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The UFO sightings are “frequent and continuous”, a naval intelligence official told members of a congressional committee on Tuesday morning, as reported by The Independent.
In his opening statements before the committee, Deputy Director of Naval Intelligence Scott Bray told members of the Congressional Subcommittee on Counterterrorism, Counterintelligence, and Counterproliferation
that sightings of UFOs or “unidentified aerial phenomena” (UAP), according to the new Pentagon terminology, are common in military camps since the year 2000.
The testimony of Bray is part of the first congressional hearing on UFOs in over 50 years.
Along with Bray, the US Undersecretary of Defense for Intelligence and Security, Ronald Moultrie, who n oversees the Pentagon’s Airborne Object Identification and Management Synchronization Group (AOIMSG).
AOIMSG was created to investigate UFOs with the publication of an intelligence report on UFOs in 2004.
The report concluded that more than 140 UFO sightings from 2004 they couldn’t be explained and they weren’t light tricks or sensors.
“It’s clear that many of the sightings are physical objects, based on the data we have,” Bray said at Tuesday’s hearing.
The Most of these sightings fall into one of five categories, he says: airborne disorder, domestic weather events, US industry development programs, foreign adversaries, or “other”.
Finally identifiable observations have including Mylar parts from commercial and military balloons and drones, Bray said, and improvements in military sensors may be responsible for some of the increased sightings.
At the same time, both Bray and Moultrie noted that many sightings remain unexplained and potentially dangerous.
Bray noted that there has been 11 near misses between UFOs and military assets. AOIMSG is establishing a formal reporting process to help reduce the stigma around UFO sighting reports in order to collect more data and better understand any potential risks.
“When we start to worry about the security of our personnel and bases, there is no higher priority,” Moultrie said. “We believe that making UAP notification mission imperative will be key to our success.”
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