Post by Deleted on Apr 25, 2019 14:55:52 GMT
Several paragraphs from an article by Deanna Paul, Washington Post.
A recent uptick in sightings of unidentified flying objects — or, as the military calls them, “unexplained aerial phenomena” — prompted the U.S. Navy to draft formal procedures for pilots to document encounters, a corrective measure that former officials say is long overdue.
“Since 2014, these intrusions have been happening on a regular basis,” Joseph Gradisher, spokesman for the deputy chief of naval operations for information warfare, told the Washington Post on Wednesday. Recently, unidentified aircraft entered military-designated airspace as often as multiple times per month. “We want to get to the bottom of this. We need to determine who’s doing it, where it’s coming from, and what their intent is. We need to try to find ways to prevent it from happening again.”
Chris Mellon, a former deputy assistant secretary of defense for intelligence and a staffer on the Senate Intelligence Committee, was less laudatory.
"I don't believe in safety through ignorance," he said, scolding the intelligence community for its lack of "curiosity and courage" and "failure to react" to a strong pattern of sightings.
In some cases, pilots — many of whom are engineers and academy graduates — say they observed small spherical objects flying in formation. Others say they’ve seen white, Tic-Tac-shaped vehicles. Aside from drones, all engines rely on burning fuel to generate power, but these vehicles all had no air intake, no wind, and no exhaust.
"It's very mysterious, and they still seem to exceed our aircraft in speed," he said, calling it a "truly radical technology."
"Imagine you see highly advanced vehicles, they appear on radar systems, they look bizarre, no one knows where they're from. This happens on a recurring basis, and no one does anything," said Mellon, who now works with UFODATA, a private organization. Because agencies don't share this type of information, it's difficult to know the full extent of activity. Still, he estimated that dozens of incidents were witnessed by naval officers in a single year, enough to force the service to address the issue.
“Pilots are upset, and they’re trying to help wake up a slumbering system,” he told the Post.
Lawmakers' growing curiosity and concern also appeared to coax action out of the Navy.
www.philly.com/news/nation-world/unidentified-flying-objects-ufos-navy-document-encounters-20190424.html
A recent uptick in sightings of unidentified flying objects — or, as the military calls them, “unexplained aerial phenomena” — prompted the U.S. Navy to draft formal procedures for pilots to document encounters, a corrective measure that former officials say is long overdue.
“Since 2014, these intrusions have been happening on a regular basis,” Joseph Gradisher, spokesman for the deputy chief of naval operations for information warfare, told the Washington Post on Wednesday. Recently, unidentified aircraft entered military-designated airspace as often as multiple times per month. “We want to get to the bottom of this. We need to determine who’s doing it, where it’s coming from, and what their intent is. We need to try to find ways to prevent it from happening again.”
Chris Mellon, a former deputy assistant secretary of defense for intelligence and a staffer on the Senate Intelligence Committee, was less laudatory.
"I don't believe in safety through ignorance," he said, scolding the intelligence community for its lack of "curiosity and courage" and "failure to react" to a strong pattern of sightings.
In some cases, pilots — many of whom are engineers and academy graduates — say they observed small spherical objects flying in formation. Others say they’ve seen white, Tic-Tac-shaped vehicles. Aside from drones, all engines rely on burning fuel to generate power, but these vehicles all had no air intake, no wind, and no exhaust.
"It's very mysterious, and they still seem to exceed our aircraft in speed," he said, calling it a "truly radical technology."
"Imagine you see highly advanced vehicles, they appear on radar systems, they look bizarre, no one knows where they're from. This happens on a recurring basis, and no one does anything," said Mellon, who now works with UFODATA, a private organization. Because agencies don't share this type of information, it's difficult to know the full extent of activity. Still, he estimated that dozens of incidents were witnessed by naval officers in a single year, enough to force the service to address the issue.
“Pilots are upset, and they’re trying to help wake up a slumbering system,” he told the Post.
Lawmakers' growing curiosity and concern also appeared to coax action out of the Navy.
www.philly.com/news/nation-world/unidentified-flying-objects-ufos-navy-document-encounters-20190424.html