There is currently no evidence to support claims of extraterrestrial activity, the US Defense Department has stated, despite receiving hundreds of reports of new unidentified flying object sightings.
An unclassified document from the Pentagon’s All-Domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO) released on Thursday detailed a significant rise in unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAP) sightings – the military’s term for UFOs.
The AARO, which was established by the Pentagon in 2022 to identify and resolve UAP sightings, received a total of 485 reports from May 2023 to June 2024.
A total of 118 cases was resolved during the reporting period, all of which were found to be “prosaic objects such as various types of balloons, birds, and unmanned aerial systems.”
The report, which aggregates data collected from military personnel, civilian observers, and advanced radar systems, stressed the need for further investigation into these mysterious occurrences.
“Many other cases remain unresolved and AARO continues collection and analysis on that body of cases,” the AARO stated.
The report underscores the importance of continued funding and research into UAPs, as officials expressed concern about potential national security implications. Military pilots have reported instances of near misses with UAPs during training exercises, raising the alarm over airspace safety. None of the resolved cases substantiated advanced foreign adversarial capabilities or breakthrough aerospace technologies.
The AARO has pledged to provide “immediate notification to Congress” should they identify that any cases indicate or involve a breakthrough foreign adversarial aerospace capability, as the Pentagon strives for greater transparency and accountability in the process.
The Pentagon’s assertion that aliens have never visited Earth has faced scrutiny from independent investigators and conspiracy theorists, many of whom believe the government may be concealing evidence of extraterrestrial life.
On Wednesday, independent journalist Michael Shellenberger testified on a supposed secret government program called ‘Immaculate Constellation’, submitting a report by an anonymous whistleblower alleging that the Defense Department and intelligence community have withheld evidence from the public about UAPs. Other witnesses included former Defense Department and NASA officials.
The hearing came more than a year after former Air Force intelligence officer David Grusch testified before Congress that the US government has run a secret “multi-decade” reverse-engineering program involving recovered spacecraft. He also claimed that non-human “biologics” were retrieved from crash sites.
Following Grusch’s allegations, the Pentagon said it has 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.”