For the first time in nearly 50 years, there will be an open congressional hearing on unidentified flying objects.
The hearing will begin with a public session, but members of Congress will also learn classified information behind closed doors.
Two Pentagon officials, Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence and Security Ronald S. Moultrie and Deputy Director of Naval Intelligence Scott W. Bray, will provide the congressional briefing. The briefing will be hosted by the House Intelligence Counterterrorism, Counterintelligence, and Counterproliferation Subcommittee.
“We are absolutely committed to being as transparent as we can with the American people and with members of Congress about our perspectives on this and what we're going to try to do to make sure we have a better process for identifying these phenomena, analyzing that information in a more proactive, coordinated way than it's been done in the past,” said Pentagon press Secretary John Kerby. “And that we also are doing what we need to do to mitigate any safety issues as many of these phenomena have been sighted in training ranges and in training environments. And so we're very much concerned about safety of flight.”
In 2020, the Pentagon announced the formation of a UFO task force after officials released videos of “unidentified aerial phenomena” captured by Navy pilots. One of the videos was from 2004, while another two were from 2015.
“As DOD has stated previously, the safety of our personnel and the security of our operations are of paramount concern,” the Department of Defense said in 2020. “The Department of Defense and the military departments take any incursions by unauthorized aircraft into our training ranges or designated airspace very seriously and examine each report. This includes examinations of incursions that are initially reported as UAP when the observer cannot immediately identify what he or she is observing.”