It turns out that the U.S. military never closed down its investigations into unidentified flying objects. Not only that, but it plans to release its findings presently, reports The New York Times.
While retired officials involved with the effort — including Harry Reid, the former Senate majority leader — hope the program will seek evidence of vehicles from other worlds, its main focus is on discovering whether another nation, especially any potential adversary, is using breakout aviation technology that could threaten the United States. …
Eric W. Davis, an astrophysicist who worked as a subcontractor and then a consultant for the Pentagon U.F.O. program since 2007, said that, in some cases, examination of the materials had so far failed to determine their source and led him to conclude, "We couldn't make it ourselves."
The constraints on discussing classified programs — and the ambiguity of information cited in unclassified slides from the briefings — have put officials who have studied U.F.O.s in the position of stating their views without presenting any hard evidence.
Mr. Davis, who now works for Aerospace Corporation, a defense contractor, said he gave a classified briefing to a Defense Department agency as recently as March about retrievals from "off-world vehicles not made on this earth."
I was just reading The Socorro Saucer, one of the more convincing run-ins, and marveled at how much it reads as a panic-memory recollection of NASA landers, escape modules and the like, some of which had then just begun testing at White Sands Missile Range, 13 miles from Socorro.