
Pentagon's UFO Unit to Disclose Some of Its Findings to the Public - tosh
https://www.sciencetimes.com/articles/26600/20200724/pentagons-ufo-unit-disclose-findings-public.htm
======
blhack
This all feels so off to me. Why would the pentagon just openly admit that
they have no idea what this is?

If it was a foreign military's advanced aircraft, this is them admitting that,
yep, your stealth/whatever technology works great, and we are baffled by it.

Why would the pentagon do that? It seems much more reasonable to keep it a
mystery and imply that we have an even _more advanced_ tech that _they_ don't
know about.

Okay and then to engage the 14 year old in me who used to watch alien shows on
TLC: wouldn't this be a great strategy for disclosure about alien life?

1: No aliens do not exist, and you are crazy for it!

2: Well there are some technologies which are just really advanced

3: Well there are just some technology which is really advanced and we don't
know what it is.

4: Well there have been a bunch of encounters our pilots have been having with
_something_.

5: Well maybe that _something_ is very unexplainable.

6: We might have some materials from another world, but the only people saying
so are crazy!

If I was in charge of disclosing to the world that there were aliens, this is
how I'd be doing it. Extremely slow drip, people argue about the details of it
(well yeah it's alien tech but they haven't been here for 3000 years, and will
probably never come back vs no I think the aliens visit all the time vs no
THIS is all the conspiracy there are no aliens etc.) until it's finally just
an accepted fact that aliens exist and have visited earth or are actively
visiting earth.

Very strange.

~~~
cpeterso
> If it was a foreign military's advanced aircraft, this is them admitting
> that, yep, your stealth/whatever technology works great, and we are baffled
> by it.

Or you want foreign military leaders to _think_ you are baffled by their
stealth tech when you can actually detect it just fine.

~~~
DNied
> Or you want foreign military leaders to think you are baffled by their
> stealth tech

That doesn't seem conducive to that mutual deterrence which is usually
desirable.

------
admissionsguy
Sadly, this doesn't look promising. At all.

> In the exclusive report, The New York Times detailed how the mysterious
> government program began in 2007 with support from then-Nevada Senator Harry
> Reid. The allotted budget reportedly went to an aerospace research entity
> run by a Robert Bigelow, billionaire businessman and a longtime friend to
> the senator.

I would love if there was something exciting and real behind it, but what is
more likely:

\- plain old corruption, or

\- plain old corruption + alien or alien-like technology?

~~~
jasonwatkinspdx
Been following this for years. This is pretty much it.

Bigelow has been a ufo crank for ages, and as he's a billionaire that's
buddies with a senator was able to arrange for pentagon funding for some of
his crank friends. That went about as well as expected. After they lost that
revenue source, they befriended the blink182 guy to keep going. They're just
hoping they'll get another pentagon handout. For all their bluster when asked
to put up or shut up they've got nothing.

The actual footage and pilot accounts are consistent with submarine launched
weather balloons, halo artifacts on IRST systems, and similar banal
explanations.

Edit:

An example video of how the tic tac's motion is consistent with gimbal motion,
not an actual object rotating:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Btns91W5J8](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Btns91W5J8)

And Tyler is sometimes problematic, but here he mentions his sources:
[https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/28640/could-some-of-
th...](https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/28640/could-some-of-the-ufos-
navy-pilots-are-encountering-be-airborne-radar-reflectors)

~~~
erik_landerholm
> The actual footage and pilot accounts are consistent with submarine launched
> weather balloons, halo artifacts on IRST systems, and similar banal
> explanations.

This is totally incorrect. There is nothing balloon like or halo artifact like
about the tic-tac and Fravor's description. It's just not true.

I agree that many of the people around the ufo phenomenon are cranks and
liars, but that doesn't mean everyone is or that all sightings and eye witness
testimony are fake or lies or misunderstandings.

What fravor and people on the nimitz described is nothing like what you lumped
everything under, it's just not. If you want to call them all liars too,
that's fine, but if not, what they described, the eyewitness accounts are not
what you described.

~~~
jasonwatkinspdx
Please calm down. I didn't call anyone a liar. Eyewitness testimony is
notoriously unreliable. That applies to naval aviators as well.

See the links in my edit for what I'm referring to.

~~~
3131s
Again though you seem unaware of what is being claimed. It wasn't just
eyewitness testimony.

------
collias
I get almost Manhattan Project vibes from this.

Pure speculation like everyone else, but I imagine that they're slowly
disclosing some huge tech jump (akin to splitting the atom in the '40s), but
they don't want everyone to know about it. Drawing similarities to the
Manhattan Project, no one really knew what was going on until the moment the
bombs dropped.

What's more likely? That some advanced species has jumped across space and
then crash landed in the American desert?

Or that we have figured out how to manipulate gravity in some way, and people
have been seeing some weird stuff going on in the American Southwest, which is
a known area for military experiments.

Edit: As another commenter mentioned, the Navy already has a patent on a craft
that manipulates gravity: [https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/28729/docs-
show-navy-g...](https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/28729/docs-show-navy-
got-ufo-patent-granted-by-warning-of-similar-chinese-tech-advances)

~~~
chrisco255
If we have anti-gravity technology and they are holding back on it, then I'll
be pissed, personally. It would be the most transformative technology since
the light bulb or the combustion engine, and slow walking it just to hold a
military edge over your opponents is ridiculous.

~~~
nomel
> most transformative technology since the light bulb

Assuming it doesn't require huge energies like 1MW/lb. If it did, it would be
incredible for space travel, but fairly useless and incredibly inefficient for
anyones every day life.

~~~
anoniuyiu33412
Maybe they are working out technical problems like that.

I remember having read some stories about the Manhattan Project, how there
were countless of hard practical problems to solve before to get the bomb
blowing up in the dessert.

Now what it seems like a fast technological jump sprint in the 40s, was
actually the lifework for dozen of persons, scientists, engineers, even some
layperson giving inspiration to someone trying to solve an equation.

I think they had a working bomb design almost from the beginning, but they
didn't have a functional practical technique to (fastly) enrich the uranium
(S-50 project and the other two).

I think these years feel "fast" for many people (young specially), but the
research of radical change technology remains hard as it was always.

If you want a "public" example of how hard is, take a look at the CERN work.

~~~
nomel
> Maybe they are working out technical problems like that.

Yes, but sometimes "technical problems" are "physical laws".

------
enoreyes
Interesting to note that the NYT article (linked below and in a few places in
the comments here) was amended a few hours after being posted. It originally
made a strong claim that Harry Reid said that crashes had occurred and
materials were possessed. Instead, it was revised to say:

> An earlier version of this article inaccurately rendered remarks attributed
> to Harry Reid, the retired Senate majority leader from Nevada. Mr. Reid said
> he believed that crashes of objects of unknown origin may have occurred and
> that retrieved materials should be studied; he did not say that crashes had
> occurred and that retrieved materials had been studied secretly for decades.

This is pure speculation but Ralph Blumenthal and Leslie Kean seem to be the
main NYT staff members reporting on this topic and they have proven to be
detail-oriented enough and rather limited in their speculation. I wonder if
they truly 'misreported' this or if instead the article was asked to be
amended because of security reasons.

[https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/23/us/politics/pentagon-
ufo-...](https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/23/us/politics/pentagon-ufo-harry-
reid-navy.html)

~~~
driverdan
It's almost certainly a misstatement. Reid is a believer and would certainly
speculate. If he had hard evidence he would have been keeping it secret or
shouting from the rooftops, not casually slipping it into one conversation.

------
dvh
There are no aliens. Pentagon is trying to convince pilots to report ufo
sightings because it may be Chinese drone. Don't worry pilots, your license is
safe even when you report ufo.

~~~
krapp
I've seen that suggested a couple of times, but it doesn't make sense. They
could literally just order pilots to report possible drones or UFOs when they
see them, and not put up an obvious signal to the Chinese (or whoever) that
the US military has a cultural blind spot WRT reporting foreign drones in its
airspace.

------
Mizza
[https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-
politic...](https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/ufo-
pentagon-statement-findings-vehicle-
research-a9636481.html?utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Twitter#Echobox=1595603505)

This article suggests some believe a crashed vehicle has been recovered. I'm
not holding my breath, but as they say..

..I want to believe.

~~~
epicureanideal
It's always possible it's something like
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/9M730_Burevestnik](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/9M730_Burevestnik),
or some secret skunk works type project by China or Russia. If they've
announced the nuclear cruise missile, maybe this is the next generation still-
secret thing?

Also, keeping in mind this incident: "A MiG-25 was tracked flying over the
Sinai Peninsula at Mach 3.2 in the early 1970s, but the flight led to the
engines being damaged beyond repair" [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mikoyan-
Gurevich_MiG-25](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mikoyan-Gurevich_MiG-25)

It could even be stretching next-generation technology beyond its sustainable
limits. Maybe even as an intentional psy-op. Intentionally use some weird
materials and some weird technologies that would look unfamiliar.

~~~
epicureanideal
Just playing devil's advocate here, but what if it's something like:

an omnidirectional thrust vector
[https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-981-10-2875-5_...](https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-981-10-2875-5_24)

but using a nuclear powered jet engine? (Like the Burevestnik linked above)

Sounds crazy, but if it were done, and if it were a drone that is 90% engine
and fuel (no pilot, no life support), I could imagine getting something that
performs similarly to what we have seen in these videos.

If we add on top of being 90% engine and fuel, even a slight improvement in
engine performance, or a willingness to let the engine destroy itself after
each use, it would have better performance than human-containing sustainable-
flying aircraft.

------
joshuaheard
The NY Times article referenced in the article (published yesterday) is more
interesting. An official admits the U.S. possesses a craft "not of this
earth". This all confirms an article I read last year that said the U.S.
government was slowly prepping the public for the announcement of the
existence of extraterrestrial civilizations.

------
rrggrr
Another possibility: There will be events/actions (or have been) the US
doesn't want attributed to it's military that could start a war. The audience
could be domestic, foreign, or both. The message could well be true.

Russia has suffered a string of military mishaps that defy coincidence. China
tensions are at an historic high.

This is no time for misattribution.

------
dj_gitmo
This video argues that the object was probably just a bird, and the apparent
speed was a result of parallax. Seems more plausible than the alternatives.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mfhAC2YiYHs](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mfhAC2YiYHs)

------
icey
(posted in another thread before realizing this was the active one)

Has a timeline for the announcement been mentioned in any of these articles?
So far it's only been that there will be some kind of announcement, but I
can't find any suggestions of when. Sometimes I wonder if these leaks are
strategic as a way to say "hey, if this is you, last chance to come forward
before we talk about this publicly"; maybe a little more "are you suuuuuuure
these aren't your toys?" before someone finally comes out and says "We found
this weirdly shaped hunk of metal and it seems cool but we don't know how to
make it".

The conspiracy theorist in me hopes that we found something on Mars, and
that's what's been causing all the expeditions out there recently.

------
throwaway743
> 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.”

> Mr. Davis said he also gave classified briefings on retrievals of
> unexplained objects to staff members of the Senate Armed Services Committee
> on Oct. 21, 2019, and to staff members of the Senate Intelligence Committee
> two days later.

[https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/23/us/politics/pentagon-
ufo-...](https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/23/us/politics/pentagon-ufo-harry-
reid-navy.html)

~~~
dogma1138
The weirdest part to me isn’t the concept of an advanced alien civilization
visiting earth but rather the notion that they crash so god damn often which
kinda undermines the whole “advanced” part or means that visitations are so
ubiquitous that the law of large numbers comes into play that would make
crashes actually likely.

Our own aircrafts crash quite rarely, and space craft accidents especially for
manned flight are even rarer and arguably we are still newbies that have no
idea what we are doing compared to a space faring civilization capable of
interplanetary travel not to mention interstellar travel.

If these crafts are so damn common then they would also be commonly tracked,
stealth in space is hard, stealth during re-entry is near impossible. We
currently track objects as small as 5cm and under in orbit regularly with
systems like the SSN and the US isn’t the only one with tracking systems
capable of tracking 1-5cm objects, orbital tracking is actually easier than
tracking objects at lower altitudes due to the horizon.

~~~
erik_landerholm
define often? You would have to know how often they visit to say they crash
often. What if they have been operating here for thousands of years and we
have a crash or two. Would that be often?

Stealth? How do you know anything we have can track them very well? What if
they have to let us track them, or there are certain operating modes where
they are susceptible to radar and other times they are totally invisible.

Making any conclusions about why they would not be tracked or wouldn't is pure
speculation and worse based on our own capabilities. 'Stealth' from radar
might be incredibly easy for them.

~~~
dogma1138
Stealth doesn't work like you think it does, stealth doesn't makes aircraft
invisible to radar, it makes them practically invisible to radar targeting
systems as in it lowers and changes their RCS enough to not be considered an
aircraft by the system that tracks them.

And while their stealth tech might be much more advanced than ours, and
provide true EMF absorption (as long as they have some sort of internal
heatsinks because you can't break laws of thermodynamics) that tech wouldn't
do you any good when you enter the earth's atmosphere you'll be lit like a
christmas tree.

~~~
jefb
A craft able to manipulate gravitational fields as a means of propulsion would
likely not need to airbrake through the atmosphere to slow down.

------
KingOfCoders
All those aliens never getting on Morning Joe and always crashing somewhere in
the US.

------
ed25519FUUU
I can see several seemingly unrelated events which might be pointing to the US
opening up about some of its space technology.

1\. The creation and chartering of Space Force as a branch of the military.

2\. The declassification of existing UFO sightings, as well as a general
stance towards future transparency[1].

3\. The infamous "UFO patent"[2] that was granted to the Navy in 2016,
describing some pretty bizarre technology.

Who knows? Maybe there's been a breakthrough. That would be really awesome if
it were the case.

If you are to believe the patent then it suggests that our rivals (China) are
also investing heavily into these types of technologies.

[1] [https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-
politic...](https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/ufo-
pentagon-statement-findings-vehicle-
research-a9636481.html?utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Twitter#Echobox=1595603505)

[2] [https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/28729/docs-show-
navy-g...](https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/28729/docs-show-navy-got-ufo-
patent-granted-by-warning-of-similar-chinese-tech-advances)

~~~
dencodev
If the US military has game changing, society shocking technology it's not
going to freaking patent it and make it public. It serves no purpose to do so.

~~~
ed25519FUUU
I agree! But they patented something! So we’re all asking ourselves what the
deal is? Why the patent?? Is it some troll head fake?

~~~
dencodev
Because the patent is probably meaningless, just like 99% of patents filed
these days. But it costs so little to patent stuff so they just throw
literally everything at the wall. There's endless patents on technology that
doesn't exist or can't exist or makes no sense.

------
peroporque
Would be interesting to hear some new findings on the 2004 video from the US
Navy.

The pilot was recently on the Joe Rogan podcast and talked about it.

I don't believe in anything "aliens", but I'm not really sure what to make of
that story.

------
mellosouls
I'm an extreme sceptic, but the Tic Tac encounter of 2004 was memorable, and
the most recent significant one to hit the news after it gained real traction
in 2017.

An interview with one of the pilots:

[https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2019/12/tic-tac-ufo-
video-q-...](https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2019/12/tic-tac-ufo-video-q-and-
a-with-navy-pilot-chad-underwood.html)

His colleague, Cmdr Fravor memorably said:

 _I don 't know what it is. I don't know what I saw. I just know it was really
impressive, really fast - and I would like to fly it._

[https://abcnews.go.com/US/navy-pilot-recalls-encounter-
ufo-u...](https://abcnews.go.com/US/navy-pilot-recalls-encounter-ufo-
unlike/story?id=51856514)

~~~
sstanie
This is the best possible mundane explanation of a similar video, claiming
it's camera glare. Good take down of the NYT story on the video

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Btns91W5J8](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Btns91W5J8)

~~~
BobbyJo
This ignores the fact that they had radar lock as well, as detailed by pilots
and Radar operators. Radar data is always classified unfortunately.

~~~
giarc
Toward the end of the video he says that it's likely a jet engine far in the
distance.

~~~
BobbyJo
If it's moving very quickly orthoginal to it's engine, then sure:
[https://www.reddit.com/r/ufo/comments/e9hu6k/cool_perspectiv...](https://www.reddit.com/r/ufo/comments/e9hu6k/cool_perspective_of_the_gimbal_ufo/)

------
fareesh
1) Space force

2) Chinese spies in Houston

3) UFOs

Could be confirmation bias but I see a pattern

------
zalkota
The military complex wants to fund the space force!

------
kokonaught
The most intriguing aspect of these recent developments has been the POTUS
being briefed about the sightings.

The current POTUS isn’t clever enough to conceal the truth. So his explanation
that the military doesn’t know what these are, but does know they exist, is
very close to confirmation that aliens are visiting earth.

Other plausible explanations are a cover story, but that would rely on
inferior officers lying to the head of the military which is probably illegal
and very unlikely.

Or it’s foreign governments creating tech that is a generation or more beyond
USA tech which is almost certainly not the case.

It’s entirely possible that the USA government has definitive evidence that
aliens are visiting. It also seems more than likely that they know almost
nothing beyond that.

~~~
ed25519FUUU
> _The current POTUS isn’t clever enough to conceal the truth._

I'm surprised this characterization is so widely held. So far he's survived a
special council prosector, an impeachment, and his own personal lawyer
testifying against him. I mean, how else do you describe that other than
clever?

~~~
krapp
> I mean, how else do you describe that other than clever?

Connected.

