What did the Pentagon report about UFO sightings conclude?
There were hundred of UAPs reported in 2022 and the Defense Department has set up a new agency to investigate the unusual happenings.
The Pentagon has released a report detailing all the potential UFO sightings recorded during 2022. Hundreds of incidents were reported to the All-Domain Anomaly Resolution Office and they, along with the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, are now focusing on 171 unexplained cases.
As the new report explains, these 171 reports include some which include objects that “appear to have demonstrated unusual flight characteristics or performance capabilities, and require further analysis.”
The total number of incidents reported during 2022 was up significantly on the amount from the previous year. However it did add that this rise was possibly due to a “reduced stigma surrounding UAP reporting.”
US officials often use the initialised UAP (Unidentified Aerial Phenomenon) instead of UFO. Of the 366 reports recorded in 2022, around 195 were found to have “unremarkable characteristics” and could be easily explained. Of those, 163 were attributed to “balloon-like entities”.
Of particular interest are the accounts of mysterious flying objects moving through military airspace; US Navy and Air Force pilots make up a substantial proportion of the cases. The report cites military personnel “who witnessed UAP during the course of their operational duties and reported the events,” adding that the unusual movement could have the potential to “pose a safety of flight and collision hazard to air assets”.
New focus on identifying UFOs
While we often associate UFOs with extra-terrestrials, the meaning of ‘Unidentified Flying Object’ is exactly that; aerial movements that have not yet been explained. The vast majority are assumed to be harmless, but sightings made in restricted military areas have sparked a desire to investigate further.
Congress has called on the Department of Defense to look into UFO or UAP sightings, and the Pentagon now compiles annual reports. The 2022 edition released this week was the second such report.
The latest report found that there was no evidence of any technological advancement by a foreign power, such as Russia or China, but did acknowledge that the possibility could not be ruled out.
The new effort to track the UFOs comes after the All-Domain Anomaly Resolution Office was founded last summer. Since then 366 reports of UFOs have been recorded, in part due to government efforts “to destigmatize the topic of UAP and instead recognize the potential risks” of allowing incidents to go unrecorded.