Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., speaks during a Senate Small Business and Entrepreneurship hearing to examine implementation of Title I of the CARES Act. Rubio is asking the Pentagon to compile data on UFOs and submit the findings in an unclassified report. (Al Drago/Pool via AP)
The Pentagon should release a public report on UFOs, argues the U.S. Senate intelligence committee. In addition to requiring a public report, the committee plans to impose new rules on how the Department of Defense (DOD) shares information about UFOs.
Unidentified flying objects — a term that refers to objects that are literally unidentified, not necessarily suspected alien spacecraft — have made the news several times in recent years. The New York Times has reported on the Pentagon's efforts to track and study UFOs. And the DOD has confirmed the authenticity of videos from U.S. military planes showing flying objects of unknown nature and origin. Now the Senate committee wants to regulate the Pentagon's tracking effort, according to the committee's Intelligence Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2021. The rule will be part of the 2021 intelligence authorization bill, which Congress has yet to pass.
"The Committee supports the efforts of the Unidentified Aerial Phenomenon Task Force at the Office of Naval Intelligence [ONI] to standardize collection and reporting on unidentified aerial phenomenon, any links they have to adversarial foreign governments, and the threat they pose to U.S. military assets and installations," the report states.
Related: UFO watch: 8 times the government looked for flying saucers
However, according to the committee's report, "there is no unified, comprehensive process" for collecting information on unidentified aerial phenomena, "despite the potential threat."
This announcement, Agence France-Presse pointed out, appears to represent the first confirmation that the ONI is still tracking these objects in a systematic way. Federal officials previously said that a program along these lines existed, but ended in 2012. UFO writer Roger Glassel confirmed in May, based on an email exchange with a Navy representative, the existence of an "interagency team" led by the U.S. Navy and focused on "unidentified aerial phenomena."
The committee instructed the Director of National Intelligence and other agency heads to submit a report within 180 days with a number of details about the ONI's investigation. The report must include details about what the federal government knows about "intrusions" into restricted U.S. airspace and other unidentified flying objects, as well as a plan to firm up intelligence collection and sharing on the subject.
"The report shall be submitted in unclassified form, but may include a classified annex," the committee wrote.
That means at least some of this information should become public when and if the report arrives.
- 9 strange, scientific excuses for why humans haven't found aliens yet
- Flying saucers to mind control: 22 declassified military & CIA secrets
- Greetings, Earthlings! 8 ways aliens could contact us
Originally published on Live Science.