A Senate hearing on the Pentagon’s “Office of Anomaly Resolution” that tracks UFOs offered testimony that most of the hundreds of cases being reviewed are based on “easily explainable” phenomena — while revealing footage of a mysterious flying circuit that remains “unsolved.” “.
But Dr. Sean Kirkpatrick of the Defense Department’s Office of Comprehensive Anomaly Resolution told the Senate Armed Services Committee that hundreds of sightings of spherical or oddly shaped objects by military pilots are still under review.
“I must clearly state that in our research AARO has found no reliable evidence to date of extraterrestrial activity, extraterrestrial technology, or objects that defy known laws of physics,” Kirkpatrick told the panel.
The rare hearing, the first since the groundbreaking public event last year and the first since a Chinese spy balloon that crossed the country early this year, included an account of the cases the new office is analyzing.
But Dr. Sean Kirkpatrick, of the Department of Defense’s Office of Problem Solving in All Areas, spoke about the challenges of prioritizing and identifying unidentified weather events.
Kirkpatrick said his office is currently tracking 650 cases. But he noted the difficulty of sorting incoming information, giving priority to what US pilots or drones sometimes spot at high altitudes.
The Senators were shown video of one such incident, which was identified by an MQ9 ‘Reaper’ drone in the Middle East. It was something like a metallic orb.
But he warned, “It would be virtually impossible to fully determine that based on this video,” as his agency coordinates with other civilian agencies and academic resources.
“This is an unresolved issue that we are still studying,” he said.
Then he showed another video, this one from South Asia, also from MQ9.
This vision shifted to another plane.
Wednesday’s hearing featured video of two events tracked by an office that tracks UFOs
Kirkpatrick showed video of an ‘unsolved’ case in the Middle East, where a ‘metal orb’ was picked up by a drone
Most indefinite area phenomena are recognized as orbital shapes, while smaller percentages appear as squares, triangles, discs, or as TicTac
Senate Armed Services Committee Chair Kirsten Gillibrand moderated the hearing
More than half of the reported UAPs are or are spherical, according to a Department of Defense analysis
What initially appeared to be an anomaly was actually a “shadow image” captured by the sensors.
“That’s one we can work around,” he said.
“This is a stalking mission: What would somebody do in our backyard that we don’t know about,” Fitzpatrick said of his office’s mission. He has dozens of scholars working on case files.
He spoke before the Senate Armed Services Subcommittee on Emerging Threats and Capabilities on the office’s “mission, activities, oversight, and budget.”
Committee chair Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) spoke about the first tranche of government data that was released after pressure from the late Sen. Harry Reid (D-Neff).
“We don’t know where they come from, who made them or how they work,” she said of some of the revealed weather events, while racing in an opening statement.
She lamented that “because of the UFO stigma the response has been irresponsibly slow and sluggish.”
Gillibrand complained that the bureau was not getting the resources it needed, and that “it appears that the Pentagon leadership did not turn to AARO to play a leading role” in the Chinese spy balloon incident.
She noted that there was a hearing closed to the public, which started more than a half hour late, and was attended by only two senators, Gillibrand and Republican Iowa Sen. Joni Ernst.
“Enemies like China and Russia are working to endanger American interests, including our homeland,” Ernst warned.
Kirkpatrick acknowledged the “historical record” his agency seeks to analyze, including events from the “distant past to today.” He said it needed to prioritize that based on defense information in areas of “national security importance”.
We can’t answer decades of questions about UAP in one go. But we have to start somewhere, he said.
“The majority of unidentified objects reported to the ARO show the mundane characteristics of balloons, unmanned aerial systems, chaos, natural phenomena or other easily explained sources,” he testified.
Despite much viewing, he said, “human beings are prone to deceptions and illusions, sensors to unpredictable reactions and malfunctions, and in some cases deliberate interference.”
When asked about advanced technologies that China and Russia might use, he said there are “emerging capabilities there”.
Kirkpatrick singled out China, without expressing certainty that its technology was responsible for the unexplained views.
The enemy does not wait. They are advancing and advancing rapidly. They are less risk averse to technical progress than we are. They are just willing to try things out and see if they work.
The Pentagon and the US intelligence community are reviewing hundreds of incidents involving UAPs. The president ordered the review after the US military shot down a cross-country spy balloon in early February.
New Pentagon leaks that emerged last week revealed that US officials were aware of at least four other Chinese spy balloons.
Office of the Director of National Intelligence report early January open The number of UFO reports has been on the rise, with agencies aware of 510 unidentified anomalies.
The Pentagon Special Office examined 366 of them and found half to be unremarkable, 26 most likely to be drones, 163 balloons and six messes, according to ABC News.
