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UFO-Forschung - Blick in die Presse: What Can We Expect From the Pentagon’s UFO Report?

2.06.2021

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Ufo-Beobachtungen in den USA: „Viel mehr Sichtungen als öffentlich bekannt“ – Geheimdienst-Bericht wird erwartet

In den USA sorgen Ufo-Sichtungen, die das Militär bestätigt, für Aufsehen. Ein Geheimdienst-Bericht wird mit Spannung erwartet, doch ein Experte erwartet nicht viel davon.

Update vom Dienstag, 1. Juni 2021: Frühestens am heutigen Dienstag wird in den USA ein Bericht der Geheimdienste erwartet, der sich mit Ufos beschäftigt. Die Geheimdienste sollen darin ihre Erkenntnisse zu den sogenannten „unidentified aerial phenomena“ (UAP) veröffentlichen, die seit Jahren immer wieder von Militärs im Luftraum über den USA beobachtet werden. Doch was ist von dem Bericht zu erwarten?

„Dieser Ufo-Hype wird derzeit von zwei, drei Personen bewusst im Mainstream angefacht, um das Pentagon in Zugzwang zu bringen“, erklärt Hansjürgen Köhler vom „Centralen Erforschungsnetz außergewöhnlicher Himmelsphänomene“ (CENAP), der seit vielen Jahren eine Ufo-Meldestelle betreibt und sich damit beschäftigt, vermeintliche Ufo-Meldungen aufzuklären. Die Videoaufnahmen von angeblichen Ufos, die in den vergangenen Jahren veröffentlicht wurden, seien „auf nicht legalem Weg an die Öffentlichkeit gekommen“, betont Köhler. In die Videos würden „Dinge reininterpretiert, die auf Spekulationen beruhen“. Bei den Dingen, die in den Videos zu sehen sind und denen häufig zugeschrieben wird, sie würden sich übernatürlich schnell bewegen oder sehr ungewöhnliche Bewegungen machen, könnte es sich nach Köhlers Erfahrung auch um „recht irdische Flugkörper wie Drohnen oder Ballons“ handeln.

In den USA ist der Glaube an Ufos und Außerirdische weit verbreitet (siehe Update vom 27. Mai 2021), der Ufo-Bericht wird mit Spannung erwartet.

Ufo-Bericht in den USA: Was wissen die Geheimdieste über „UAPs“?

Update vom Donnerstag, 27. Mai 2021: Frühestens am 1. Juni 2021 wird in den USA der Ufo-Bericht erwartet. Darin sollen Geheimdienste ihre Erkenntnisse rund um sogenannte „unidentified aerial phenomena“ (UAP) darlegen, die unter anderem von Militärangehörigen im Einsatz beobachtet wurden. Der Bericht wird von vielen Amerikaner:innen mit Spannung erwartet – schließlich glauben viele im Land an Außerirdische oder Ufos, wie Gallup-Umfragen aus dem Jahr 2019 zeigen. Etwa ein Drittel der Befragten glaubt demnach daran, dass einige gesichtete UAPs tatsächlich außerirdischen Ursprungs waren. Bei diesem Thema sind sich selbst die Anhänger:innen von Demokraten und Republikanern einig: 30 Prozent der Republikaner:innen und 32 Prozent der Demokrat:innen gehen von außerirdischen Flugobjekten aus.

Einige Ufos sind außerirdischen Ursprungs 33 %
Alle Ufo-Sichtungen lassen sich erklären durch menschliche Aktivität oder natürliche Phänomene 60 %
Keine Meinung 7 %
  Quelle: Gallup-Umfrage von 2019

Ufo-Bericht der US-Geheimdienste: Viele Amerikaner:innen glauben an Ufos und Aliens

Noch deutlicher wird es, wenn Amerikaner:innen generell nach Außerirdischen gefragt werden: 49 Prozent der Befragten einer weiteren Gallup-Umfrage von 2019 gehen davon aus, dass „Menschen irgendwie ähnlich wie wir“ auf anderen Planeten leben. 75 Prozent der Befragten vermuten, dass „Leben in irgendeiner Form“ irgendwo im Universum existiert. Auch in der Wissenschaft winkt man nicht pauschal ab, wenn es darum geht, ob es Außerirdische gibt. Schließlich sprechen die Zahlen dafür: „Es gibt zwei Billionen andere Galaxien, die wir sehen, jede mit 100 Milliarden erdähnlichen Welten“, erklärt der Astronom Seth Shostak vom SETI-Institut gegenüber CBS. „Es ist schwer zu glauben, dass diese Welten alle steril sind.“ Das SETI-Institut ist eine Nichtregierungsorganisation, die sich mit der Suche nach intelligentem außerirdischem Leben beschäftigt.

John Ratcliffe, gegen Ende der Trump-Regierung Direktor der nationalen Nachrichtendienste, erklärte kürzlich in einem TV-Interview: „Es gibt viel mehr Sichtungen als bisher öffentlich bekannt“. In den Ufo-Bericht, der in Kürze veröffentlicht werden soll, sollen demnach auch Beobachtungen aus anderen Ländern einfließen. Viele dieser UAP-Beobachtungen seien nicht nur mit Augenzeugenberichten dokumentiert, sondern es gebe auch Daten von Sensoren.

Ein Video, das vom Pentagon veröffentlicht wurde, zeigt ein sogenanntes UAP, ein mögliches Ufo.
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Ein Video, das vom Pentagon veröffentlicht wurde, zeigt ein sogenanntes UAP, ein mögliches Ufo.

Was hat es mit den mysteriösen Ufo-Sichtungen auf sich?

Update vom Donnerstag, 20. Mai 2021: Das US-Militär hat es bereits einige Male bestätigt: Es gibt Aufnahmen, auf denen Dinge zu sehen sind, die bisher nicht identifiziert sind – beim Militär werden sie „UAP“ genannt, „unidentified aerial phenomena“, also „unidentifizierte Luftphänomene“. Nun hat auch der frühere US-Präsident Barack Obama dazu Stellung bezogen. In der „Late Late Show“ auf CBS erklärte er Talkmaster James Corden: „Wahr ist, es gibt Aufnahmen von Objekten am Himmel, von denen wir nicht genau wissen, was es ist.“ Die Flugbahnen und Bewegungen der mysteriösen Objekte könne man nicht genau erklären, sie seien schneller und manövrierfähiger als alles, was es beim US-Militär gebe. „Wir müssen wirklich herausfinden, was das ist“, so Obama weiter.

Im Juni wird ein Bericht der US-Geheimdienste zum Thema Ufos erwartet. Die Behörden sollen dann gegenüber dem Kongress veröffentlichen, was sie über die „UAPs“, wie Ufos beim US-Militär seit einiger Zeit heißen, wissen. Der Bericht wird mit Spannung erwartet – zuletzt hatte das US-Militär selbst Videos solcher ungeklärter Objekte veröffentlicht oder zuvor veröffentlichte Aufnahmen bestätigt.

Ex-US-Soldat: PIloten sehen „jeden Tag Ufos“ über dem Atlantik

Erstmeldung vom Dienstag, 18. Mai 2021: Sind wir alleine im Weltall? Geklärt ist diese Frage bis heute nicht, zahlreiche Verschwörungstheorien ranken sich um Ufo-Sichtungen und Aliens. Vor allem die USA und dort vor allem das Verteidigungsministerium werden immer wieder herangezogen, wenn es darum geht, beweisen zu wollen, dass es Ufos gibt. Tatsächlich berichten immer wieder US-Soldat:innen über Begegnungen mit unidentifizierten Flugobjekten, im Internet kursieren zahlreiche Aufnahmen von angeblichen Ufo-Sichtungen.

Nun hat sich die US-Fernsehsendung „60 Minutes“ des mysteriösen Themas angenommen. Der frühere Navy-Soldat Ryan Graves berichtet in der Sendung beispielsweise davon, dass Piloten „seit einigen Jahren jeden Tag“ Ufos über dem Atlantik sehen würden. Seine Meinung: Ufos sollten nicht als „seltsame Verschwörungstheorie“ angesehen werden, sondern als „sehr reales Risiko für die nationale Sicherheit“. Graves klagt: „Wären es taktische Jets eines anderen Landes, wäre das ein großes Thema“. Weil die Objekte jedoch etwas anders seien, sei man „nicht bereit, dem Problem ins Gesicht zu schauen“, beklagt er. „Wir ignorieren den Fakt, dass sie da draußen sind und uns jeden Tag beobachten.“

US-Soldat:innen melden Ufo-Sichtungen – Worum handelt es sich?

Bleibt die Frage: Worum handelt es sich? Der frühere Navy-Mann Graves hat drei mögliche Erklärungen für die Phänomene, die er selbst nach eigenen Angaben auch gesehen hat: Entweder handele es sich um streng geheime US-Technologie, ausländische Spionageinstrumente oder etwas, das nicht von diesem Planeten stammt.

Auch weitere frühere Navy-Pilot:innen äußern sich in „60 Minutes“ zu ihren vermeintlichen Ufo-Sichtungen. Zwei frühere Pilot:innen berichten davon, wie sie während einer Übung ein sogenanntes „UAP“ (unidentified aerial phenomena), ein „unidentifiziertes Luftphänomen“ entdeckten und versuchten, es zu verfolgen. Es habe etwa die Größe der Kampfflugzeuge gehabt, habe keine Markierung getragen und keine Flügel gehabt, so die Augenzeugen. Das Objekt habe so schnell beschleunigt, dass es zu verschwinden schien, so die Soldat:innen, die das Objekt aus der Nähe gesehen haben wollen. Sekunden später sei es in 60 Meilen (ca. 97 Kilometer) Entfernung wieder aufgetaucht.

Wie geht das Pentagon mit Ufo-Sichtungen um?

Christopher Mellon, der unter den US-Präsidenten Bill Clinton und George W. Bush stellvertretender Verteidigungsminister für Geheimdienste war, geht davon aus, dass die beiden früheren Navy-Pilot:innen eine „Demonstration fortgeschrittener technologischer Fähigkeiten“ gesehen haben, erklärt er in „60 Minutes“.

Wie CNN berichtet, hat das Pentagon Berichte über angebliche Ufo-Sichtungen jahrelang ignoriert. Derzeit untersucht das Verteidigungsministerium, wie mit dem Thema Ufos oder „UAPs“, wie das Pentagon das Phänomen nennt, in der Vergangenheit umgegangen wurde. Das Thema scheint im Pentagon wichtiger zu werden: Im April 2021 hat das US-Verteidigungsministerium bestätigt, dass Fotos und Videos, die Navy-Soldat:innen 2019 aufgenommen hatten, echt sind. Zu sehen sind dreieckige Objekte, die blinken und sich durch die Wolken bewegen. Im vergangenen Jahr hatte das Pentagon selbst drei kurze Videos von „UAPs“ veröffentlicht.

Mitte Mai wurde ein Video geleakt, das scheinbar ein Ufo zeigt, das vor der Küste Kaliforniens ins Wasser stürzt. Das US-Verteidigungsministerium hat mittlerweile bestätigt, dass das Video von Mitgliedern der Navy aufgenommen wurde. Der Clip soll von der Ufo-Taskforce des Pentagon untersucht werden.

USA haben seit 2020 eine Ufo-Taskforce – Ein Bericht wird erwartet

Diese „Unidentified Aerial Phenomena Task Force“ gibt es seit August 2020 innerhalb des US-Nachrichtendienstes Office of Naval Intelligence. Die Taskforce soll vermeintliche Ufo-Sichtungen sammeln, analysieren und Beweise katalogisieren. Soldat:innen sollen ihre Sichtungen unerklärlicher Luftphänomene an die „Unidentified Aerial Phenomena Task Force“ melden.

Im Juni 2021 erwartet der US-Kongress einen Bericht der US-Nachrichtendienste, was sie über Ufos wissen. Darin sollen detaillierte Analysen von Ufo-Sichtungen und Informationen zu finden sein, die das Office of Naval Intelligence, die neu gegründete Unidentified Aerial Phenomena Task Force und das FBI zusammengetragen haben.

„Was das Pentagon bestätigt ist, dass es tatsächlich Flugzeuge gibt, die eingeschränkten Luftraum verletzt“, erklärte Mellon bei „60 Minutes“. „Das ist passiert und passiert weiter und wir wissen nicht, woher sie kommen, wir verstehen die Technologie nicht“, so Mellon. Man darf gespannt sein, ob der Ufo-Bericht an den Kongress Antworten liefern wird. (Tanja Banner)

Quelle: Frankfurter Rundschau

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Those Amazing Navy UFO Videos May Have Down-to-Earth Explanations, Skeptics Contend

An exposé on 60 Minutes. A 12,000-word treatise in the New Yorker. Breathless cable-news coverage of alien craft.

UFO enthusiasts are having their moment ahead of the release of a Congressionally-mandated report on what the Pentagon calls "unidentified aerial phenomenon." The coverage of Navy videos purporting to show evidence of strange, unknown aircraft have featured the voices of so-called ufologists — UFO researchers — and Navy pilots who say they've seen mysterious objects in the skies off San Diego and the East Coast.

Crews on Navy warships have reported seeing unidentified aircraft similar to those captured on video. Other accounts detail mysterious drone sightings by the crews of Navy destroyers west of San Clemente Island. The island serves as a training base and ship to shore gun range for the Navy.

But as the videos revived decades-old theories of extra-terrestrial visitation, the frenzy has been frustrating for those who specialize in debunking hoaxes and conspiracy theories. These skeptics point to more down-to-earth explanations.

"There's nothing new here, it's the same grainy videos we're used to seeing," said Michael Shermer, the founding publisher of Skeptic magazine.

In August, the Defense department established the Unidentified Aerial Phenomena Task Force after Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., added language into the Defense Intelligence Authorization Act that called on the Pentagon to produce a report on unidentified aerial phenomenon within 180 days. When former President Donald Trump signed the massive government stimulus and appropriations bill on Dec. 27, the defense intelligence bill was included, and the clock started ticking.

The Pentagon will deliver its UAP report to Congress in June. The UAP Task Force's examination of unidentified phenomenon is ongoing, a Pentagon spokesman said last week.

Retired Navy Lt. Cmdr. Alex Dietrich, one of the Navy fighter pilots who said she saw an unidentified aircraft near San Diego in 2004, told the Union-Tribune's Kristy Totten on her News Fix podcast recently she is wary of the UFO community's jump to conclusions.

"Just because I'm saying that we saw this unusual thing in 2004 I am in no way implying that it was extraterrestrial or alien technology or anything like that," Dietrich said.

She also said she doesn't expect the Pentagon report to provide the kind of answers many are looking for.

"I think that the report's going to be a huge letdown," Dietrich said. "I don't think that it's going to reveal any fantastic new insight."

Navy acknowledges videosThree of the most well-known videos were taken by Navy F/A-18s over both the Pacific and Atlantic. The three — known as "Gimbal," "Go Fast" and "Flir1" — were filmed by Navy Advanced Targeting Forward Looking Infrared, or ATFLIR, pods which attach to the fuselage of the aircraft.

Flir1, which was filmed off the coast of San Diego in 2004, was published anonymously on a UFO website in 2007, according to a 2020 Popular Mechanics report on the history of the video. In 2017, it received renewed attention when it was published by the New York Times. Flir1 and two additional videos were published by former Blink-182 guitarist Tom DeLonge's "To the Stars Academy of Arts and Science" website in 2019.

After the release of the videos, the Navy acknowledged they were real, calling the objects in the videos "unidentified aerial phenomenon."

In 2020, the Pentagon released the three videos itself. In a statement, it said it did so "in order to clear up any misconceptions by the public on whether or not the footage that has been circulating was real, or whether or not there is more to the videos." The Pentagon said at the time the phenomena observed in the videos remained characterized as "unidentified."

The Nimitz encounter Mick West, a former video-game designer, is one of the best-known skeptics pushing back on the claims of UFO enthusiasts. On his website, Metabunk.org, and on his YouTube channel, West experiments with cameras to show how light and motion can deceive viewers.

The three videos released by the Navy were filmed by infrared cameras. FLIR1 was captured off the coast of San Diego in 2004 by a fighter operating off the aircraft carrier Nimitz, while Go Fast and Gimbal were captured by an F/A-18 operating off the carrier Theodore Roosevelt off the coast of Florida in 2015.

West said that FLIR1 and Gimbal, and the images on them — described by some as showing aircraft with no directional control surfaces, intake or exhaust — are consistent with what could be expected if you filmed a fighter jet flying away from the camera. The apparent shapes of the aircraft — one saucer-like, the other like a Tic Tac — are due to glare on the lens of the camera, not proof of flying saucers, West maintains.

"What we're seeing in the distance is essentially just the glare of a hot object," West said as he watched the FLIR1 video with the Union-Tribune. "So we're looking at a big glare, I think, of an engine — maybe a pair of engines with an F/A-18 — something like that."

As for the maneuvers the craft appears to make, West said that the information on the screen, such as the zoom level, indicates that it's not the mystery aircraft making sweeping motions, but the camera. When the object appears to dart off to the left, that is actually an effect of the camera losing lock and moving to the right.

Another factor affecting people's perception of these videos, West said, is the fact that the cameras themselves are moving at high rates of speed. At the forward end of the ATFLIR pod is an electro-optic sensor unit that houses an internal gimbal assembly and an external rotating housing. In order to maintain a "lock" on an object, both the gimbal and the outer housing are in constant motion — as is the F/A-18 to which the pod is attached.

Combined with the high zoom rate of the camera, the resulting image might reflect a parallax effect — with the relationship of the object and its background changing depending on the angle of view, similar to how electrical poles appear to zoom past on the highway while more distant objects remain still.

Eyewitnesses to the FLIR1, or so-called "Nimitz encounters," tell a different story. The day before FLIR1 was shot, other F/A-18 pilots, including Dietrich, also saw a Tic Tac-shaped object in the air.

"We encountered this thing that we refer to as the Tic Tac because that's what it looked like," Dietrich said. "It was unlike anything we'd ever seen (and) unlike anything I've seen since. That's why we refer to it as 'unidentified.' We came back to the ship, we gave our reports and then went on with our training — went on with our lives and our careers."

Several sailors on board the San Diego-based guided missile cruiser Princeton say they also saw the objects in the 2004 encounter. Five former Princeton sailors told Popular Mechanics in 2019 that their ship's brand-new radar system began detecting unidentified aircraft performing extraordinary aeronautical maneuvers. They said the objects appeared on the radar to descend from 60,000 feet to just 50 feet in a matter of seconds.

It was these radar tracks that led to Dietrich and her wingman to divert and attempt to intercept the aircraft. The next day, another pilot was able to lock onto something with his ATFLIR — resulting in the video now known as FLIR1.

A touch of trigThe parallax effect also offers a more mundane explanation of the Go Fast video, West contends. Go Fast was shot from a Navy jet operating off the coast of Florida with the aircraft carrier Theodore Roosevelt in 2015. In the video, a small undefined object appears to be flying low, at a high rate of speed above the ocean.

However, West said, this is an illusion of the two-dimensional video, one that can be demystified by the readout on the screen and a little trigonometry.

Once the camera locks onto the object, West said, the video presents the illusion that the camera is stationary. This isn't the case, West said. The jet's true air speed is 369 knots. After factoring in the altitude of the aircraft, the angle of the camera and the distance to the target, West determined the object to be flying at 13,000 feet above the ocean — not directly above, as it appears in the video.

"It's not actually anywhere near the ocean even though it looks like it's skimming over the surface," West said. "Because of the extreme zoom and because the camera is locked onto this object ... the motion of the ocean in this video is actually exactly the same as the motion of the jet plane itself. You're seeing something that's actually hardly moving at all and all of the apparent motion is the parallax effect from the jet flying by."

After a little more math, West estimated the speed of the UAP to be about 30 to 40 knots. Since the infrared image indicates the object is also colder than the ocean below it, and it's moving at the wind speed of that altitude, West said he thinks it's likely a weather balloon.

'Complicated illusion'Perhaps the most striking of the three officially released Navy videos is Gimbal. Also filmed off the Florida coast in 2015, Gimbal appears to show a large object the shape of a top rotate in a manner inconsistent with known aircraft.

West admits that the object's rotation is difficult to explain. "Gimbal is complicated — you've got this ridiculous illusion of movement when it's actually essentially the same thing" as FLIR1, he said.

Still, West said the object in Gimbal is most likely just another jet.

"I think what's clear about Gimbal is it's very hot — it's consistent with two jet engines next to each other and the glare of these engines gets a lot bigger than the actual aircraft itself so it gets obscured by it," West said.

The odd top-like shape, West said, might be attributed to diffraction spikes from the glare, similar to someone taking a picture of a flashlight shining directly into a camera lens.

To explain the apparent rotation, West pointed again to the ATFLIR pod and the parallax effect. Early in the video, the F/A-18 is in a left bank turn, West said.

"At the start of the video, it looks like the object is moving rapidly to the left because of the parallax effect," he said. But when the plane has kind of finished its turn, it looks like it slows down and stops because now it's flying straight toward it so there's no parallax. You get this complicated illusion."

The rotation of the object, West said, can be attributed to the gimbal roll of the electro-optic sensor unit of the ATFLIR pod trying to maintain lock on it. He again points to the information on the display screen in the video.

"Gimbal starts off at 54 degrees left and it goes all the way to 7 degrees right," West said. "At 3 degrees left is when (the object) makes its big rotation. That is the point at which (the ATFLIR pod) is doing a large exterior correction for the gimbal roll."

The Gimbal video was shot by the same pilot who filmed Go Fast, former Navy pilot David Fravor. Fravor, one of the Nimitz pilots who saw the 2004 Tic Tac, told podcaster Lex Fridman in 2020 that he isn't moved by West's explanation.

"It's funny how people can extrapolate stuff who've never operated the system," Fravor said of West's critique. Fravor also told Fridman there were up to five other objects in the air that day flying in formation with the "Gimbal" aircraft and that several other sailors were tracking them.

A spokesperson for defense contractor Raytheon, which designed the ATFLIR cameras, declined to comment and referred questions to the Pentagon. The Union-Tribune also asked UC San Diego, California Institute of Technology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University to make experts on infrared camera and electro-optic technology available to comment for this story. None did.

The 'bokeh effect'Two videos taken on Navy surface ships were published this year by filmmaker Jeremy Corbell, who also runs the website ExtraordinaryBeliefs.com. Corbin's films explore phenomenon such as alien craft allegedly hidden from the public by the government and humans with alien implants.

One of the videos, which appears to be a sailor's cell-phone video of a night-vision screen, seems to show a triangular or pyramid shaped craft with flashing lights flying over the San Diego-based guided-missile destroyer Russell in 2019.

In the video, which is saturated in green night vision, one of the pyramid-shaped objects blinks periodically. Corbell told Fox News "this is probably the best UFO military filmed footage certainly that I've ever seen, but I think also that the world has ever seen."

West said the video is an example of a well-known photographic effect that occurs when a camera captures images of out-of-focus light called "bokeh."

In a video West shared on YouTube, he demonstrates how the effect works and essentially recreates what is seen in the Navy video.

West says any night-vision camera with a triangular-shaped aperture would show a green pyramid. The flashing of the object, West said, is identical to the navigation lights found on aircraft.

West further said that when one factors in the relative location of the ship and the date, that the other "pyramids" in the video are celestial objects — specifically the planet Jupiter and some stars. He points out the Russell was operating under the route aircraft take when flying from Hawaii to Los Angeles.

"There was just a whole bunch of planes flying overhead at the time," West said.

The most recent video appears to show a spherical blob flying above the ocean before diving into the wave or beyond the horizon. On Twitter, Corbell described the object as a "transmedium" vehicle, able to operate above and below the water. The video was filmed off the coast of California by the San Diego-based littoral combat ship Omaha.

West said the glare of an out-of-focus object with a heat signature might produce a similar image on an infrared camera. If that object is a jet aircraft flying away from the ship, West said, it might produce the same illusion of dropping into the water when, in fact, it had only flown over the horizon.

Known unknowns?While the military has confirmed the videos themselves are real, the Pentagon has not said whether it has since identified the objects — which West said gives the impression that the military either hasn't identified them or can't identify them.

The Union-Tribune asked the Defense department to clarify whether any of the unidentified phenomenon in the UAP videos have since been identified. Gough declined to do so.

"To maintain operations security and to avoid disclosing information that may be useful to potential adversaries, DOD does not discuss publicly the details of either the observations or the examination of reported incursions into our training ranges or designated airspace, including those incursions initially designated as UAP," Gough said.

Given that the objects have been seen in areas where the U.S. military trains, another hypothesis put forward is that the objects in the videos show advanced Chinese or Russian surveillance drones. Rubio, in his 60 Minutes interview, pointed out the national security implications of that.

"Anything that enters an airspace that's not supposed to be there is a threat," Rubio said.

Dietrich told News Fix she's also concerned about adversaries.

"We want to know if there's something off our coast or in our skies," Dietrich said. "It could be a threat, it could be an adversary. We like to classify and categorize things and when we can't it's important to flag it."

For skeptics, even that possibility seems far-fetched.

Shermer, of Skeptic magazine, said that it's unlikely any government could develop technology that's significantly more advanced without detection by other "great powers."

"It would be like if we were still using rotary phones and they had smart phones — it would never happen," Shermer said. "Even with the Manhattan project, the most secret project ever, the Russians had the bomb four years later."

The Pentagon's refusal to debunk its own UFO videos is frustrating, Shermer said. And even if the June report is as mundane as Dietrich and others expect, he doesn't think it will matter to UFO enthusiasts.

"If the government issues a report saying it's all artifacts of camera, balloons, bokeh — the ufologists are not going to accept it," he said. "Nothing satisfies a true believer."

This story originally appeared in San Diego Union-Tribune.

Quelle: AVIATIONPROS

 

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