For years, Pentagon lacked a ‘coordinated approach’ to handle UFO sightings, watchdog says

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The Pentagon for years has lacked a “coordinated approach” to detecting, analyzing and cataloging UFO sightings by U.S. service members, the Defense Department’s top watchdog said in a report released publicly this week, warning that the various approaches across the military may have left dangerous national security gaps.

A classified version of the major study by the Defense Department inspector general was released in August. A declassified version was made public this week.

The study examines how various arms of the military approach sightings of what the government now calls “UAP,” or unidentified aerial phenomena. The issue has been thrust into the forefront in recent years because of a string of high-profile sightings by military personnel, deep interest from lawmakers of both political parties and shocking accusations of decades-long UFO cover-ups perpetrated by the federal government.

The inspector general’s report highlights how the military struggled to develop a uniform system to address UFOs. Specifically, the study says the department “has not used a coordinated approach to detect, report, collect, analyze, and identify UAP” and that military arms often used different processes to track and analyze UFO sightings.

“As a result, the DoD may not have developed a comprehensive and coordinated strategy for understanding, identifying and protecting against unidentified phenomena that may present a safety threat to military personnel and territory,” the inspector general’s office said in the public version of its report. “The DoD has not issued a comprehensive UAP response plan that identifies roles, responsibilities, requirements and coordination procedures for detecting, reporting, collecting, analyzing and identifying UAP incidents. As a result, the DoD response to UAP incidents is uncoordinated and concentrated within each military department.”

The Pentagon, combatant commands and military branches have taken steps in recent months to address those shortfalls and have made a concerted effort to streamline the process.

The Defense Department’s UAP task force has taken a lead role in setting up more uniform procedures across the military. In October, the Pentagon created an online “secure reporting mechanism” for military personnel to report UFO sightings dating back to 1945.

The watchdog report makes clear that the military struggled for years to develop a comprehensive approach to the issue. The study found that various military services went their separate ways on how UFO sightings should be reported, analyzed and organized after the fact.

“We determined that the DoD has no overarching UAP policy and, as a result, it lacks assurance that national security and flight safety threats to the United States from UAP have been identified and mitigated,” the study said.

A raft of sightings, a surge of interest

The push to fix those problems has accelerated over the past several years as reports of UFO sightings by military personnel exploded and as public interest in the issue rose dramatically.

Data released in October showed that U.S. military personnel and commercial pilots reported at least 291 UFO sightings since August 2022. Some craft exhibited “high-speed travel,” “unusual maneuverability” and other strange characteristics.

Most of the reported sightings were over U.S. military airspace, officials said. None of the incidents resulted in injuries or “adverse health effects.”

“However, many reports from military witnesses do present potential safety-of-flight concerns and there are some cases where reported UAP have potentially exhibited one or more concerning performance characteristics such as high-speed travel or unusual maneuverability,” reads the report, produced by the federal government’s All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office.

The AARO said it had received 801 UAP reports as of April, though the actual number of sightings is thought to be much higher.

The latest figures cover February 2022, when a suspected Chinese spy balloon traveled across the U.S. and was eventually shot down off the South Carolina coast. In the days afterward, the military shot down multiple unidentified craft traveling over North American airspace. They are thought to have been weather balloons or other small objects used for research.

Many of the other sightings also could have been weather balloons, though the most recent AARO report made clear that at least some of the craft exhibited unusual behaviors that could not be easily explained.

The Pentagon also has faced accusations of a massive cover-up, though officials strongly deny those claims.

In July, former U.S. intelligence officer David Grusch told Congress under oath that he is aware of “a multi-decade UAP crash retrieval and reverse-engineering program.” He suggested that the Pentagon has long possessed alien bodies.

Retired Gen. Mark A. Milley, former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told The Washington Times shortly after that hearing that he knew no such programs.

“I can tell you … that as the chairman, I have been briefed on several different occasions by the [Pentagon’s] UAP office. And I have not seen anything that indicates to me about quote-unquote ‘aliens’ or that there’s some sort of cover-up program. I just haven’t seen it,” Gen. Milley said in the August interview, just weeks before his retirement.