Navy Deputy Director of Intelligence Scott Bray points out a flying object in a video of the hearing. JOEY ROULETTE (REUTERS)
Director Tim Burton imagined in
Mars Attack
an alien parading through the halls of the Capitol to address a few words to the United States congressmen.
The ambassador from another planet would go up to the podium and then eliminate all the legislators present with a laser beam.
Almost 30 years later, in the halls of that same place and in front of men with glasses and ties very similar to those devised by the filmmaker, the United States Government has admitted that there are secrets in the skies that it cannot explain.
Intelligence officials have appeared this Tuesday to share the information collected in recent years on unidentified flying objects.
Scott Bray, the Navy's deputy director of intelligence, told members of the House Intelligence subcommittee that he had recently received a call from a veteran Navy pilot.
This, with more than 2,000 hours of experience flying through the skies, called him as soon as he had landed to personally inform him of a UFO sighting.
"The message is clear: if you see something you have to report it," said Bray.
The official has stated that since the 2000s there has been a significant increase in the presence of unidentified or unauthorized flying objects in military maneuver zones.
"The sightings have been frequent and continuous," Bray said.
Technological advances such as drones or unmanned aircraft have made it possible to have more images of these objects.
Those responsible for the United States armed forces have also tried to remove stigma from these types of complaints, which were previously not shared for fear that the pilots would be thought to be crazy.
"We want to go from anecdotes or stories to keeping a rigorous account based on science," he added.
Bray showed those present one of these videos, captured from the cockpit of a jet.
Over the blue sky, next to the ship, an object that looks like a shiny metallic sphere passes at high speed.
The meeting lasts only a moment.
“In many cases, this is all that goes into a report.
In many other cases we have less than this, ”says the intelligence official.
The Navy has almost 400 reports of this type of sighting in its database.
In 2021, the National Intelligence Directorate published a long-awaited report admitting that the main military and espionage agencies of the world power lacked elements to explain 142 sightings made between 2004 and March of last year.
"The data continues to be collected and analyzed," the document assured in the form of a conclusion that left no one satisfied.
In another video, the congressmen were able to observe other images captured "several years ago" by military personnel at sea.
Through night vision goggles, a bright triangle is seen whose light flashes.
"This remained unanswered for a long time," the official explained.
Years later, and in another point of the planet, that same figure was portrayed after seeing activity of unmanned ships.
These were also recorded through night vision goggles.
After an analysis, the official conclusion was that the figure was the result of the passage of light through the night vision goggles, of infrared rays, and its entry into the camera.
“I don't want to suggest that everything we observe is identifiable, but this is an example that helps to understand the effort we make to understand what we see”, he pointed out.
In June of last year, the United States Government announced five categories that would help study the registered phenomena.
The first enters weather balloons, birds, recreational vehicles and other debris.
The second is atmospheric phenomena such as ice crystals, humidity or temperature fluctuations.
Objects developed by the Administration or the private arms industry would enter the third.
In the fourth would be this same type of system, but developed by adversary powers.
The fifth category includes everything that means a mystery and that could represent "surprise" or a scientific finding.
The military created, since August 2020, multidisciplinary teams with physicists, opticians, meteorologists and metal experts who help decipher the mysteries.
Ronald Moultrie, of the Department of Defense, has explained that an agency tries to facilitate the identification of this type of objects “in a methodical, logical and standardized way”.
For this they have promised transparency, "openness" and accountability.
At one point in the hearing, Congressman André Carson asked Moultrie if he was a fan of science fiction.
“I have a curious mind with 40 years of experience in the intelligence sectors,” replied the Defense official, who has attended conferences on the genre.
“My generation, from the 60s, grew up watching space missions and saw man land man on the Moon.
I enjoy thinking about what's out there... We military want to know as much as you do,” he added.
The question remains open.
Even for the greatest military power on the planet.
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