(Dinarian Note: Pay Attention, this is going to have a lot more meaning VERY SOON!)
A new U.S. intelligence office tasked with investigating UFOs reviewed hundreds of new instances of sightings over the past two years, many of which remain unexplained and pose a potential threat to national security, according to aĀ reportĀ released Thursday.
UFO sightings reported by the U.S. military have increased significantly, according to a new report.-GETTY
KEY FACTS
The report from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence said 247 new sightings have been flagged since March 2021āthe cut-off date for an earlier reportāwhile 119 additional sightings from before March 2021 have also been investigated.
This brings the total number of cases the intelligence community has reviewed over the past few years to 510āa significant spike from the 144 they had investigated before March 2021.
Many of the newly reported sightings were explained by balloons, drones or āclutterā such as birds or plastic bags, but 171 were marked āuncharacterized and unattributed.ā
The report primarily credits āa concentrated effort to destigmatize the topicā of UFOs for the massive spike in sightings, along with increased awareness that UFO encounters may pose risks as both a āflight hazard and potential adversarial activity.ā
Most of the new sightings came from military pilots or operators, according to the report.
WHAT WE DONāT KNOW
The report did not speculate what the unidentified UFOs might be, but a preliminary 2021 reportĀ named several potential sources, including clutter, advanced foreign technology and secret U.S. technology, along with a broad category of āotherā causes. There is no evidence the origin is extraterrestrial.
KEY BACKGROUND
UFO research for years was considered a fringe area of study at best, with most academics and much of the general public regarding it as a form of pseudoscience. But the stigma has died down recently, especially as anecdotal reports of unexplained sightings by members of the military led lawmakers of both major parties to label the issueĀ a national security concern. The All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office was established last year under the National Defense Authorization Act with the goal of studying UFOs and identifying potential risks, succeeding the Unidentified Aerial Phenomena Task Force of the Office of Naval Intelligence. The legislation also requires the new office to review records dating back to 1945 to determine whether any federal government or contractor UFO programs existed that may have shielded information from Congress and the White House.
