They may not come in peace after all.
Over the decades, dozens of UFOs have been sighted around nuclear weapons sites.
Former Pentagon investigator Luis Elizondo said earlier this year the encounters could be reconnaissance missions for a possible invasion.
But in his new book, researcher Robert L. Hastings, who has spent decades interviewing dozens of U.S. military personnel who have seen UFOs near nuclear facilities, believes the reality may be more complex.
Were aliens present at the Castle Bravo nuclear test?
Hastings examines dozens of cases that have occurred since the United States detonated its first atomic bomb at the Trinity Test Site in 1945.
But the connection between UFOs and nuclear sites has persisted in India, Russia and other places around the world.
In fact, UFO reports over America’s nuclear arsenal seemed to move from bomb-making sites to missile silos and American air bases as the Cold War arms race escalated.
UFO sightings over America’s nuclear arsenal seemed to divert its interest from bomb-making to bomber silos and bases as the Cold War arms race escalated (above)
In his book, UFOs and Nuclear Weapons, based on interviews with more than 150 veterans, Hastings reveals that investigators are prevented from properly investigating cases because of dubious layers of classification.
One thing, however, is certain: it is “obvious” that if there are extraterrestrial visitors, they are “very interested in our nuclear weapons.”
Hastings writes: ‘In the meantime, a public and popular effort should be made to understand, as best as possible, using the data thus far gathered, the nature and intentions of those who pilot UFOs.’
There are several theories as to why they choose to hang around the world’s most dangerous military sites.
Perhaps the visitors feel empathy for humanity and wish to warn us of the dangers of nuclear war, Hastings writes.
‘Or maybe they have a use for our planet, say for scientific purposes, and they know that a global nuclear war will disrupt their data collection and/or experiments.’
The most mundane explanation is that the sightings are simply spy technology by foreign nations on high-priority targets.
The Alamos
Founded in 1943 as the base for the “Manhattan Project” led by Robert Oppenheimer, Los Alamos was the birthplace of nuclear weapons.
But Hastings says that even at this early stage there were sightings of unusual craft.
An FBI memo, dated January 31, 1949, refers to sightings of “flying discs, flying saucers, and fireballs.”
Sightings began as early as December 1948, Hastings reveals.
The memo said: “This matter is considered top secret by intelligence officials of both the Army and Air Force.”
Hastings said multiple UFO sightings were also noted at Sandia Air Force Base in Albuquerque, where more atomic weapons were tested, and at Oak Ridge Laborabory, a fissile materials production site.
Los Alamos was the cradle of American nuclear deterrence
Hastings writes: ‘For some reason, those piloting the UFOs, whose origin and intentions were unknown, seemed to be very interested in facilities associated with the US atomic weapons program.
Operation Castle, 1954
The Castle Bravo hydrogen bomb tests at Bikini Atoll demonstrated high-yield weapons, and Castle Bravo was the largest nuclear device ever detonated by the United States.
But Hastings says documents discovered long after the tests revealed the presence of unknown craft.
The Castle Bravo detonation was preceded by mysterious radio blackouts, Hastings says.
In 1998, Patricia Broudy, legislative director of the National Atomic Veterans Association, found a reference to UFO sightings during the Castle tests while reviewing 500 pages of documents related to logistics.
The document was later expunged from official records, Hastings says.
The flagship of the Atomic Energy Commission, the USS Curtis
In a deck log transcribed from April 7, 1954, sailors and Marines aboard the Atomic Energy Commission’s flagship, the USS Curtis (which had transported the “special devices,” or hydrogen bombs, to the testing area), saw a luminous object fly over the ship at high speed.
Marine Corporal Joe Stallings said several sailors and Marines approached him because they had seen the UFO that was “the talk of the ship.”
The missile is ‘ready to be launched’
Hastings says that of all the dozens of interviews he recorded with former ICBM launch officers over the years, one stands out as “perhaps the most disturbing.”
In a 2007 interview with David H Schuur, Schuur revealed that a UFO triggered the launch sequence for his Minuteman missiles.
A Minuteman launch site in Malmstrom, Montana
Schuur, a member of the Minuteman crew from 1963 to 1967, said a “floating, bright object” appeared to be sending messages to six or seven of the missiles at the site.
Schuur said: “It was as if the object was scanning each missile, one by one.”
Some of the missiles began to show a “launch in progress,” Schuur said.
“That means the missile has received a launch signal. When that happens, we get an indication in the capsule that that missile has received a launch order,” Schuur explained.
‘If that happens, without proper authorization, a switch called ‘Inhibit’ is activated to delay the launch for a certain period of time.
‘If an inhibit command comes in from another launch capsule, that stops the launch completely.
“But if that second command does not arrive, the missile will wait a specific period of time and then launch automatically.”
An operational test launch of an unarmed Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile from Air Force Global Strike Command
The crew hit the “inhibit” switch and the missiles were not launched, and base commanders told them not to mention the incident again.
Soviet sightings
In 1984, a strange craft was spotted “quite close” to the Soviet Katta-Kurgan tactical nuclear missile base, located in what is now Uzbekistan.
Multiple mobile tactical missiles were believed to be at the site.
Missile technician Shamil Yuaihmetov reported seeing a cigar-shaped, metallic-looking object slowly descending at a 45-degree angle.
As the object descended, it made a whistling sound.
A Soviet SS-4 medium-range missile in Red Square
Hastings writes: ‘The next day, in a nearby vineyard, three apparent landing gear marks were found, in an equilateral triangle pattern, within an area of damaged vines measuring 30 by 80 metres.
‘Each depression was half a metre deep and appeared to be created by a hemispherical or globular landing platform.’
The Soviet military investigated, but the results are not available to researchers, Hastings says.