investigate. Unlike Fravor, Underwood's fighter was equipped with an advanced infrared camera (FLIR) and recorded a FLIR video, and coined the description "Tic Tac" to describe the infrared image, but did not see any unusual object.
Around this time, a leaked Navy video from July 2019 showed a sphere-shaped unidentified object traveling over the Pacific Ocean near San Diego and being tracked by a US Navy stealth ship. Navy personnel can be heard saying in the clip saying, “It splashed.”
60 Minutes Interviews May 2021
Cmdr Dave Fravor
Cmdr Dave Fravor
On May 18, 2021, Commander Dave Fravor and Lt. Commander Alex Dietrich were interviewed by “60 Minutes” on CBS News about the UFO sightings over the Pacific Ocean in 2004.
Lt. Ryan Graves, a former Navy pilot, told “60 Minutes” that pilots on training flights have seen unexplained phenomena “every day for at least a couple years”, saying, “I am worried, frankly, you know, if these were tactical jets from another country that were hanging out up there, it would be a massive issue. But because it looks slightly different, we’re not willing to actually look at the problem in the face. We’re happy to ignore that these are out there, watching us every day.”
In an interview with NBC News from February 2021, Fravor described the 2004 UFO incident, calling the object “the strangest, most obscure thing I’ve ever seen flying. As soon as we looked down, we see the whitewater, and then we see this little white Tic Tac. It’s pointing north-south and it’s just going forward, back, left, right,” he said, adding that it was bouncing around “like a ping-pong ball.” Fravor said the object was the size of his own F/A-18F fighter jet, “with no markings, no wings, no exhaust plumes.”
Commenting on the incident, Lt Cmdr Alex Dietrich, who was also one of the pilots sent to investigate the anomaly, says one of the biggest problems with UFOs is the stigma in talking about them, “So your mind tries to make sense of it. I’m gonna categorize this as maybe a helicopter or maybe a drone. And when it disappeared. I mean it was just…you know, I think that over beers, we’ve sort of said, ‘Hey man, if I saw this solo, I don’t know that I would have come back and said anything,’ because it sounds so crazy when I say it. I don’t know who’s building it, who’s got the technology, who’s got the brains. But there’s something out there that was better than our airplane”.
In the subsequent Statement for the House Oversight Committee by David Fravor he said:
“ I first want to thank you for the invitation to speak to this committee on the UAP topic that has been in the news for the past 6 years and seems to be continuing to gain momentum. My name is David Fravor and I am a retired Commander in the U.S Navy. In Nov 2004, I was the Commanding Officer of Strike Fighter Squadron Forty-One, the World Famous Black Aces! We were attached to Carrier Airwing Eleven and stationed onboard the USS Nimitz (CVN-68). We were at the beginning of our workup cycle that would prepare us for a combat deployment to the Persian Gulf for operations supporting the ground forces in Iraq. The at-sea period was scheduled to go from Early November to Late December. During this period, we train with the other units in the Battle Group while integrating and honing our skills that we will rely on during our deployment. We had been at sea for roughly two weeks, and I was scheduled to lead a 2 V 2 Air to Air training exercise.
My flight of 2 F/A-18Fs was the Blue Air, the good guys, and we were being controlled by the USS Princeton, CG-59. Keep in mind the F/A-18F’s are 2 seat aircraft with the pilot in the front and the WSO (Weapons System Officer) in the back seat. The Red Air was being flown by our Marine F/A-18 squadron VMFA-232. As we launched off the USS Nimitz, we checked in with the air controller on the USS Princeton, we were told that training was going to be suspended for real world tasking. My wingman joined up and we proceeded towards a contact to the west of our CAP (Combat Air Patrol) point. The CAP point is where we would hold prior to commencing our training runs, roughly 40 miles South of the ship. As we proceeded to the west and as the air controller counted down the range, we had nothing on our radars and were unaware of what we were going to see when we arrived. The air controller on the ship also had no idea but had been observing these objects on their Aegis combat system for the previous 2 weeks. They had been descending from above 80,000ft and coming rapidly down to 20,000ft would stay for hours and then go straight back up. When we arrived at the location at 20,000 ft, the controller called Merge Plot, which means that our radar blip was now in the same radar resolution cell as the contact.
As we looked around, we noticed some white water off our right side. The weather on the day of the incident was as close to a perfect day as you could ask, clear skies, light winds, calm seas (no whitecaps from the waves) so the white water stood out in the large blue ocean. As all 4 looked down we saw a small white Tic Tac shaped object with the longitudinal axis pointing N/S and moving very abruptly over the white water. There were no Rotors, No Rotor wash, or any visible flight control surfaces like wings. As we started a clockwise turn to observe the object, My WSO and I decided to go down to get closer and the other Aircraft stayed in High cover to observe both us and the Tic Tac. We proceeded around the circle about 90 degrees from the start of our descent and the object suddenly shifted it longitudinal axis, aligned it with my aircraft and began to climb in a clockwise climbing turn. We continued down for another 270 degrees when we made a nose low move to head to where the Tic Tac would be when we pulled nose onto the object. Our altitude at this point was approximately 15,000ft with the Tic Tac at about 12,000ft. As we pulled nose onto the object at approximately ½ of a mile with the object just left of our nose, it rapidly accelerated and disappeared right in front of our aircraft. Our wingman, roughly 8,000ft above us, also lost visual. We immediately turned to investigate the white water only to find that it was also gone.
As we turned back towards our CAP point, roughly 60 miles east, the air controller let us know that the object had reappeared on the Princeton’s Aegis SPY 1 radar at our CAP point. This Tic Tac Object had just traveled 60 miles in a very short period of time (less than a minute), was far superior in performance to my brandnew F/A-18F and did not operate with any of the known aerodynamic principles that we expect for objects that fly in our atmosphere. We returned to Nimitz and mentioned what we had witnessed to one of my crews who were getting ready to launch. It was that crew that took the now famous approximately 90 second video that was released by the USG in 2017. What is not seen is the Radar tape that showed the jamming of the APG-73 radar in the aircraft, but we do see on the targeting pod video that the object does not emit any IR (infrared) plume from a normal propulsion system that we would expect.
What is shocking is that the incident was never investigated, none of my crew were ever questioned, tapes were never taken, and after a couple of days, it turned into a great story to tell friends. Not until 2009 did Jay Stratton contact me to investigate what we observed. Unbeknownst to all of us, Jay was part of the ATIP (Anomalous Threat Identification Program) program led by Lue Elizondo out of the DOD. I refer to the report as the Unofficial Official Report which is now available on the internet! Years later I was contacted by Alex Dietrich, the other pilot in my flight asking if I had ever been contacted about the incident after 2009. I had since retired and my answer was no, but I told her if folks wanted to talk, I was happy to meet with them. Alex stated that she had been invited to the Pentagon multiple times to discuss the event and view other videos of UAPs. I was contacted by Mr Elizondo shortly after talking with Alex in 2016. We briefly chatted and I was told that he would be in contact. In the weeks that passed I was made aware that Lue had left the pentagon in protest and joined forces with Tom Delonge, Chris Mellon, Steve Justice and others to form To The Stars Academy. It was this organization that pressed the issue with leading Industry experts and USG officials, worked with Leslie Keane, Ralph Blumenthal and Helene Cooper to publish the articles in the NYT in Dec 2017 admitting the USG was looking at UAPs and removed the Stigma of the UFO topic which led to us being here today. Those articles opened a door for the Government and the public that cannot be closed. It has led to an Interest from our elected officials who are not focused on “Little Green men” but on figuring out what these craft are, where are they from, the technology they possess, and how do they operate. It has also led to the Whistleblower protection act in the recent NDAA which brings us too today.
There are multiple witnesses coming forward that say that they have first-hand knowledge, that I’m sure Mr Grusch will or already has discussed. What concerns me is that there is no “Oversight” from our elected officials on anything associated with our government possessing or working on craft that we believe are not from this world. This issue is not about full public disclosure that could undermine national security, but it is about ensuring that our system of checks and balances works across all work done in our government using taxpayer funds. Relative to government Programs, even Unacknowledged Waived programs have some level of oversight by the appropriate committee members in the House and Senate and this work that is said to be occurring from Whistleblower testimonies should not be exempt.
In closing, I would like to say that the Tic Tac Object that we engaged in Nov 2004 was far superior to anything that we had at the time, have today, or are looking to develop in the next 10+ years. If we in fact have programs that possess this technology, it needs to have oversight from those people that the citizens of this great country elected to office to represent what is best for the United States and in the best interest of its citizens. I thank you for this time to speak with you today and God Bless America! “
US Congress and UAP
Investigating UAPs has become a rare bipartisan issue in Congress. Lawmakers of both parties have called for investigations and more military transparency. In 2022, the House Intelligence Committee held a hearing about the secretive Pentagon programme, and Nasa held a public hearing in June 2023.
Former presidents Barack Obama and Donald Trump have addressed the issue in public interviews. National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said he was open-minded, "What we believe is that there are unexplained aerial phenomena that have been cited and reported by pilots - Navy and Air Force. We don't have the answers about what these phenomena are."
In a rarity for a televised congressional hearing, nearly all the lawmakers focused their questioning on the subject at hand on Wednesday.
The US House of Representatives convened a landmark panel on UAPs, with the House Oversight and Accountability Subcommittee on National Security, the Border, and Foreign Affairs hearing titled “Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena: Implications on National Security, Public Safety, and Government Transparency,” in the Rayburn Building in Washington, D.C., on July 26, 2023.
Republican Tim Burchett said at the beginning of the meeting that US lawmakers were "not bringing little green men or flying saucers into the hearing… we're just going to get to the facts.” Lawmakers and witnesses alike used the panel to demand greater transparency around UAPs from the military.
Rep. Robert Garcia in his opening statement said, “The sheer number of reports, whistleblowers and stories of unidentified anomalous phenomena should raise real questions and warrant investigation and oversight. And that’s why we are here today. UAPs, whatever they may be, may pose a serious threat to our military or civilian aircraft. And that must be understood."
Over the course of two hours, three witnesses shared their encounters with objects that defied physics and told of pilots afraid to speak up, biological material recovered from crafts, and alleged retaliation against whistleblowers. All acknowledged that anomalous phenomena were a potential national security threat.
Retired US Navy commander David Fravor told of his 2004 encounter with a "tic-tac"-shaped UAP that moved in a way that baffled him and his wingman, saying, “The technology that we faced was far superior than anything that we had, have today, or are looking to develop in the next 10+ years". Footage was released in 2017 by the New York Times and publicly verified by the US Navy in 2019. Fravor told the committee that the technology he and his team encountered defies logical explanation."The technology that we faced is far superior to anything that we had," Fravor claimed. "And there’s nothing we can do about it, nothing."
The New York Times, as well as an organisation called TTS AAS (To The Stars Academy of Arts and Science), published three videos showing unexplained encounters with UAPs. Since that time, the US military has gradually acknowledged these encounters whilst not stating their origins.
In December 2017, TTS AAS made history by leveraging its team’s access to become the very first company to obtain official U.S. Government footage of UAP that had gone through the declassification process and been approved for public release. The footage was released on TTS AAS’s online Community of Interest, where they gave access to information analysis.
David Grusch, an ex-Air Force intelligence officer, implied that government officials had suppressed information and targeted whistleblowers but said he could not elaborate further because it was classified. Hetold the panel that he is “absolutely” certain that the federal government is in possession of UAPs, citing interviews he said he conducted with 40 witnesses over a four-year period.. He said he led Defense Department efforts to analyze reported UAP sightings and was informed of a “multidecade” Pentagon program that endeavored to collect and reconstruct crashed UAPs.
David Grusch House Oversight and Accountability Subcommittee on National Security on July 26, 2023
When Republican Jared Moskowitz, D-Fla., asked how such a program is funded, Grusch claimed that it is "above congressional oversight" and bankrolled by a "misappropriation of funds." Moskowitz asked, "Does that mean that there is money in the budget that is set to go to a program, but it doesn't, and it goes to something else?".Grusch responded, "Yes. I have specific knowledge of that." However, he did not provide more details, claiming the information remains classified.
The South Carolina Republican Nancy Mace asked Grusch to tell the panel what he knew about non-terrestrial remains, asking him if "biologics" were recovered from any crafts retrieved by the government. Grusch answered that "biologics came with some of these recoveries". Mace pressed further, “Were they human or non-human?”. Grusch responded, "Non-human, and that was the assessment of people with direct knowledge on the programme I talked to”. He said he prefers to use the term "nonhuman" rather than alien or extraterrestrial.
Grusch said he has not personally seen a UAP nor an alien body but told the panel that he knows of "multiple colleagues" who were injured by UAPs. He did, however, describe the nature of what he saw: "I have to be very careful here ... [but] what I personally witnessed, myself and my wife, was very disturbing."
Asked by Rep. Eric Burlison, R-Mo., to substantiate the crashed UAPs claim, the former intelligence official said he could not divulge specific details, once again claiming the information was too sensitive to share with the public. He did, however, describe the nature of what he saw: "I have to be very careful here ... [but] what I personally witnessed, myself and my wife, was very disturbing."
The Defense Department, through Pentagon spokesperson Sue Gough, has denied possessing “any verifiable information to substantiate claims that any programs regarding the possession or reverse-engineering of extraterrestrial materials have existed in the past or exist currently.”
Grush’s credibility has been called into question by certain online publications. The Intercept published a story in August 2024, relating to police records obtained by the publication under the Virginia Freedom of Information Act. These revealed that on October 1, 2018, Grusch was committed to a mental health facility based in part on a report that he “made a suicidal statement” after Grusch’s wife told him he was an alcoholic and suggested that he get help. “Husband asked [complainant] to kill him,” a police incident report produced by the Loudoun County sheriff states. “He is very angry guns are locked up.”
Grusch responded via a third party alleging that confidential medical records had been leaked by the intelligence community, “Grusch believes the government may now be behind an effort to release his medical records in an effort to smear his credibility.”
Ross Coulthart, an Australian independent journalist who covers UFOs and has interviewed Grusch, posted a statement attributed to Grusch on X, “It has come to my attention that The Intercept intends to publish an article about two incidents in 2014 and 2018 that highlights previous personal struggles I had with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), Grief and Depression,” the statement reads. “As I stated under oath in my congressional testimony, over 40 credentialed intelligence and military personnel provided myself and my colleagues the information I transmitted to the Intelligence Community Inspector General (ICIG) and I took the leadership role to represent the concerns of these distinguished and patriotic individuals.”
The narrative case report describes law enforcement officers detaining Grusch under an emergency custody order and taking him to a local emergency room, where a mental health specialist decided to ask a magistrate to issue a temporary detention order. Based on the order, an officer transferred Grusch to Loudoun Adult Medical Psychiatric Services, an inpatient program in the Inova Loudoun Cornwall Medical Campus in Leesburg.
Given the testimony, whether Grusch is credible remains the big question, and where he is a victim of a smear is uncertain.
Witnesses also called for an official reporting process for military personnel or members of the public to report unexplained sightings. Ryan Graves, executive director of Americans for Safe Aerospace, said, "We need a system where pilots can report without losing their jobs.” Robert Garcia, a California Democrat, said, "UAPs, whatever they are, may pose a serious threat to our military and our civilian aircraft, and that must be understood. We should encourage more reporting, not less on UAPs. The more we understand, the safer we will be."
But the sub-committee had some sceptics. Eric Burlison, a Missouri Republican, found it difficult to believe that beings who could travel billions of miles to reach us would be "incompetent" enough to crash on Earth, asking whether any of the UAPs could actually be craft created by military contractors, or belong to secret agency programmes that other government entities had hidden.
Steven Aftergood, a longtime critic of government secrecy and former director of the Federation of American Scientists’ Project on Government Secrecy, told The Intercept, “The recent UFO hearing is an embarrassment to everyone involved. It’s a symptom of the broader degradation of congressional discourse: by providing a forum for preposterous claims and failing to challenge them, the House committee makes legitimate oversight more difficult.”
Rep. Virginia Foxx, R-N.C., echoed the calls for more transparency. She noted that Dr. Sean Kirkpatrick, the director of the Pentagon's All-Domain Anomaly Resolution Office, had previously told Congress that there was “no credible” evidence of extraterrestrial life. Grusch objected to Kirkpatrick's claim, prompting Foxx to say that "contradiction is a perfect example of why we need to inject transparency into our government."
Some witnesses and lawmakers at the hearing argued that the stigma associated with reporting UFO sightings, as well as the alleged harassment of those who work to investigate them, may be hindering efforts to determine their origins.
Ryan Graves told the panel that stigma "silences" pilots who fear "professional repercussions," which he said is "compounded by recent government claims questioning the credibility of eyewitness testimony."
The Federal Aviation Administration has no mechanism for pilots to report UAPs and instead directs them to civilian groups that are often dismissed as the domain of cranks and conspiracy theorists. Those institutional hurdles led Graves to form ASA (Americans for Safe Aerospace).Lawmakers said they hoped the hearing could help reduce pilots' fears of speaking out.
President Biden signed into law historic legislation in the 2023 NDAA that:
Empowered the All-Domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO) which now reports to senior DoD (Department of Defence) leaders
Directed AARO to develop a data collection and science plan for UAP with ongoing reports to Congress, and to audit all government involvement with UAP since 1945
Created a secure program for whistleblowers to come forward to AARO and Congress that requires identification and waiver of all public and private sector non-disclosure agreements related to UAP.
AARO describes itself as follows: “Our team of experts is leading the U.S. government’s efforts to address Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAP) using a rigorous scientific framework and a data-driven approach. Since its establishment in July 2022, AARO has taken important steps to improve data collection, standardize reporting requirements, and mitigate the potential threats to safety and security posed by UAP. We look forward to using this site to regularly update the public about AARO’s work and findings, and to provide a mechanism for UAP reporting.”
According to AARO, when answering the question, “Has the Department found any evidence of extraterrestrial technology?”, they respond on their website, “No. Examination of UAP sightings is ongoing. AARO uses a rigorous scientific framework and data-driven approach to better understand UAP. We will follow the science wherever it leads.” Dr. Sean Kirkpatrick, the director of the AARO, had previously told Congress that there was “no credible” evidence of extraterrestrial life.
Recent developments
DoD Report on the Historical Record of U.S. Government Involvement with Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAP) Volume Feb 2024
SECTION I: Introduction
This report represents Volume I of the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office’s (AARO) Historical Record Report (HR2) which reviews the record of the United States Government (USG) pertaining to unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAP).
In completing this report, AARO reviewed all official USG investigatory efforts since 1945, researched classified and unclassified archives, conducted approximately 30 interviews, and partnered with Intelligence Community (IC) and Department of Defense (DoD) officials responsible for controlled and special access program oversight, respectively.
AARO will publish Volume II in accordance with the date established in Section 6802 of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2023 (FY23); Volume II will provide analysis of information acquired by AARO after the date of the publication of Volume I.
Since 1945, the USG has funded and supported UAP investigations with the goal of determining whether UAP represented a flight safety risk, technological leaps by competitor nations, or evidence of off-world technology under intelligent control. These investigations were managed and implemented by a range of experts, scientists, academics, military, and intelligence officials under differing leaders—all of whom held their own perspectives that led them to particular conclusions on the origins of UAP.
However, they all had in common the belief that UAP represented an unknown and, therefore, theoretically posed a potential threat of an indeterminate nature. AARO’s mission is similar to that of these earlier organizations. AARO methodology applies both the scientific method and intelligence analysis tradecraft to identify and help mitigate risks UAP may pose to domain safety and to discover, characterize, and attribute potential competitor technological systems.
A consistent theme in popular culture involves a particularly persistent narrative that the USG—or a secretive organization within it—recovered several off-world spacecraft and extraterrestrial biological remains, that it operates a program or programs to reverse engineer the recovered technology, and that it has conspired since the 1940s to keep this effort hidden from the United States Congress and the American public.
AARO recognizes that many people sincerely hold versions of these beliefs which are based on their perception of past experiences, the experiences of others whom they trust, or media and online outlets they believe to be sources of credible and verifiable information. The proliferation of television programs, books, movies, and the vast amount of internet and social media content centered on UAP-related topics most likely has influenced the public conversation on this topic, and reinforced these beliefs within some sections of the population.
The goal of this report is not to prove or disprove any particular belief set, but rather to use a rigorous analytic and scientific approach to investigate past USG-sponsored UAP investigation efforts and the claims made by interviewees that the USG and various contractors have recovered and are hiding off-world technology and biological material. AARO has approached this project with the widest possible aperture, thoroughly investigating these seven assertions and claims without any particular pre-conceived conclusion or hypothesis. AARO is committed to reaching conclusions based on empirical evidence. Lastly, AARO thanks all participants in this review who made this report possible, to include the interviewees who came forward with information.
SECTION II: Executive Summary
AARO found no evidence that any USG investigation, academic-sponsored research, or official review panel has confirmed that any sighting of a UAP represented extraterrestrial technology. All investigative efforts, at all levels of classification, concluded that most sightings were ordinary objects and phenomena and the result of misidentification. Although not the focus of this report, it is worthwhile to note that all official foreign UAP investigatory efforts to date have reached the same general conclusions as USG investigations.
Although many UAP reports remain unsolved or unidentified, AARO assesses that if more and better quality data were available, most of these cases also could be identified and resolved as ordinary objects or phenomena. Sensors and visual observations are imperfect; the vast majority of cases lack actionable data, or the data available is limited or of poor quality.
Resources and staffing for these programs largely have been irregular and sporadic, challenging investigatory efforts and hindering effective knowledge transfer.
The vast majority of reports almost certainly are the result of misidentification and a direct consequence of the lack of domain awareness; there is a direct correlation between the amount and quality of available information on a case with the ability to conclusively resolve it.
AARO found no empirical evidence for claims that the USG and private companies have been reverse-engineering extraterrestrial technology. AARO determined, based on all information provided to date, that claims involving specific people, known locations, technological tests, and documents allegedly involved in or related to the reverse-engineering of extraterrestrial technology, are inaccurate.
Additional claims will be addressed in Volume II. AARO successfully located the USG and industry programs, officials, companies, executives, and documents identified by interviewees. In many cases, the interviewees named authentic USG classified programs well-known and understood to those appropriately accessed them in the Executive Branch and Legislative Branch; however, the interviewees mistakenly associated these authentic USG programs with alien and extraterrestrial activity. AARO has reached the following, high confidence conclusions related to:
UAP Nondisclosure Agreements (NDA): AARO has found no evidence of anyauthentic UAP-related NDA or other evidence threatening death or violence for disclosing UAP information.8
A CIA Official Allegedly Managed UAP Experimentation: The named former CIA official was not involved in the movement of extraterrestrial technology. The same former CIA officer signed a memo rejecting a claim made by interviewees that he managed the movement of and experimentation on off-world technology.
Alleged UAP Intelligence Community Document: An alleged 1961 Special National Intelligence Estimate that was “leaked” to online sources and suggests the extraterrestrial nature of “UFOs,” is inauthentic.
“Aliens” Present During a DoD Technology Test: AARO reviewed information related to an account of an interviewee overhearing a conversation about a technology test at a military base where “aliens” allegedly were observing. AARO judges that the interviewee misunderstood the conversation.
Claim That a Military Officer Touched an Off-World Craft: An interviewed claim that a named former military officer explained in detail how he physically touched an extraterrestrial spacecraft is inaccurate. The claim was denied on the record by the named former officer who recounted a story of when he touched an F-117 Nighthawk stealth fighter that could have been misconstrued by the interviewee, though the named former officer does not recall having this conversation with the interviewee.
Test of Off-World Technology: An interviewee claim that he witnessed what he believed to be the testing of extraterrestrial technology at a USG facility almost certainly was an observation of an authentic, non-UAP-related, technology test that strongly correlated in time, location, and description provided in the interviewee’s account.
UAP Disclosure Study: Interviewees claimed that between 2004 and 2007, the White House requested a research institute in Virginia study the theoretical societal impacts of disclosing that UAP are extraterrestrial in origin; AARO confirmed the study was conducted, but it was not requested by the White House.
Named Companies Allegedly Experimenting on Alien Technology: AARO has found no evidence that U.S. companies ever possessed off-world technology. The executives, scientists, and chief technology officers of the companies named by interviewees met with the Director of AARO and denied on the record that they have ever recovered, possessed, or engaged in reverse-engineering of extraterrestrial technology.
Experimentation on Alleged Extraterrestrial Spacecraft Sample: AARO has concluded that a sample from an alleged crashed off-world spacecraft that AARO acquired from a private UAP investigating the organization and the U.S. Army is manufactured, terrestrial alloy and does not represent off-world technology or possess any exceptional qualities. The sample is primarily composed of magnesium, zinc, and bismuth, along with some other trace elements, such as lead. This assessment was based on its materials characterization.
AARO assesses that all of the named and described alleged hidden UAP reverse-engineering programs provided by interviewees either do not exist; are misidentified authentic, highly sensitive national security programs that are not related to extraterrestrial technology exploitation; or resolve to an unwarranted and disestablished program. AARO created a secure process in partnership with the highest-level security officials within the DoD, IC, and other organizations to research and investigate these programs; AARO was granted full, unrestricted access by all organizations. It is important to note that none of the interviewees had firsthand knowledge of these programs—they were not approved for access to nor did they workon these efforts—which likely resulted in misinterpretation of the programs’ origins and purpose.
The interviewees and others who have mistakenly associated authentic sensitive national security programs with UAP had incomplete or unauthorized access to these programs; discussion of these programs outside of secure facilities presents a high risk of exposing national security information.
One named program was a UAP-related Prospective Special Access Program (PSAP)called KONA BLUE that was proposed to the Department of Homeland Security(DHS) and supported by individuals who believed the USG was hiding off-world technology. The program was never approved by DHS, and its supporters never provided empirical evidence to support their claims.
In 2021, without sufficient justification, the scope of an IC Controlled Access Program was expanded to protect UAP reverse-engineering. This program never recovered or reverse-engineered any UAP or extraterrestrial spacecraft. This IC program was disestablished due to its lack of merit.
AARO assesses that the inaccurate claim that the USG is reverse-engineering extraterrestrial technology and is hiding it from Congress is, in large part, the result of circular reporting from a group of individuals who believe this to be the case, despite the lack of any evidence. AARO notes that although claims that the USG has recovered and hidden spacecraft date back to the 1940s and 1950s, more modern instances of these claims largely stem from a consistent group of individuals who have been involved in various UAP-related endeavors since at least 2009.
Many of these individuals were involved in or supportive of a cancelled DIA program and the subsequent but failed attempt to reestablish this program under DHS, called KONA BLUE.
AARO assesses that UAP sightings and reports of these sightings to USG organizations and claims that some UAP constitute extraterrestrial craft and that the USG has secured and is experimenting on extraterrestrial technology have been influenced by a range of cultural, political, and technological factors. AARO bases this conclusion on the following factors:
The aggregate findings of all USG investigations to date have not found even one case of UAP representing off-world technology.
None of the programs mentioned by interviewees are UAP reverse-engineering programs, and all the authentic programs have been properly notified and reported to Congress through the congressional defense and/or intelligence committees.
AARO has no evidence for the USG reverse-engineering narrative provided by interviewees and has been able to disprove the majority of the interviewees’ claims.Some claims are still under evaluation.
AARO, determined that a piece of metal alleged to be recovered from an off-world spacecraft is ordinary, of terrestrial origin, and possesses no exceptional qualities.Several factors—domestic and international—most likely influenced sightings, reports, and the belief by some individuals that there is sufficient proof that some UAP represent extraterrestrial technology.
AARO’s examination of the historical context of UAP investigations from 1945 to the present reveals that these factors—some common to and distinct between the earlier era of UAP investigations (pre-2009) and the modern era (post-2009)—undoubtedly influenced the direction of these investigations, the volume of and spikes in sightings, and the overall public interest, concern, and debate. These periods are divided into pre- and post-2009 timeframe because this is the year of the standup of the Advanced Aerospace Weapons System Application Program (AAWSAP) and Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program (AATIP) efforts. Prior to AAWSAP/AATIP there was about a 40 year gap in UAP investigation programs since the termination of Project BLUE BOOK in 1969.
Common contextual factors between earlier and modern investigations include a rapidly evolving and dynamic national security environment, concern about technological surprise, intense secrecy related to government military programs, public interest in UAP, perceived bureaucratic barriers, and the persistent lack of quality data.
Some contextual factors that were distinct between earlier and modern investigations include differences in the level of public trust in the government, the large volume of popular culture content related to UAP, the perception within some segments of the population that the USG is hiding extraterrestrial technology; unauthorized disclosures of classified programs mistaken for UAP observations; the proliferation of online sources that reinforce these beliefs; the impact that social media has had on circular reporting; and the rapid spread of misinformation.
AARO assesses that some portion of sightings since the 1940s have represented misidentification of never-before-seen experimental and operational space, rocket, and air systems, including stealth technologies and the proliferation of drone platforms. From the 1940s to the 1960s especially, the United States witnessed a boom in experimental technologies driven by World War II and the Cold War.
Many of these technologies fit the description of a stereotypical Unidentified Flying Object (UFO). It is understandable how observers unfamiliar with these programs could mistake sightings of these new technologies as something extraordinary, even other-worldly.
Along with these conventional technology research areas, the USG started the Manhattan Project in 1942. This program operated in secrecy and led to the establishment of several “secret cities” across the United States to support the development of the nuclear bomb. Any misunderstanding stemming from the intense secrecy surrounding this and similar programs could have been misconstrued for other efforts.
Statement by Pentagon Press Secretary Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder on the Historical Record Report on Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena, Volume 1 March 8 2024
Last week, the Department of Defense delivered to Congress the initial volume of the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office's Historical Record Report, which reviews the record of the United States government pertaining to unidentified anomalous phenomena, as required by the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2023.
In completing this report, AARO reviewed all official U.S government investigatory efforts since 1945, researched classified and unclassified archives, conducted dozens of interviews, and partnered with Intelligence Community and DOD officials responsible for controlled and special access program oversight, respectively. AARO will publish a second volume that will provide analysis of information acquired by AARO after Nov. 1, 2023, including information received via interviews with current and former U.S. government personnel who contacted AARO via the secure reporting mechanism on AARO's website.
Analyzing and understanding the historical record on UAP is an ongoing collaborative effort involving many departments and agencies, and the department thanks the contributing departments and agencies, as well as the interviewees who came forward with information.
The goal of AARO's efforts in producing this volume and the second forthcoming one is to use a rigorous analytic and scientific approach to investigate past U.S. government-sponsored UAP investigation efforts and the claims made by interviewees that the U.S. government and various contractors have recovered and are hiding off-world technology and biological material. AARO has approached this project with the widest possible aperture, thoroughly investigating these assertions and claims without any particular pre-conceived conclusion or hypothesis. AARO is committed to reaching conclusions based on verifiable evidence. As AARO has said before, they will follow the evidence where it leads, wherever it leads.
To date, AARO has found no verifiable evidence for claims that the U.S. government and private companies have access to or have been reverse-engineering extraterrestrial technology. Also, AARO has found no evidence that any U.S. government investigation, academic-sponsored research, or official review panel has confirmed that any sighting of a UAP represented extraterrestrial technology. All investigative efforts, at all levels of classification, concluded that most sightings were ordinary objects and phenomena and the result of misidentification. AARO assesses that all of the named and described alleged hidden UAP reverse-engineering programs provided by interviewees either do not exist; are misidentified authentic national security programs that are not related to extraterrestrial technology exploitation; or resolve to a disestablished program.
You can find the unclassified version of the Historical Record Report Volume 1 on defense.gov and on the AARO website, aaro.mil.
May 2024
The Senate Select Committee on Intelligence passed the Intelligence Authorization Act, which included a section on UAPs.
To authorize appropriations for fiscal year 2025 for intelligence and intelligence-related activities of the United States Government, the Intelligence Community Management Account, and the Central Intelligence Agency Retirement and Disability System, and for other purposes.
July 2024
The Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena Disclosure Act (UAPDA) was a series of bills passed by the United States Congress and signed into law on December 22, 2023. The law mandated the National Archives and Records Administration assemble a UAP Collection of unidentified anomalous phenomenon (UAP) data.The UAPDA was introduced as an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2024.
The UAP Disclosure Act of 2024 was introduced in July 2023 by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York and Mike Rounds of South Dakota. Schumer described the bill as modeled on the President John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Collection Act of 1992. The bill was attached as a 64-page amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2024 (NDAA), with Marco Rubio of Florida and Kirsten Gillibrand of New York co-sponsoring the amendment. The UAPDA has been called directly in the legislation passed into Federal law part of a "controlled disclosure campaign" and defines such a campaign for government disclosure of known UFO, UAP, and non-human intelligence-related topics.
The House of Representatives approved their version of the 2023 NDAA with the UAPDA attached on July 14, 2023. The NDAA with the UAPDA for 2024 was passed on December 22, 2023.
With the enactment of the 2023 NDAA, the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) and the Archivist of the United States were ordered to "commence the establishment of a collection of unidentified anomalous phenomena. The Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAP) Records Collection will consist of 'copies of all Government, Government-provided, or Government-funded records relating to unidentified anomalous phenomena, technologies of unknown origin, and non-human intelligence (or equivalent subjects by any other name with the specific and sole exclusion of temporarily non-attributed objects).
The law mandated that detailed records and materials of non-human intelligence origins "shall be transmitted to the National Archives under section 2107 of title 44, United States Code.
In 2024, the National Archives and Records Administration and prominent Washington, D.C. area law firms such as Covington & Burling began advising and directing clients and government agencies to begin compliance with the enacted UAPDA requirements.
On February 6, 2024, the National Archives and Records Administration formally notified all United States government records administrators to begin their mandated compliance with UFO/UAP disclosure requirements.
The initial proposal for the UAPDA included plans for a UAP Review Board, with specific professional qualifications and requirements for each member to be eligible, and each member would then require confirmation in the United States Senate to access UAP Records Collections generated by legal requirements. Additionally, the UAP Review Board would be required under law to be composed of specific professionals by their experience and training, to consist of one each: current or former national security official; current or former foreign service official; one scientist or engineer; one economist; one professional historian, and one sociologist. Among other provisions in the UAPDA were solid protections for whistleblowers.
The UAP Review Board would have subpoena power to access classified information, which is governed by the President's executive order, and restricted data controlled by the United States Department of Energy as defined in the Atomic Energy Act of 1954. The UAP Review Board, examining all materials without restriction, would determine whether a given asset or piece of information shall be made public for disclosure or postponed further, with the presumption of defaulting to public disclosure of any materials if discovered.
The President would then act upon the UAP Review Board's guidance, and all materials would be mandated for public disclosure within twenty-five years of the passage of the UAPDA, unless the President detailed to the Congress why that given item should remain restricted, with threats to national security as an eligible reason for delaying disclosure. Disclosure of specific items could also be delayed under privacy laws for private individuals and their personal information.
Additionally, under the UAPDA, no private non-governmental parties or private citizens would be allowed to keep or maintain any UAPDA-covered assets going forward if they possessed them, and all such materials would be seized by the Federal government of the United States under eminent domain.
The timeline for the UAPDA would mandate the President and Senate establish the UAP Review Board within 90 days. Following that, similar to the previous format of the concept in the Intelligence Authorization Act, all parts of the United States government and private parties would be required to turn over all UFO/UAP data to the Review Board within 300 days. The UAP Review Board would then have 180 days to review all data and then must release their findings to Congress within an additional 14 days.
After the bill emerged from the United States congressional conference committee, which is composed of both House and Senate members who modify bills passed respectively by the House and Senate to synchronize them for a final vote to forward the proposed law to the United States President, a modified and reduced-in-power version of the UAPDA was attached and made live as part of the NDAA for 2024.
Two key provisions were reportedly removed from the final reconciled version of the UAPDA that passed for 2023 and enacted in 2024.
The 2024 cycle included the UAP Review Board itself, as well as the eminent domain provisions.[26] According to the New York Times, the Defense Department objected to some UAPDA measures, saying a "person familiar with the talks who insisted on anonymity to describe them noted that the Defense Department also had pushed back forcefully on wider measures" in the proposed law.
In the summer of 2024, the full UAPDA, with all prior required powers that did not survive passage on the first attempt, was again introduced to Congress for a second consecutive year, to be attached to the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2025.
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