Next week, a subcommittee of the US House Intelligence Committee will hear from two Pentagon officials about UFO sightings. The hearing follows last summer's release of a Pentagon report meant to contain "a detailed analysis of unidentified aerial phenomena data and intelligence" but was really just nine pages of not much at all. In the hot seat for next week's hearing—Congress's first open session on the UFO "problem" since 1970— are Ronald S. Moultrie, under secretary of defense for intelligence and security, and Scott W. Bray, deputy director of naval intelligence. From the New York Times:
"The federal government and intelligence community have a critical role to play in contextualizing and analyzing reports," said Representative Adam B. Schiff, the California Democrat who is chairman of the House Intelligence Committee. He said the purpose of the hearing was to illuminate "one of the great mysteries of our time and to break the cycle of excessive secrecy and speculation with truth and transparency."
The report delivered to Congress last June was done by the intelligence community along with the Pentagon's Unidentified Aerial Phenomenon Task Force, which the Pentagon replaced in November with a new office, the Airborne Object Identification and Management Synchronization Group. The group's job is to "detect, identify and attribute objects of interest in Special Use Airspace and to assess and mitigate any associated threats to safety of flight and national security."
Mr. Moultrie oversees that new group, which will be a focus of the upcoming hearings[…]
In recent years, intelligence reports and statements by officials have cited concerns about a national security threat from U.F.O.s through advanced technology hinted at by reports from pilots of, for example, vehicles traveling at extreme speeds without visible means of propulsion.
