Page 5 - The 'X' Chronicles Newspaper - September 2021

UAP Report To Congress of 25 June 2021 5

OFFICE OF THE

DIRECTOR OF

NATIONAL

INTELLIGENCE

Preliminary Assessment:

Unidentified Aerial

Phenomena

Continued from Page 4

Consistent consolidation of reports from
across the federal government, standardized
reporting, increased collection and analysis,
and a streamlined process for screening all
such reports against a broad range of
relevant USG data will allow for a more
sophisticated analysis of UAP that is likely to
deepen our understanding. Some of these
steps are resource-intensive and would require
additional investment.
how to appropriately filter out radar clutter to of latest-generation sensors operating in those
AVAILABLE REPORTING
ensure safety of flight for military and civilian areas, unit expectations, and guidance to report
LARGELY INCONCLUSIVE aircraft—are longstanding in the aviation anomalies.
community, while others are unique to the UAP
Limited Data Leaves Most UAP problem set. And a Handful of UAP Appear to
Unexplained… • Narratives from aviators in the Demonstrate Advanced Technology
operational community and analysts from the
Limited data and inconsistency in reporting are military and IC describe disparagement In 18 incidents, described in 21 reports,
key challenges to evaluating UAP. No associated with observing UAP, reporting it, or observers reported unusual UAP movement
standardized reporting mechanism existed until attempting to discuss it with colleagues. patterns or flight characteristics.
the Navy established one in March 2019. The Although the effects of these stigmas have
Air Force subsequently adopted that mechanism lessened as senior members of the scientific, Some UAP appeared to remain stationary in
in November 2020, but it remains limited to policy, military, and intelligence communities winds aloft, move against the wind, maneuver
USG reporting. The UAPTF regularly heard engage on the topic seriously in public, abruptly, or move at considerable speed, without
anecdotally during its research about other reputational risk may keep many observers discernable means of propulsion. In a small
observations that occurred but which were never silent, complicating scientific pursuit of the number of cases, military aircraft systems
captured in formal or informal reporting by topic. processed radio frequency (RF) energy
those observers. • The sensors mounted on U.S. associated with UAP sightings.
military platforms are typically designed to
After carefully considering this information, the fulfill specific missions. As a result, those The UAPTF holds a small amount of data that
UAPTF focused on reports that involved UAP sensors are not generally suited for identifying appear to show UAP demonstrating acceleration
largely witnessed firsthand by military aviators UAP. or a degree of signature management. Additional
and that were collected from systems we • Sensor vantage points and the rigorous analysis are necessary by multiple
considered to be reliable. These reports describe numbers of sensors concurrently observing an teams or groups of technical experts to
incidents that occurred between 2004 and 2021, object play substantial roles in distinguishing determine the nature and validity of these data.
with the majority coming in the last two years as UAP from known objects and determining We are conducting further analysis to determine
the new reporting mechanism became better whether a UAP demonstrates breakthrough if breakthrough technologies were
known to the military aviation community. We aerospace capabilities. Optical sensors have the demonstrated.
were able to identify one reported UAP with benefit of providing some insight into relative
high confidence. In that case, we identified the size, shape, and structure. Radiofrequency UAP PROBABLY LACK A
object as a large, deflating balloon. The others sensors provide more accurate velocity and
remain unexplained. range information. SINGLE EXPLANATION

• 144 reports originated from USG But Some Potential Patterns Do The UAP documented in this limited dataset
sources. Of these, 80 reports involved Emerge demonstrate an array of aerial behaviors,
observation with multiple sensors. reinforcing the possibility there are multiple
o Most reports described UAP as Although there was wide variability in the types of UAP requiring different explanations.
objects that interrupted pre-planned training or reports and the dataset is currently too limited to Our analysis of the data supports the construct
other military activity. allow for detailed trend or pattern analysis, there that if and when individual UAP incidents are
resolved they will fall into one of five potential
was some clustering of UAP observations
UAP Collection Challenges regarding shape, size, and, particularly, explanatory categories: airborne clutter, natural

propulsion. UAP sightings also tended to cluster atmospheric phenomena, USG or industry
developmental programs, foreign adversary
Sociocultural stigmas and sensor limitations around U.S. training and testing grounds, but we
systems, and a catchall “other” bin.
remain obstacles to collecting data on UAP. assess that this may result from a collection bias
(Continued on Page 6)
Although some technical challenges—such as as a result of focused attention, greater numbers