The US Department of Defence has made a dramatic u-turn about UFO sightings. The Pentagon has finally admitted it has investigated UFOs as part of secretive initiative, after an official used the phrase “unidentified aerial phenomena”. And the significant shift in policy comes after the US Navy also changed its official guidelines on reporting UFOs.
A representative confirmed the US government investigated the occurrence unexplained aircraft as a part of the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program, made public in 2017.
And former British defence official Nick Pope revealed the specific choice of words marks a major step in the way that the government discusses UFO.
He said: “It also shows the British influence, because UAP was the term we used in the Ministry of Defence to get away from the pop culture baggage that came with the term ‘UFO’.”
The shift in language drives only weeks after the US Navy unveiled new guidelines on collecting information about UFO sightings.
The guidelines are designed to make it easier for sailors to report UFO sightings amid fears that “mysterious unidentified flying objects could actually be ‘extremely advanced Russian aircraft.”
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The Navy has since reported a spike in the number of “highly advanced aircraft” encroaching on its air space.
A Navy spokesman said last month: “There have been a number of reports of unauthorised and/or unidentified aircraft entering various military-controlled ranges and designated air space in recent years.”
The US Government is shown an increasing willingness to acknowledge its investigation and interest of UFO’s.
In 2017, former Pentagon official Luis Elizondo shocked the world after discussing the existence of the UFO-focused Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program – a $22million government UFO study.
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The secretive program sought to identify UFO sightings through US surveillance and eyewitness reports and then “ascertain and determine if that information is a potential threat to national security.”
Among the sightings were reports from pilots of two US Navy Super Hornet fighters who spotted a UFO on a training mission.
The pilots reportedly spotted a mysterious 40ft long, oval-shaped hovering UFO.
The craft “had no plumes, wings or rotors”, but traveled at a mile per second.
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But when pilots approached the object, it reportedly easily outran the military jets.
Mr Elizondo resigned from his post in 2017 in protest over what he has termed excessive secrecy and internal opposition to the project.
Although the Pentagon officially stopped funding the project in 2012, reports from the New York Times suggest the program is still operating.
