The Pentagon has received hundreds of reports of new UFO sightings, including “several particularly interesting cases,” according to the director of the office that investigates these reports, but reiterated it found no evidence of alien activity.
The Pentagon, working with the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) and other government agencies, has received a total of 1,652 reports to date, according to the newly released annual report, including 757 new reports between May 2023 and June 2024. The growing number of new sightings represent an expanding effort from the US government to catalog, track and investigate what are officially called unidentified anomalous phenomena, or UAPs, especially since a number of the sightings are near military bases and national security facilities.
“Reports of unidentified anomalous phenomenon, particularly near national security sites, must be treated seriously and investigated with scientific rigor by the US government,” said Jon Kosloski, the director of the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO).
The topic of UAPs has garnered tremendous public attention, fueled in part by its inextricable link to UFO sightings and conspiracy theories about the US government hiding evidence of aliens.
“It is also important to underscore that, to date, AARO has discovered no verifiable evidence of extraterrestrial beings, activity, or technology,” said Kosloski. “None of the cases resolved by AARO have pointed to advanced capabilities or breakthrough technologies.”
Of the new reports AARO has received, nearly 50 have already been closed as everyday items, such as balloons, birds or drones, according to the annual report, while another 243 cases of apparently common items are pending final review. A total of 444 new reports were filed into an active archive of cases because of a lack of data or evidence that would allow investigators to determine their origin.
None of these closed cases were the result of foreign adversaries or a breakthrough in advanced technologies, AARO said in their report.
But the remaining 21 cases have not yet been plausibly explained, requiring additional data and analysis. Kosloski said some of these were “interesting cases that I - my physics and engineering background, and time in the (intelligence community) - I do not understand, and I don’t know anybody else who understands them either.”
Kosloski said the cases, which occurred mostly over the last 18 months, consisted of different shapes, including “orbs, cylinders, (and) triangles.” One of these cases occurred “over an extended period of time” with the potential for “multiple things happening,” such as drones being confused with UAP activity.