US military says UFO sightings could be aliens or new hypersonic technology from Russian or China

Government officials have leaked details about the highly anticipated classified report on UFO sightings expected to be released this month, noting that there is no evidence to support that they are alien spacecraft.

But the report does not rule aliens out either, senior administration officials who were briefed on the report told The New York Times. 

The report also theorizes the objects could also be new weapons developed by Russian or China – and definitively says the phenomena are not a part of a secret project from within the United States government.

The report looks at more than 120 incidents of unidentified objects seen by U.S. Navy pilots in the past 20 years.

The UFOs were observed moving in patterns that remain difficult to explain, including their acceleration, ability to change direction and ability to submerge underwater.  

Senior officials told the outlet that the objects could be evidence of Chinese or Russian hypersonic technology – which means the countries may have ‘far outpaced’ the US in weapons development.

Hypersonic weapons are aircraft and missiles that can reach atmospheric speeds faster than Mach 5, or or about 4,000 miles per hour – making them almost impossible to intercept.

Video showing an unidentified flying object splashing down into the Pacific Ocean off the coast of San Diego two years ago has now been corroborated by military radar which shows a ship, the USS Omaha, being swarmed by aerial phenomena in July 2019. The image above shows nine unexplained objects – some of which were traveling at speeds in excess of 160mph

Last year, lawmakers added a provision to President Donald Trump’s budget demanding that the secretary of defense and director of national intelligence release a report on what the government knows about such UFOs.

Government officials have previously conceded that the sightings are credible, and that the UFOs’ origins remains unknown.

An unclassified version of the intelligence report is expected to be released to Congress by June 25, but will include a classified annex that ‘will not contain any evidence concluding that the phenomenon are alien spacecraft.’

However, the officials said the government could also ‘not definitively rule out’ theories that they might be alien spacecraft, The New York Times reported. 

In some cases, the report rules out explanations such as weather balloons or other research balloons because of changes in wind speed during the sightings, the officials told the Times.

In the report, intelligence officials examined foreign military powers and believe at least some of the UFOs could be explained as hypersonic Russian or Chinese weaponry – into which both countries have been heavily investing. 

Examples of the unexplained sightings ‘maneuverable’ spherical objects which were seen flying in restricted airspace near Virginia Beach almost every day from 2015 to 2017.

F/A-18 fighter pilot Ryan Graves’ F/A-18, whose squadron spotted the objects, has previously said: ‘I am worried, frankly. You know, if these were tactical jets from another country that were hanging out up there, it would be a massive issue.’

Officials briefed on the report also described a giant Tic Tac-shaped object about the size of a commercial plane which was encountered by Navy fighter jets off the coast of San Diego in 2004.

Senator Marco Rubio warned last month that UFOs pose a serious threat to national security and can no longer be laughed off by lawmakers. 

‘Some of my colleagues are very interested in this topic and some kinda, you know, giggle when you bring it up. But I don’t think we can allow the stigma to keep us from having an answer to a very fundamental question,’ Rubio said.

Rubio said the possibility that drones or aircraft from a rival military power – or from another civilization – were entering U.S. airspace without permission should be getting more attention and resources.

Former Navy Lieutenant Ryan Graves, who regularly witnessed UFOs in restricted airspace, called them a threat to national security

‘I want us to take it seriously and have a process to take it seriously,’ Rubio told 60 Minutes.

‘I want us to have a process to analyze the data every time it comes in. That there be a place where this is cataloged and constantly analyzed, until we get some answers.’

‘Maybe it has a very simple answer. Maybe it doesn’t.’

John Ratcliffe, the former director of national intelligence, told Fox News that these are not just eyewitness accounts – they’re videos and measurements taken after ‘multiple sensors that are picking up these things.’

‘When we talk about sightings, we are talking about objects that have been seen by Navy or Air Force pilots, or have been picked up by satellite imagery, that frankly engage in actions that are difficult to explain, movements that are hard to replicate, that we don’t have the technology for, or traveling at speeds that exceed the sound barrier without a sonic boom,’ he said.

Even former President Barack Obama raised recent interest in UFOs while appearing on The Late Late Show with James Corden last month.

‘What is true, and I’m actually being serious here, is that there is footage and records of objects in the skies that we don’t know exactly what they are,’ Obama said.

John Ratcliffe, the former director of national intelligence, told Fox News that these are not just eyewitness accounts – they’re videos and measurements taken after ‘multiple sensors that are picking up these things’

From 2007 to 2012, the Pentagon catalogued reports from Navy pilots of unidentified aerial phenomenon through its shadowy Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program, funded at the request of former Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.

Last year, the Pentagon formed the Unidentified Aerial Phenomena Task Force to research sightings of aerial objects that could pose a threat to national security.

Harry Reid demands report on UFOs to be released by Senate Intelligence Committee and say’s he has ‘no problem’ if aliens exist 

Former U.S. Senator Harry Reid has penned an article demanding the Senate Intelligence Committee release a report on UFOs lawmakers have commissioned

Former U.S. Senator Harry Reid recently penned an article demanding that the Senate Intelligence Committee release a report on UFOs lawmakers have commissioned.

Reid, 81, also detailed in his article for The New York Times how the former Senate Majority Leader became ‘increasingly interested in UFOs’ and said he has ‘no problem’ if aliens exist. 

In December, Sen. Marco Rubio – then-acting head of the Senate Intelligence Committee – called for Pentagon reports into the unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP) to be declassified. The Pentagon’s Unidentified Aerial Phenomena Task Force has until June to report its findings to Congress. 

‘I believe that there is information uncovered by the government’s covert investigations into unidentified aerial phenomena that can be disclosed to the public without harming our national security,’ Reid wrote for The New York Times.

‘The American people deserve to know more — and hopefully they will soon, with the release of a comprehensive government report requested by the Senate Intelligence Committee on the military’s encounters with UFOs.’

He added: ‘Let me be clear: I have never intended to prove that life beyond Earth exists. But if science proves that it does, I have no problem with that. Because the more I learn, the more I realize that there’s still so much I don’t know.’ 

In the article, Reid described first becoming interested in unidentified aerial phenomena, what most people refer to as UFOs, in 1996 after being invited to a conference on topic by an investigative reporter for KLAS-TV.

He said his interest in UFOs grew through conversations with former astronaut John Glenn, a fellow senator, but his staff warned him ‘stay the hell away’ from the topic publicly.

‘I politely ignored them. I was inquisitive and, like Senator Glenn, I thought it was an issue that demanded attention, and I was in a position to act,’ he said.

Reid, while serving as Senate Majority Leader in 2007, worked to secure $22 million in funding for the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program. 

‘This clandestine Pentagon operation investigated reports of UFOs and other related phenomena, including UFO encounters involving American military personnel,’ he wrote.

Reid noted that program no longer exists but the government continues to study UFOs through the Pentagon’s Unidentified Aerial Phenomenon Task Force.

He said that, as a senator, he visited Area 51 and saw classified information that fascinated him. 

The top-secret Air Force testing site in southern Nevada has long associated with UFOs and related ‘conspiracy theories’ in popular culture. Reid noted that its existence wasn’t publicly acknowledged by the U.S. Government until 2013.

‘What I saw fascinated me, though much of it must remain classified. During one visit I traveled a short distance to the facility that housed the Air Force’s secret new stealth fighters,’ Reid wrote.

Reid explained that ‘there’s still a great deal we don’t understand’ but UFOs and it remains unclear how to explain some of these ‘strange sightings’ scientifically.

USS Omaha in 2019 in restricted waters off the coast of southern California (leaked May 2021)

The USS Omaha filmed a round object making a controlled flight above the water for an extended period of time before it finally entered the ocean. Investigative filmmaker Jeremy Corbell shared the footage on May 14 with Mystery Wire.

Still images from that video were first released in April as the Pentagon confirmed that a set of images and videos showing unidentified flying objects buzzing over Navy warships off the coast of California in 2019 ‘were taken’ by branch personnel.

Staff could be heard exclaiming excitedly as the object made a controlled, gradual descent into the Pacific Ocean, before disappearing with a splash.

No explanation for the spherical object has been given…   

The USS Omaha filmed a round object making a controlled flight above the water for an extended period of time before it finally entered the ocean

One of the images appears to be a pyramid-shaped object while others were thought to be drones or balloons; however, the Navy has listed them as unknowns.

In a statement, a Pentagon spokesperson told Mystery Wire: ‘I can confirm that the referenced photos and videos were taken by Navy personnel. The UAPTF has included these incidents in their ongoing examinations.’

The confirmation came a week after Admiral Michael Gilday, the chief of naval operations, admitted that he has no idea where the swarm of mysterious Tic Tac-shaped drones that menaced four US destroyers in July 2019 originated.

Gilday led an investigation into the incident in which a group of what some have called unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) chased the destroyers for up to 100 nautical miles off the coast of California.

The Independence Class littoral combat ship USS Omaha (LCS 12) transits the Pacific Ocean

F/A-18E Super Hornets assigned to the Tomcatters of Strike Fighter Squadron (VFA) 31 returned to their home base at Naval Air Station (NAS) Oceana in Virginia Beach

Flight logs revealed as many as six mystery aircraft swarmed the warships close to a sensitive training area at the Channel Islands at speeds of up to 40mph and with a greater maneuverability than US military drones.

When asked directly if the Navy had confirmed the identity of the drones at a media event, Gilday responded: ‘No, we have not.’

The Drive revealed in February that US Navy warships stationed off the coast of Los Angeles had encountered swarms of mysterious drones, which pursued them at high speed in low visibility. 

The outlet obtained ship logbooks and internal emails from the Navy under the Freedom of Information Act, and eyewitness descriptions from the staff on board, to establish the UAVs had a far greater aeronautical capability than any previously known drones.  

Former US Navy Lieutenant Ryan Graves in a F/A-18 fighter off the Virginia coast between 2015 and 2017 

Graves’ F/A-18 fighter squadron spotted the ‘maneuverable’ spherical objects flying in restricted airspace near Virginia Beach almost every day from 2015 to 2017, he said.

‘I am worried, frankly. You know, if these were tactical jets from another country that were hanging out up there, it would be a massive issue,’ Graves told 60 Minutes.

‘But because it looks slightly different, we’re not willing to actually look at the problem in the face. We’re happy to just ignore the fact that these are out there, watching us every day.’ 

He said pilots for the U.S. Navy saw UFOs off the coast of Virginia so frequently they got used to them despite them ‘watching us’ every day

Graves’ F/A-18 fighter squadron spotted the ‘maneuverable’ objects flying in restricted airspace near Virginia Beach almost every day from 2015 to 2017

He said that pilots who have witnessed what the government calls ‘unidentified aerial phenomena’ have speculated that they might be anything from a secret U.S. technology to an enemy spy plane.

Graves also conceded the aircraft could be something else entirely.  

‘This is a difficult one to explain. You have rotation, you have high altitudes. You have propulsion, right? I don’t know. I don’t know what it is, frankly,’ Graves told 60 Minutes while viewing one of the unclassified videos.

‘I would say, you know, the highest probability is it’s a threat observation program.’

A color image shows one of the unidentified aerial phenomena. Their technical capabilities far exceed that of any known aircraft, sparking fears for US national security 

Pilots have speculated that they might be anything from a secret U.S. technology to an enemy spy plane

The outlet noted that Graves did not rule out the possibility they could be some sort of Russian or Chinese technology.

Luis Elizondo, a former official with the Defense Department, told 60 Minutes that the UAPs appear to have ‘far superior’ technology to anything the United States currently has in its known inventory.

‘Imagine a technology that can do 600 to 700 G-forces, that can fly 13,000 miles an hour, that, that can evade radar and can fly through air and water and possibly space,’ Elizondo said.

‘And oh, by the way, has no obvious signs of propulsion, no wings, no control surfaces and yet still can defy the natural effects of Earth’s gravity. That’s precisely what we’re seeing.’

 Pyramid shaped objects spotted by hovering above the USS Russell, July 2019 (footage leaked April 2021) 

Footage filmed around the same time as the spherical ball sighting – but released two months earlier – showed multiple pyramid-shaped objects hovering around 700 feet above the USS Russell Navy Destroyer. 

It is also believed to have been filmed off the southern California coast, although it is unclear why Mystery Wire leaked this sighting before the sphere.   

The April photos were leaked from a Pentagon investigation of UFOs by the UAP Task Force, which has been gathering evidence for a report for Congress that’s due in June, according to Mystery Wire.

The image show unidentified objects flying above four US destroyers, including the USS Kidd Navy destroyer.

The outlet had also previously released video reportedly taken in July 2019 by naval officers using a night vision device, which showed pyramid shaped objects hovering 700 feet above a Navy destroyer

Mystery Wire says the triangular objects are part of the same incident as the spherical object diving into the sea

The video was taken in July 2019 by naval officers using a night vision device

US Navy pilot made visual contact with object on November 14, 2004 

At least six Super Hornet pilots made visual or instrument contact with the UFO on November 14, 2004.

The encounters, which are documented in numerous interviews with first-hand witnesses, remain a mystery, and the object’s incredible speed and movements have led to speculation that it was extraterrestrial in origin.

The original FLIR video from the USS Nimitz encounters leaked online as early as 2007.

Witnesses say that clips of the video had been circulated widely on the Navy’s intranet – used to communicate between ships in the carrier group – and an unknown sailor in the group likely first leaked it.

The aircraft carrier USS Nimitz and the guided-missile cruiser USS Philippine Sea in formation during a Strait of Hormuz transit on September 18, 2020

Navy Commander David Fravor and Lieutenant Commander Jim Slaight had been flying about 100 miles off the coast of San Diego (pictured) in each of their F/A-18F Super Hornets (pictured) when they encountered an unidentified flying object described as a ‘Tic Tac’

The USS Nimitz, a US Navy aircraft carrier, was at the center of a bizarre UFO sighting saga in 2004.

The clip became one of the most-touted pieces of evidence in the UFO community when the Pentagon confirmed its authenticity in 2017.

In January, Chad Underwood, the former Navy aviator who shot the famous leaked video clip, broke his silence in an interview with New York Magazine.

He said the oblong, wingless ‘Tic Tac’ shaped object was spotted off the coast of Mexico over the Pacific.

He also revealed that for about two weeks, the Ticonderoga-class guided missile cruiser USS Princeton, part of Carrier Strike Group 11, had been tracking mysterious aircraft intermittently on an advanced AN/SPY-1B passive radar.

The radar contacts were so inexplicable that the system was even shut down and restarted to to check for bugs – but operators continued to track the unknown aircraft.

Then on November 14, Commander David Fravor says he was flying in an F/A-18F Super Hornet when he made visual contact with the object, which seemed to dive below the water, resurface, and speed out of sight when he tried to approach it.

As Fravor landed on the deck of the Nimitz, Underwood was just gearing up to take off on his own training run.

Fravor told Underwood about the bizarre encounter, and urged Underwood to keep his eyes open.

He recalls how he suddenly saw a blip on his radar before tracking it on his FLIR camera.

‘The thing that stood out to me the most was how erratic it was behaving,’ Underwood told the magazine.

‘And what I mean by ‘erratic’ is that its changes in altitude, air speed, and aspect were just unlike things that I’ve ever encountered before flying against other air targets.’

Underwood said the object wasn’t obeying the laws of physics and dropped from 50,000 feet altitude to 100 feet in seconds, which he says, ‘isn’t possible’. He added that he saw no signs of an engine heat plume or any sign of propulsion.

The pilot refuses to speculate as to whether the object is an alien spacecraft or not, however.

‘That’s not my job. But I saw something. And it was also seen, via eyeballs, by both my commanding officer, Dave Fravor, and the Marine Corps Hornet squadron commanding officer who was out there as well.’