WASHINGTON, D.C. — Are UFOs real? That’s the question a Congressional committee pondered today.
Lawmakers haven’t held a hearing like this in half a century. Defense officials told lawmakers they have some 400 reports from military personnel of UFOs. And while they can explain some, they can’t explain others.
Defense officials confirmed sightings of unidentified flying objects. Or as the military calls them, UAPs – Unidentified Aerial Phenomena.
But Deputy Director of Naval Intelligence Scott Bray said, “We have detected no emanations within the UAP Task Force that would suggest it’s anything non-terrestrial.”
Officials said there have been no collisions between U.S. aircraft and the objects, but there have been 11 near collisions.
“Have we attempted to communicate with those objects?” asked Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi, D-Ill.
Bray’s reply: “No.”
“So we don’t even put out an alert saying … identify yourself?” Krishnamoorthi asked.
Some of the objects — like the triangles in one video — were later classified as drones.
But Department of Defense officials said there are sightings they still can’t explain. They say they are taking the reports seriously and continuing to expand the office that gathers and analyzes reports of UFOs.
“It’s not about finding alien spacecraft, but about delivering dominant intelligence,” said Rep. Rick Crawford, R-Ark.
Some lawmakers said the sightings could be evidence of secret U.S. or foreign technology. But Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., was unsure.
“There is something there, measurable by multiple instruments and yet it seems to move in directions that are inconsistent with what we know of physics or science,” Schiff said.
After this public hearing, a classified version of the hearing on UFOs continued … behind closed doors.