(NewsNation) — A report by the Department of Defense office tasked with investigating Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena says it does not have empirical evidence that UFO sightings were not properly reported to Congress.
“Investigative efforts determined that most sightings were the result of misidentification of ordinary objects and phenomena,” the 60-page report released Friday said. “Although many UAP reports remain unsolved, AARO assesses that if additional, quality data were available, most of these cases also could be identified and resolved as ordinary objects or phenomena.”
However, the DOD is collecting technology called Gremlin to help personnel collect real-time UAP data.
NewsNation’s Ross Coulthart interviewed career intelligence official David Grusch last summer, during which he alleged the U.S. government has secretly been in possession of nonhuman spacecraft. Earlier this week, Coulthart said on “Elizabeth Vargas Reports” that the Pentagon and AARO hosted a briefing with media outlets, though NewsNation was not invited to attend. A readout of the briefing was later published on the Department of Defense’s website.
To date, AARO has found no verifiable evidence for claims that the U.S. government and private companies have access to, or have been reverse-engineering extraterrestrial technology, Pentagon Press Secretary Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder said in a statement.
There was a program called Kona Blue that had been proposed specifically to reverse engineer UAPs, but this program was never approved. In fact, it was rejected by the Department of Homeland Security as officials said it lacked merit.
People interviewed for the AARO report may have mistakenly thought authentic, classified programs they had heard about were related to extraterrestrial activity, it said.
“I wish to emphasize that we believe most of the individuals repeating these claims did so without malice or any effort to mislead the public,” AARO acting Director Tim Phillips told reporters Wednesday. “Many have sincerely misinterpreted real events or mistaken sensitive U.S. programs, for which they were not cleared, as having been related to UAP or extraterrestrial exploitation.”
The report did note that there are things in the airspace the Department of Defense cannot explain — though that is a small percentage of documented cases they have found.
A review of the federal government’s record regarding UAPs is required by the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2023.
Ryder said that the AARO reviewed all official U.S government investigatory efforts since 1945, researched classified and unclassified archives, conducted dozens of interviews, and partnered with Intelligence Community and Defense officials in its investigation.
“AARO has approached this project with the widest possible aperture, thoroughly investigating these assertions and claims without any particular pre-conceived conclusion or hypothesis,” Ryder said. “AARO is committed to reaching conclusions based on verifiable evidence. As AARO has said before, they will follow the evidence where it leads, wherever it leads.”
Still, the report acknowledged that many people “sincerely hold” beliefs about UFOs that are based on “their perception of past experiences, the experiences of others whom they trust, or media and online outlets they believe to be sources of credible and verifiable information.”
“The goal of this report is not to prove or disprove any particular belief set, but rather to use a rigorous analytic and scientific approach to investigate past USG-sponsored UAP investigation efforts and the claims made by interviewees that the USG and various contractors have recovered and are hiding off-world technology and biological material,” the report said.
Rep. Tim Burchett, R-TN., criticized the report’s findings on X.
“So the people doing the cover up of #ufo #uap say they find no cover up,” Burchett said. “Classic self-fulfilled prophesy.”
Grusch did not immediately reply to a request for comment.
This story is developing. Refresh for updates.
Read the full report here: