The Department of Defense does not have a comprehensive or coordinated effort to track and analyze unidentified flying objects, according to the DOD inspector general.
The DOD inspector general released an unclassified summary on Thursday of a classified report issued in August titled “Evaluation of the DoD’s Actions Regarding Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena” due to public interest.
“Given the significant public interest in how the DoD is addressing UAPs, we are releasing this unclassified summary to be as transparent as possible with the American people about our oversight work on this important issue,” Inspector General Robert Storch said.
The Pentagon’s All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office leads the department’s efforts in investigating and understanding UAPs. There are six primary lines of effort for the office — surveillance, collection, and reporting; system capabilities and design; intelligence operations and analysis; mitigation and defeat; governance; and science and technology.
The inspector general’s office evaluated whether the Pentagon, military services, defense agencies, and military department counterintelligence organizations took intelligence, counterintelligence, and force protection actions to detect, report, collect, analyze, and identify unidentified anomalous phenomena.
“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,” the inspectors concluded, according to the report. “As a result, the DoD response to UAP incidents is uncoordinated and concentrated within each Military Department.”
The inspectors general report laid out 11 recommendations, most of which the Department of Defense approved.
The department has taken various steps to improve its process for reporting and tracking unidentified objects. In October, DOD unveiled a new secure form for service members and government employees to use to report sightings of unidentified aerial phenomena.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
Sean Kirkpatrick, AARO’s first-ever chief who left in December, revealed in a hearing on Capitol Hill last spring that his office was tracking a total of over 650 UFO cases, but “AARO has found no credible evidence thus far of extraterrestrial activity, off-world technology, or objects that defy the known laws of physics,” he said.
More recently, the subject of unknown aerial objects gained heightened scrutiny on Capitol Hill due to a hearing involving supposed whistleblowers. Despite claims of a “cover-up” from certain lawmakers, Defense Department spokeswoman Sue Gough said at the time that investigators have not discovered “any verifiable information to substantiate claims that any programs regarding the possession or reverse-engineering of extraterrestrial materials have existed in the past or exist currently.”
Más historias