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Pentagon-approved shot of a UAP over US airspace: No wings, no discernible engine
Photo: DoD/AFP
Does the US really still have full control over its military airspace?
Or is someone or something playing cat and mouse with the superpower above the clouds?
For years, bizarre videos have been circulating on the Internet that come from the thermal imaging cameras of American F/A-18 fighter jets.
The Pentagon has revealed that the recordings are authentic – and they raise doubts as to whether the United States actually has as good a grip on its national security as it believes.
En route on training missions over the west and east coasts, US fighter pilots encountered mysterious flying objects that they either saw with their own eyes or were shown on their onboard instruments.
The flying machines had no wings.
No discernible drive.
No exhaust jet.
And yet they rushed miles up or down within seconds.
One disappeared into the sea.
Others could hover in place.
The aerial capers contradicted the well-known laws of aerodynamics and all of physics.
What are you?
Who controls them?
So far, no one officially knows what these aircraft are in the closed military airspace, who controls them, and what they are up to.
The office of Avril Haines, the US intelligence coordinator, reported 144 incidents from 2004 to 2021 in a report to the US Congress in June last year, most of which was not subject to secrecy.
Satisfactory explanations for these events were found in only one case.
What about the 143 others?
Is this enormously advanced military technology from China?
From Russia?
Or do the insanely fast planes actually come from outside our solar system?
This seemingly absurd thesis is being seriously discussed in the USA – by politicians and researchers alike.
What used to be a UFO (»Unidentified Flying Object«) and was ridiculed by the general public as a crazy idea is now called a UAP (»Unidentified Aerial Phenomenon«) in the USA.
And the phenomenon is no longer ridiculed.
Even NASA administrator Bill Nelson, former space shuttle astronaut and ex-senator, does not rule out that UAPs were sent from another world.
At a discussion on the subject a few months ago, he said, "Who am I to say that planet Earth is the only place of life form as civilized and organized as ours?"
Today, the uncertainty surrounding the strange aircraft could at least clear up a little bit.
A two-hour hearing will take place in front of the US House of Representatives starting at 9 a.m. local time (3 p.m. German time) - the first on the subject of UFO/UAP in over 50 years.
Two senior Pentagon officials have been invited: Ron Moultrie, Undersecretary for Intelligence and Security, and Scott Bray, Deputy Director of Naval Intelligence.
Both are being questioned by members of the Subcommittee on Counterterrorism, Counterintelligence and Combating the Proliferation of Weapons of Mass Destruction.
The event will be broadcast live on the internet and can be viewed here.
A second session will take place afterwards, but this should remain confidential.
»One of the great mysteries of our time«
Moultrie is expected to report on new findings from a group of UAP hunters from the Pentagon, which has been operating under the name "Airborne Object Identification and Management Synchronization Group" (AOIMSG) since November last year, and in particular is analyzing mysterious processes over US airspace target.
Bray's role will be to assess testimonies from Navy pilots who have reported the uncanny mid-air encounters over the past few years.
California Democrat Adam Schiff, chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, said the hearing's goal was "to unravel one of the great mysteries of our time and to break the cycle of excessive secrecy and speculation through truth and transparency."
Politicians, scientists, journalists and enthusiasts in the USA have been dealing with UFOs since at least 1947, when a private pilot saw nine glisteningly bright flying objects over the US state of Washington, which he estimated were traveling at almost twice supersonic speed.
Since then, many commissions and committees have taken on the phenomenon.
UFO?
No - secret spy planes in the Cold War
The US Air Force registered and evaluated 12,618 sightings between 1947 and 1969 as part of "Project Blue Book".
She was able to explain almost everyone.
Sometimes weather balloons were to blame for the reports, sometimes reflections, comets, birds, cloud formations - or top-secret US armaments projects such as the U-2 spy plane, whose metal skin glittered high in the sky in the sun.
However, the US military could not find a sufficient explanation for 701 incidents.
They remained open - and thus nourished the UFO myth.
"Project Blue Book" was discontinued in 1969 because an extensive study by the University of Colorado had come to the conclusion that none of the UFOs reported had ever posed a threat to US national security.
There is also no evidence that the UFOs have extraordinary abilities that go beyond the state of the art.
In particular, there is no evidence that the technology is of extraterrestrial origin.
The questions from back then – they are now being asked again.
And maybe the world is hearing answers today that go beyond what was known 50 years ago, even if that seems unlikely.
The Pentagon is now required by law to submit an annual report on the UAPs and twice a year to report to the US Congress on the progress of the investigation of the events.
Today's appearance of the two Pentagon greats should mainly deal with how the ministry implements its monitoring obligation.
Spectacular revelations about aliens are not to be expected.
One dreams of it anyway.
Avi Loeb, the Harvard astrophysicist who is very open-minded about all things extraterrestrial, hopes that lawmakers will hold the Pentagon accountable - and force it to finally openly share the military's data on air phenomena with scientists.
Because they have so far refused to do so, Loeb has sought and found rich sponsors and is looking for them himself with his Galileo project.
Among other things, he is placing an intelligent telescope on the roof of his institute.
Loeb hopes it will someday catch stealthy UAPs.