The US Government Just Released It’s Biggest Unclassified UFO Report Ever
The U.S. Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) has released its long-awaited report detailing official sightings of Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (UAPs). Many of the phenomena continue to defy explanation, and have been described as exhibiting “unusual flight characteristics or performance capabilities”.
According to the report, UAP reporting is “increasing,” which is “enabling a greater awareness of the airspace and an increased opportunity to resolve UAP events.” As of August 2022 there have been 510 UAP reports, though additional information is limited to the classified version of the report. It touts the establishment of the Department of Defense All-Domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO), which the U.S. government hopes will aid in resolving UAP sightings.
The Pentagon’s public attitude toward sightings of UFOs – now rebranded as UAPs – has shifted dramatically in recent years. Notably, in April 2020, the government made a surprise move to declassify three videos captured by instruments aboard U.S. Navy aircraft, which, having previously been leaked to the public in 2017, depicted encounters with fast-moving unknown objects.
Lawmakers later included a stipulation in the Intelligence Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2021, that required the Office of Naval Intelligence’s UAP task force – which has now been superceded by the newly created All-Domain Anomaly Research Office (AARO) – to submit an unclassified report to Congress detailing the nature of these unexplained phenomenon.
That preliminary assessment, which was released in June 2021, detailed 144 UAP sightings that had been made by “reliable” sources – largely in the military – in the 17 years between 2004 – 2021.
A significant number of the phenomena in the report couldn’t be easily explained, including some which moved “at considerable speed”, and “without discernible means of propulsion”.
The newfound openness of the government’s approach led to a dramatic upsurge in the number of unexplained sightings in the wake of the public release, as the stigma surrounding the reporting of UAPs continued to fall away.
Now, ODNI has released its long awaited 2022 Annual Report on Unidentified Aerial Phenomena to the public, and a more detailed classified version to lawmakers in congress.
A dramatic upsurge in sightings
As reported by Space.com, the 2022 report referenced the fact that many of the 144 UAPs detailed in the 2021 preliminary assessment remain unexplained, and characterized a further 366 phenomena that have been reported since by various government agencies and branches of the US military.
Of the 366 newly reported UAP incidents, 163 were characterised as being sightings of balloons or “balloon-like entities”. A further 26 were found to be “unmanned aircraft systems” (drones), and another 6 were attributed to pilots misidentifying airborne clutter, such as plastic bags.
The remaining 171 UAP reports remain “uncharacterized”, as the AARO artfully describes it, and some were found to demonstrate “unusual flight characteristics or performance capabilities, and require further analysis”.
Naturally, the report made no mention of alien visitors or spaceships from other worlds when referencing the unexplained sightings. Instead, the driving force behind the continued need to examine the phenomena was framed in the light of aerospace safety, and the understandable concern that the sightings could be linked to the intelligence gathering capabilities of foreign countries.
However, the report was careful to note that there have been no mid-air collisions with UAPs to this day, and that no pilot who had encountered such a phenomena had reported any health issues as a result of such a rendezvous.
Be sure to stick with IGN to stay up to date with any further release of information on UFOs/UAPs and other space news.
Thumbnail: Getty Images / David Wall
Anthony is a freelance contributor covering science and video gaming news for IGN. He has over eight years experience of covering breaking developments in multiple scientific fields and absolutely no time for your shenanigans. Follow him on Twitter @BeardConGamer
