Since 2015, several dozen Navy F-18 fighter jets have encountered unidentified aerial phenomenon (UAPs) — once commonly referred to as UFOs — off the East Coast of the United States. Some of the encounters have been not far from the nation’s capital. Sightings have been reported by other military aircraft and civilian airliners elsewhere in the U.S. and abroad, too, including videos shot by airline passengers.
What these UAPs were and who was flying them — whether friends, foes or unknown forces — remains a mystery. But careful examination of the information could lead to one possible, disturbing conclusion: A potential adversary of the United States has mastered technologies we do not yet understand to achieve capabilities we cannot yet match.
Some believe that it is long past time for Congress to discover the answers to those questions and to share at least some of its conclusions with the public.
The U.S. government came closer to confirming the reality of UAPs when the U.S. Navy acknowledged in late April that “there have been a number of reports of unauthorized and/or unidentified aircraft entering various military-controlled ranges and designated airspace in recent years.”
The good news is that America already possesses vast sensor networks, ranging from the depths of the oceans to the harsh bleakness of space, capable of collecting the requisite information. So all that Congress would need do at this juncture is require the secretary of Defense and the director of national intelligence to review the UAP issue and deliver a report providing a comprehensive assessment.
Why should Congress do this? Because it is Congress’s job to raise, organize and fund the military. It can hardly do so without being fully aware of the threats we face.
Perhaps we’ll learn that Russian President Vladimir Putin was serious when he bragged, more than a decade ago, that Russia’s “newest technical systems will be capable of destroying targets at an intercontinental distance with hypersonic speed and extreme maneuverability.”