Leonard David's INSIDE OUTER SPACE

“Life is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you’re gonna get” – Tom Hanks in Forrest Gump.

Today’s release of the Pentagon’s Unidentified Aerial Phenomenon Task Force offers these unclassified messages:

“The limited amount of high-quality reporting on unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP) hampers our ability to draw irm conclusions about the nature or intent of UAP.”

The UAP Task Force considered a range of information on UAP described in U.S. military and Intelligence Community reporting, but because the reporting lacked sufficient specificity ultimately recognized that a unique, tailored reporting process was required to provide sufficient data for analysis of UAP events.

Credit: Scientific Coalition for UAP Studies (SCU)

Reports: 2004-2021

The UAP Task Force concentrated its review on reports that occurred between 2004 and 2021, the majority of which are a result of a new tailored process to better capture UAP events through formalized reporting.

Most of the UAP reported probably do represent physical objects given that a majority of UAP were registered across multiple sensors, to include radar, infrared, electro-optical, weapon seekers, and visual observation.

Credit: DOD/U.S. Navy/Inside Outer Space screengrab

Unusual flight characteristics

In a limited number of incidents, UAP reportedly appeared to exhibit unusual flight characteristics. These observations could be the result of sensor errors, spoofing, or observer misperception and require additional rigorous analysis.

There are probably multiple types of UAP requiring different explanations based on the range of appearances and behaviors described in the available reporting. Our analysis of the data supports the construct that if and when individual UAP incidents are resolved they will fall into one of five potential explanatory categories: airborne clutter, natural atmospheric phenomena, U.S. government or U.S. industry developmental programs, foreign adversary systems, and a catchall “other” bin.

FLIR
Credit: DOD/U.S. Navy/Inside Outer Space screengrab

Safety of flight issue

UAP clearly pose a safety of flight issue and may pose a challenge to U.S. national security. Safety concerns primarily center on aviators contending with an increasingly cluttered air domain.

UAP would also represent a national security challenge if they are foreign adversary collection platforms or provide evidence a potential adversary has developed either a breakthrough or disruptive technology.

Consistent consolidation of reports from across the federal government, standardized reporting, increased collection and analysis, and a streamlined process for screening all such reports against a broad range of relevant U.S. government data will allow for a more sophisticated analysis of UAP that is likely to deepen our understanding. Some of these steps are resource-intensive and would require additional investment.

Credit: MUFON

Different explanations

The UAP Task Force report says that multiple types of UAP require different explanations:

Airborne Clutter: These objects include birds, balloons, recreational unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV), or airborne debris like plastic bags that muddle a scene and affect an operator’s ability to identify true targets, such as enemy aircraft.

Natural Atmospheric Phenomena: Natural atmospheric phenomena includes ice crystals, moisture, and thermal fluctuations that may register on some infrared and radar systems.

U.S. Government or Industry Developmental Programs: Some UAP observations could be attributable to developments and classified programs by U.S. entities. The task force was unable to confirm, however, that these systems accounted for any of the UAP reports they collected.

Foreign Adversary Systems: Some UAP may be technologies deployed by China, Russia, another nation, or a non-governmental entity

Other: Although most of the UAP described in our dataset probably remain unidentified due to limited data or challenges to collection processing or analysis, we may require additional scientific knowledge to successfully collect on, analyze and characterize some of them. We would group such objects in this category pending scientific advances that allowed us to better understand them. The UAPTF intends to focus additional analysis on the small number of cases where a UAP appeared to display unusual flight characteristics or signature management.

For the full UAP report, go to:

https://www.dni.gov/files/ODNI/documents/assessments/Prelimary-Assessment-UAP-20210625.pdf?fbclid=IwAR25gXGioSI1EL5iJxOeHTODxrEWoT4ci-q1B8l9F8lUK14n4IRzyjgJ0qk