There will be a congressional hearing next Tuesday, May 17, about Unidentified Flying Objects (UFOs). Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence & Security Ronald S. Moultrie and Deputy Director of Naval Intelligence Scott W. Bray will testify in the first meeting of its kind in at least 50 years.
The primary purpose of the meeting is to examine the work of a program established by the Pentagon after a report on 144 incidents of “unidentified aerial phenomena” (UAP) was released last June.
The nine-page “Preliminary Assessment” was released by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and examined incidents that date back to 2004. The report was only able to explain one of the incidents.
However, the assessment did not make any direct inferences — instead stating that available information was “largely inconclusive” — but said most of the UAP investigated did “represent physical objects.”
The report concluded that the objects were not U.S. technology and that “we currently lack data to indicate any UAP are part of a foreign collection program or indicative of a major technological advancement by a potential adversary.”
The subcommittee on Counterterrorism, Counterintelligence, and Counterproliferation, part of the House Intelligence Committee, will hold the public hearing. Afterward, a closed, classified hearing will be held, where officials will talk about the program designed by the Pentagon, called the Airborne Object Identification and Management Synchronization Group.
“Since this is an area of high public interest, any undue secrecy can serve as an obstacle to solving the mystery, or it could prevent us from finding solutions to potential vulnerabilities,” said Representative André Carson (D-Indiana), the chairman of the House subcommittee.
“This hearing is about examining steps that the Pentagon can take to reduce the stigma surrounding reporting by military pilots and by civilian pilots,” he added.
Several people in Congress have expressed their belief that the people of the United States need to know the country’s leaders are intelligent enough to look at any possible threat to the nation’s security and respond to any threats that may occur.
“The federal government and intelligence community have a critical role to play in contextualizing and analyzing reports,” said Representative Adam B. Schiff (D-California), chairman of the House Intelligence Committee.
He noted that the purpose of the hearing was to shine a light upon “one of the great mysteries of our time and to break the cycle of excessive secrecy and speculation with truth and transparency.”
In a briefing on Tuesday, Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said that the Defense Department will try to “make sure [it has] a better process for identifying these phenomena, analyzing that information in a more proactive, coordinated way than it’s been done in the past.”
He said the Pentagon would look at various safety measures to “mitigate any safety issues” that arise since “many of these phenomena” are reported near training areas.
However, Representative Rick Crawford (R-Arkansas), the top Republican on the House subcommittee, feels that other, more pressing security issues should be prioritized.
“With China and Russia developing hypersonic weapons and the Biden administration leaking alleged U.S. military operations in Ukraine, we have far more serious intelligence threats than flying saucers,” Crawford said.
