Pentagon's UFO report finds most sightings to be mundane

Released on Friday, the report builds on the Pentagon's 2022 statement from its All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO) indicating the absence of evidence for alien visits or crash landings on Earth.

Mandated by the 2023 National Defense Authorization Act, AARO was tasked to document the U.S. government's historical encounters with "unidentified anomalous phenomena" (UAP) since 1945. Major General Pat Ryder, Pentagon Press Secretary, shared the unclassified summary of the first volume of this report with Congress last week. According to the summary, no U.S. government investigation, academic research, or review panel has verified any UAP sighting as extraterrestrial technology.

The report emphasizes that while many UAP cases remain unresolved, better quality data could likely identify these as commonplace objects or occurrences. It details government-funded investigations into UAPs to assess flight safety risks, technological advancements by competitors, or the potential of alien technology.

Furthermore, the report addresses popular claims of the government recovering alien spacecraft and beings, aiming not to validate or invalidate these beliefs but to apply a thorough analytical and scientific examination of past U.S. government-sponsored UAP investigations. AARO found no tangible evidence supporting the reverse-engineering of alien technology claims, deeming specific allegations about people, locations, tests, and documents related to such endeavors as inaccurate. Further elaboration on these claims is expected in the report's second volume.

For decades, the U.S. military has aimed to clarify, debunk, and deny UFO observations and theories of "flying saucers" that date back to the 1940s. Two years prior, the Pentagon acknowledged an increase in UFO reports through its investigations but found no evidence of intelligent extraterrestrial life.