UFOs, aliens, and the Navy—oh my!
SUMMARY
A recent increase in UFO sightings has caused the Navy to revamp guidelines with which to report a UFO sighting officially. This comes on the heels of a 2018 sighting that was reported by the Washington Post and then seemingly disappeared back into the national never-before-truly-confirmed zeitgeist alongside bigfoot and infants that don't cry on airplanes.
"advanced aircraft" is a farcry from the traditional UFO explanation of weather balloons (pictured)
Politico has reported that the Navy is developing a formal process, with pilots and military servicemen, to report UFO sightings.
This move is directly related to the recent spike in what has been referred to by Navy officials as "a series of intrusions by advanced aircraft on Navy carrier strike groups."
B-2 Bombers have been the subject of many a "UFO" sighting
A Navy spokesperson told Politico, " There have been a number of reports of unauthorized and/or unidentified aircraft entering various military-controlled ranges and designated air space in recent years [...] For safety and security concerns, the Navy and the [U.S. Air Force] takes these reports very seriously and investigates each and every report."
The current process has led to some gridlock and complications with reporting 'unidentified flying objects' so the format is being streamlined by the Navy to make sure that "such suspected incursions can be made to cognizant authorities."
Obviously, one possible knee-jerk public reaction is going to use this as military confirmation about the possibility of extraterrestrial life or "aliens" on earth. However, the Navy has made no such comment on the matter, as it is far more likely that these "UFOs" are either allied/enemy covert aircraft.
This is not to say that the possibility hasn't been explored in a military context. In fact, the Department of Defense established a program entirely dedicated to further investigation of UFO sightings: The Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program.
However, the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program (AATIP) only ran from 2007-2012. Its eventual folding in 2012 was because it was "determined that there were other, higher priority issues that merited funding and it was in the best interest of the DoD to make a change."
Former military intelligence official Luis Elizondo, who apparently led the AATIP, is in favor of ramping up UFO sighting efforts.
He describes the paradox with military sightings in relation to civilian UFO sightings, "If you are in a busy airport and see something you are supposed to say something" he said.
"With our own military members it is kind of the opposite: 'If you do see something, don't say something. ... What happens in five years if it turns out these are extremely advanced Russian aircraft?"
Chris Mellon, an associate of Elizondo's and a co-contributor to the upcoming docuseries "Unidentified: Inside America's UFO Investigation" piggybacked on Elizondo's comments.
"Right now, we have a situation in which UFOs and UAPs are treated as anomalies to be ignored rather than anomalies to be explored," he told Politico. He continued on saying that it is a common occurrence that military personnel "don't know what to do with that information — like satellite data or a radar that sees something going Mach 3."
It is unclear what military officials believe these anomalies could be, but one thing is for certain now—they're on the radar.
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