The department will create a unified group to handle UFO reports, formally known as Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (UAP), within the military and other government agencies.
The UAP issue has fueled years of Washington infighting, including bureaucratic battles within the Pentagon and pressure from Congress, over how to take the reports seriously.
But the release of the report is a sign that the US government is finally taking what has long been seen as a side issue seriously. The Navy leads the UAP Task Force, but no other service has made a similar effort to catalog and analyze UFO sightings. Most of the 144 sightings in the ODNI report were recorded by Navy pilots.
Following the release of the report, Hicks directed the Secretary of Defense for Intelligence and Security to develop a plan to deal more seriously and thoroughly with the UAP sightings.
The new unified group, called the Airborne Object Identity and Management Synchronization Group (AOIMSG), will standardize the process of reporting UAP incidents, as well as “identify and reduce vulnerabilities in capabilities” intelligence detection and operations capabilities; collect and analyze operations, intelligence, and counterintelligence data; recommend policy, regulatory or legal changes as appropriate; determine methods approach to prevent or mitigate any risks posed by aerial interests; and other actions deemed necessary by the Director,” Deputy Defense Secretary Kathleen Hicks wrote in a memo. .
The newly created AOIMSG, led by a director, will now take over the work of the Navy UAP Task Force as the Department of Defense works to better understand what’s behind the UFO sightings and the extent threat they pose to national security. . The work of AOIMSG will be overseen by an executive board.
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