At a congressional public hearing on Tuesday, the Pentagon revealed images and video footage of Unidentified Flying Objects (UFOs) that are now considered declassified.
Congress heard from its House Counterterrorism, Counterintelligence, and Counterproliferation Subcommittee, chaired by Representative Andre Carson (D-Indiana).
Carson warned in his opening remarks that reports of UFOs, or Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (UAP), as the Pentagon calls them, need to be taken seriously.
“Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (UAP) are a potential national security threat. And they need to be treated that way,” said Carson.
“For too long, the stigma associated with UAPs has gotten in the way of good intelligence analysis. Pilots avoided reporting, or were laughed at when they did. DOD officials relegated the issue to the back room or swept it under the rug entirely, fearful of a skeptical national security community,” Carson continued.
“Today, we know better. UAPs are unexplained, it’s true. But they are real. They need to be investigated. And any threats they pose need to be mitigated,” Carson added.
One of the videos shown at the hearing was very shaky and brief, but it featured an object that was small in size that quickly flew past a military aircraft. In a separate video and a photo taken at a different time, glowing triangles could be seen in the night sky.
Deputy Director of Naval Intelligence Scott Bray and Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence and Security Ronald Moultrie gave testimony during the hearing and showed the images to lawmakers.
While presenting the video of the glowing triangles, Bray said no one was able to determine what they were for quite some time, but they have since been labeled as unmanned aerial vehicles or drones.
Though there was an explanation for those lights, Bray said one had not been provided for the object in the first video showing the aircraft flying past a military pilot.
“I do not have an explanation for what this specific object is,” Bray said in an exchange with Intelligence Committee Chairman Rep. Adam Schiff (D-California).
Bray added that there have been several Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (UAP) reports. Still, many have a “limited amount of high-quality data and reporting,” which “hampers the ability to draw firm conclusions about the nature and intent of UAP.”
During Moultrie’s testimony, he argued for a “delicate balance” between transparency and protection of sensitive national intelligence.
“Our goal is to strike that delicate balance, one that enables us to maintain the public’s trust while preserving those capabilities that are vital to the support of our service personnel,” he said
The public hearing was followed by a separate classified briefing on the topic. It was the first meeting of its kind held in Congress in at least 50 years.
