

‘It takes considerable effort to understand what we’re seeing’ĭuring his testimony, Bray showed video and images to demonstrate what observations of UAPs may look like – and the effort it takes to try to identify what they might be. Scott Bray, deputy director of naval intelligence, also appeared before the panel to answer questions from lawmakers. Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence and Security Ronald Moultrie, right, and Deputy Director of Naval Intelligence Scott Bray speak with a UAP on a screen. “Our goal is to strike that delicate balance, one that enables us to maintain the public’s trust while preserving those capabilities that are vital to the support of our service personnel,” he said. Following the conclusion of the public hearing, the panel will hold a closed-door, classified briefing Tuesday afternoon.ĭuring his testimony, Ronald Moultrie, undersecretary of defense for intelligence and security, argued there is a need to balance transparency with the protection of sensitive intelligence information, saying there is an “obligation to protect sensitive sources and methods.” The public portion of the event lasted fewer than 90 minutes. The hearing featured testimony from top government officials and the display of images and video of unidentified aerial phenomena. And any threats they pose need to be mitigated,” he said. DOD officials relegated the issue to the back room, or swept it under the rug entirely, fearful of a skeptical national security community.” Pilots avoided reporting, or were laughed at when they did. He went on to say, “For too long, the stigma associated with UAPs has gotten in the way of good intelligence analysis. André Carson of Indiana, the chairman of the panel holding the hearing, warned in his opening remarks, “Unidentified Aerial Phenomena are a potential national security threat.

The event marked the first congressional public hearing on UFOs in decades, a high-profile moment for a controversial topic that has long been relegated to the fringes of public policy.įor many lawmakers and intelligence and military personnel working on unexplained aerial phenomena, the bigger concern with the episodes is not that alien life is visiting Earth, but rather that a foreign adversary like Russia or China might be fielding some kind of next-generation technology in American airspace that the United States doesn’t know about.ĭemocratic Rep. Key lawmakers warned at a House hearing on Tuesday that unidentified aerial phenomena – popularly known as UFOs – must be investigated and taken seriously as a potential threat to national security.
