US government tracking more than 650 potential UFO cases, Pentagon says

“Of those over 650, we’ve prioritised about half of them to be of anomalous interesting value, and now we have to go through those and go ‘How much of those do I have actual data for?'” Kirkpatrick mentioned.

Kirkpatrick outlined to lawmakers how his workplace helps the Pentagon and intelligence group to determine rising overseas applied sciences, together with his position in serving to to determine the high-altitude surveillance balloon from China that flew over US airspace in February.

He performed video from two of circumstances that had been declassified, one which had been resolved and the opposite unresolved.

The first video confirmed a small orb that flew via the digital camera display of an MQ-9 drone within the Middle East in 2022.

The drone’s digital camera adopted the thing because it moved via the sky, coming out and in of the display.

Kirkpatrick defined that this case was unresolved as a result of there was no different proof past the video.

“It is going to be virtually impossible to fully identify that, just based off of that video,” he mentioned, including that the hope was as extra information was gathered on these episodes, patterns may emerge to assist clarify the unresolved circumstances.

In the second video from South Asia earlier this yr, an object flew by two MQ-9 drones, together with one which captured video showing to have a propulsion path behind it, which Kirkpatrick mentioned was initially believed to be “truly anomalous.”

But he mentioned after they pulled aside the video body by body, his workplace decided that it was a “shadow image.”

“This is in the infrared, this is the heat signature off the engines in a commuter aircraft that happened to be flying in the vicinity of where those two MQ9s were at,” he mentioned.

Thursday’s listening to, chaired by New York Democratic Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, is the newest that Congress has held over the previous yr on UAPs as lawmakers strain the Pentagon to unravel the unexplained sightings.

While a lot of the general public focus is over the potential for UFOs, Kirkpatrick as soon as once more reiterated there is not any proof of represented extraterrestrial life within the sightings.

“In our research, AARO has found no credible evidence thus far of extraterrestrial activity, off-world technology or objects that defy the known laws of physics,” Kirkpatrick mentioned.

Senators requested Kirkpatrick concerning the prospect of rising applied sciences from overseas international locations like Russia and China.

Those circumstances, he mentioned, are handed off to the intelligence group to analyze additional.

“They are less risk averse at technical advancement than we are. They are just willing to try things and see if it works,” he mentioned.

“Are there capabilities that could be employed against us in both ISR (Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance) and a weapons fashion? Absolutely. Do I have evidence they’re doing it in these cases? No, but I have concerning indicators.”