The US Department of Defense on Friday said that it was setting up a new task force under the US Navy to investigate UFO sightings.
With the creation of the Unidentified Aerial Phenomena Task Force, the department hopes “to improve its understanding of, and gain insight into, the nature and origins of UAPs,” spokeswoman Susan Gough said in a statement, referring to unidentified aerial phenomena.
Rather than little green alien invaders, the US military is actually concerned about “unidentified aerial phenomena” connected with its terrestrial adversaries.
Washington is particularly concerned about China’s spying capabilities, using drones or other airborne means.
“The mission of the task force is to detect, analyze and catalog UAPs that could potentially pose a threat to US national security,” Gough said.
The Pentagon takes “any incursions by unauthorized aircraft into our training ranges or designated airspace very seriously and examine each report,” she said.
“This includes examinations of incursions that are initially reported as UAP when the observer cannot immediately identify what he or she is observing,” she added.
The US Senate intelligence committee in June said that it wanted to regulate a Pentagon UFO program, confirming the existence of an informal working group, which was revealed by the New York Times in 2017.
In December 2017, the Pentagon acknowledged funding the secret multimillion-dollar program to investigate sightings of UFOs, although it said it had ended in 2012.
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