Pentagon has no “convincing proof” of extraterrestrial existence

The director of the Pentagon’s new UFO division has dashed hopes that the current turmoil over Unidentified Abnormal Events (UAP) supports claims of extraterrestrial visitation.

Sean M. Kirkpatrick, the first elected director of the Pentagon’s new Office of Anomaly Resolution (AARO), testified before members of the United States Senate Armed Services Committee on Wednesday, April 19th. The hearing consisted of two parts, closed and open.

In the opening chapter, Kirkpatrick concluded that among the hundreds of UAP cases his office has examined, “AARO has so far found no credible evidence of extraterrestrial activity, extraterrestrial technology, or objects that defy known laws of physics.” The AARO director agreed that the outcome may be “inadequate” for those who believe they are witnessing incontrovertible evidence of physics-defying crafts or objects. Still, Kirkpatrick stressed that UAP cases often “turn into easily explicable sources” when there is a lot of scientific evidence available.

“I would like to stress that only a very small percentage of UAP reports today contain signatures that could reasonably be called anomalous,” Kirkpatrick said at Wednesday’s hearing. said. “Many of the unidentified objects reported to AARO exhibit the usual features of balloons, [без екіпажу] weather systems, clutter, natural phenomena, or other easily explainable sources.”

The AARO director added that if anyone has any evidence of extraterrestrial visitation or alternative theories, they should submit that evidence for peer review in scientific journals. “AARO is working hard to do the same,” Kirkpatrick said. “This is how science works, not through a blog or social media.”

In the opening episode of the trial, Kirkpatrick shared a video his department had analyzed that allegedly showed a spherical object shot by an MQ-9 Reaper drone somewhere in the Middle East. In the video, the object appears to be floating in the air with no visible means of motion.

While the image is certainly fascinating, Kirkpatrick stressed that there isn’t enough data gathered to properly assess what the spherical object or phenomenon in the video might be. “That’s pretty much all the data we associated with this event a few years ago,” Kirkpatrick told the Senate committee. “It will be nearly impossible to fully describe him based on this video alone.”

A report by the Pentagon’s Office of National Intelligence (ODNI) in January 2023 had similar conclusions regarding other incidents. Of the more than 500 UFO/UAP cases investigated for this report, many were found to “lack of sufficient detail to allow UAPs to be referred to with high confidence.”

In fact, 163 of them have been attributed to balloons or “balloon-like beings.” This conclusion took on particular significance after the brutal saga of a Chinese spy balloon shot down by a US F-22 fighter jet. after that cross country flight. and gather intelligence along the way.

The New York Times after this event. reportedthat previous Chinese spy balloons over the US were misclassified as UFOs. The term UAP meant “unidentified air objects”; recently renamed “unidentified anomalous phenomenon” to encompass objects or events appearing in space, water, or even traveling between spaces.