US says UFO sighting is likely a secret military experiment

A Pentagon report concludes that the sharp increase in UFO sightings in the 1950s and 1960s was caused by the United States' testing of advanced spy planes and space technology.

Officials also said there is “no evidence” that the U.S. government has encountered extraterrestrial life.

Most UFO sightings were of ordinary objects from Earth, according to a report submitted to Congress on Friday.

But Pentagon officials acknowledged that their research does not quell popular beliefs about alien visitors.

“The proliferation of television shows, books, movies, and a huge amount of internet and social media content centered around UAP-related topics has influenced the public conversation on the topic, leading some segments of the population to likely reinforced their beliefs,” the report said.

The report is part of a broader public effort by the U.S. government to investigate UFOs, or what officials call “unidentified anomalous phenomena” (UAPs).

The effort includes public meetings with NASA officials and hearings in Congress.

A report issued by the Department of Defense's All Area Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO) found that public opinion is influenced by popular culture.

Researchers say a “particularly persistent narrative” is that governments conspire to recover spacecraft and alien remains and keep alien research activities secret.

A Pentagon spokesperson said officials were open to the report, but simply found no evidence of extraterrestrial visitors.

“All investigative efforts at all classification levels have concluded that most sightings are common objects or phenomena and are the result of misidentification,” Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder told reporters.

A 2021 Gallup poll found that just over 40% of Americans believe that an alien spacecraft has visited Earth, an increase from 33% in just two years.

AARO searched archives and classified files and reviewed all official government investigations dating back to 1945.

Researchers are chasing down rumors about alien spaceships, including discovering that leaked notes about UFOs in 1961 aren't real, and that samples of “alien spaceships” collected by the UAP research organization are from another world. They discovered that it was not made of matter, but of a substance from another world. Most are magnesium, zinc, and bismuth.

The report lists new technologies that researchers believe led to a surge in UAP reports in the 1950s and 1960s.

These included a high-altitude balloon (one of those that sparked a wave of UFO speculation when it crashed near Roswell, New Mexico in 1947) and a U-2 reconnaissance plane.

A Central Intelligence Agency assessment found that more than half of the UFO reports investigated at the time were traced to U.S. reconnaissance flights.

Many secret research projects include aircraft that appear circular or disc-shaped, consistent with images of alien spacecraft in popular fantasy, such as the Canadian VZ-9AV Avrokar fighter-bomber, which was designed to take off and land vertically. development included. .

For decades, the U.S. government conducted numerous UAP research programs, but most of the extraterrestrial research was kept secret.

Although the Cold War accelerated technological development, the report notes that “UAP content in popular culture is more pervasive than ever before,” and the researchers believe this trend is due to a lack of trust in the U.S. government and an increase in online This is due to the popularity of alien-related content in Japan.

According to AARO, UAP sightings continue at a rate of 50 to 100 per month, and speculation about a government cover-up continues.

In 2023, former intelligence officer David Groush testified before a Congressional committee that he believed the U.S. government was in possession of alien remains and spacecraft. Grusch said his statements were based on his documents, recordings and conversations with his colleagues.

AARO promised to issue a further report examining more recent sightings and rumors at a later date.