Two senior U.S. military officials are scheduled to testify next week at the first open Congressional hearing on UFOs in more than 50 years.
“Americans need to know more about these unexplained occurrences,” Indiana Democrat Andre Carson announced Tuesday morning in a tweet.
Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence & Security Ronald S. Moultrie and Deputy Director of Naval Intelligence Scott W. Bray are scheduled to testify on May 17 before the House Intelligence Counterterrorism, Counterintelligence and Counterproliferation Subcommittee.
“The American people expect and deserve their leaders in government and intelligence to seriously evaluate and respond to any national security risks – especially those we do not fully understand,” Carson, the subcommittee chairman, said in a media release.
The hearing is happening because U.S. officials are concerned about what the Pentagon is calling an “unknown aerial phenomenon.”
Pentagon has created a new organization dedicated to UFO search.
The Airborne Object Identification and Management Synchronization Group in the office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence & Security will investigate where those objects came from and what threats they might entail.
“There’s been enough of the sightings, particularly in terms of training ranges, that we have legitimate safety of flight concerns here,” Kirby told The War Zone. “But the department hasn’t concluded about what all these phenomena are – what they represent. That’s why we’re putting this group together so that we can do a better job of just collating information.”
Next week’s hearing will focus on the AOIMSG, and “ensure the Department of Defense’s ongoing work is rigorous, stigma-reducing, and focused on key national security objectives, as well as ensure this work is conducted with the transparency that the American people expect and deserve,” a committee official told The War Zone Tuesday afternoon.
The hearing will give information on what is the viewpoint of Americans on these unidentified sightings.
“No UFO reported, investigated, and evaluated by the Air Force has ever given any indication of threat to our national security,” according to a National Archives summary of the findings. “There has been no evidence submitted to or discovered by the Air Force that sightings categorized as “unidentified” represent technological developments or principles beyond the range of present-day scientific knowledge.”
Kirby told The War Zone the Pentagon is “looking forward to the upcoming opportunity to engage members of Congress on this very important matter.”
The Pentagon aims to be transparent with the Americans and with members of Congress about the official opinion on this. They are now analyzing the previously collected and new information in a more proactive, coordinated way than it’s been done in the past. They have also assured that they will be taking safety measures against any threat.