The first open congressional hearing on aerial vehicles in more than 50 years is scheduled to take place next week, with testimony from two top defense intelligence officials.
The Office of the Director of National Intelligence released a nine-page report on aerial phenomena in June of last year.
The report said that the available reporting was "largely inconclusive" and noted that limited and inconsistent data made it difficult to evaluate the phenomena. Most of the phenomena reported are physical objects.
The assessment concluded that the objects were not secret U.S. technology and that there was no evidence that they were part of a foreign collection program.
The work of a group within the Pentagon that is following up on the national security and flight-safety questions raised by the report will be the focus of the hearing.
Since this is an area of high public interest, any undue secrecy can serve as an obstacle to solving the mystery, or it could prevent us from finding solutions to potential vulnerabilities.
Ronald S. Moultrie, under secretary of defense for intelligence and security, and Scott W. Bray, deputy director of naval intelligence, are scheduled to testify.
The federal government and intelligence community have a critical role to play in contextualizing and analyzing reports. The purpose of the hearing was to illuminate one of the great mysteries of our time and to break the cycle of excessive secrecy and speculation with truth and transparency.
The Pentagon replaced the Unidentified Aerial Phenomenon Task Force in November with a new office, the Airborne Object Identification and Management Synchronization Group. The group's job is to detect, identify and attribute objects of interest in Special Use Airspace and to assess and mitigate any associated threats to safety of flight and national security.
The new group will be a focus of the upcoming hearings.
The National Defense Authorization Act was amended in December of last year to require the Pentagon to work with the intelligence community on the issue and make public reports about its findings. The scope of the research was expanded by the amendment.
Since the Air Force closed a public investigation known as Project Blue Book in 1970, Congress has not held any open hearings on U.F.O.s.
In 1966, Gerald R. Ford organized a hearing in response to reports of U.F.O.s by over 40 people, including 12 policemen. The Air Force said they were swamp gas.
Mr. Ford said in a letter to two House committees that the American people were entitled to a more thorough explanation from the Air Force. Air Force officials testified.
Two years later, Congress held a second hearing in which scientists from outside the Air Force presented papers on their own studies of the phenomenon and called for continued study of unidentified flying objects.
The Air Force concluded in 1969 that no U.F.O. had ever threatened national security, that the objects did not display technology beyond what was present-day knowledge, and that there was no evidence that the objects were extraterrestrial. The Air Force concluded that there was no need for further investigation.
In recent years, intelligence reports and statements by officials have cited concerns about a national security threat from U.F.O.s through advanced technology, such as vehicles traveling at extreme speeds without visible means of propulsion. Officials don't think they could be tied to known adversaries.
I think I can take the heat but I have gotten some laughs.
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