Year Of The UFO Continues: Pentagon Launches Program To Investigate Sightings

In the latest instance of the federal government showing it considers UFOs a very real threat, the Department of Defense late Tuesday announced plans for a new group to look into reports of unidentified aerial phenomena, as speculation grows over what is actually out there.

The new program, called the Airborne Object Identification and Management Synchronization Group, will examine reports of UFOs in special use airspace (SUA), such as military operation areas, to “assess and mitigate any associated threats to safety of flight and national security,” the Pentagon said in a news release.

The announcement comes just over five months after the Office of the Director of National Intelligence released a report on 144 UFO sightings by Navy pilots since 2004, with intelligence officials unable to explain 143 of the sightings, but concluding they are likely real objects that could pose a threat to national security.

Pressure has mounted for the government to ramp up its research to come up with some sort of explanation, with Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) saying this summer: “When you have this much visual and radar evidence that there is something . . . we’ve got to get an answer.”

In January, the CIA released thousands of documents that it claimed amounted to all of its UFO research, but—much like the June report—it failed to provide an answer to the phenomena.

Public interest in UFOs also reached a fever pitch this year, with Google Trends data showing spikes in searches like “UFO” and “UFO sightings” through much of the year, though it has tapered off a bit in the fall.

A massive rise in sightings by the general public has coincided with the Covid-19 pandemic—sightings reportedly increased nationwide by 16% in 2020, with sightings in New York doubling.