The United States Department of Defense (DoD) has announced the formation of a new task force to investigate reports of UFO sightings. While reports of UFOs are often met with derision and incredulity from cynics and rationalists, the latest announcement suggests that the US government is taking these sightings very seriously. Of course, with drones becoming increasingly popular among hobbyists, the number of unidentified quadcopters in the sky is also rising, technically making them UFOs.

There has been an increasing number of reported "UFO sightings" over the past few years, with the number rising exponentially during the pandemic. According to the National UFO Reporting Center, there were at least 7,200 reported UFO sightings during 2020, which is a massive spike over the 1,000-odd that were reported in 2019. Many of these were reported by U.S. military personnel, with 144 such reports filed since 2004. All but one of these sightings remains unexplained.

In a press release earlier this week, the DoD announced the formation of the Airborne Object Identification and Management Synchronization Group (AOIMSG) to look into reports of UFO sightings in restricted military airspace. The job of the newly-formed task force will be to identify "objects of interest" in Special Use Airspace and "assess and mitigate" threats to national security. The AOIMSG will be a part of the Office of the USD (I&S) and will be the successor to the U.S. Navy’s Unidentified Aerial Phenomena Task Force. Its work will be overseen by the Airborne Object Identification and Management Executive Council (AOIMEXEC), which will be comprised of military and intelligence leaders.

The Pentagon Denies Proof Of Alien Activity


The development follows a Pentagon report from earlier this year on increased UFO sightings around the country. The report, which was submitted to Congress back in June, revealed the 144 UFO sightings by U.S. military personnel. The Pentagon claimed that there was no proof of any alien activity but did not rule out extra-terrestrial objects either.

While one of the so-called UFOs was later identified as a "large deflating balloon," the rest remain officially unexplained. However, various unofficial speculations suggest that they could be advanced technologies from China or Russia, or more plausibly, natural phenomena like ice crystals. There have also been suggestions that they're part of classified missions by the U.S. government.

Over the past couple of years, multiple leaked videos from the U.S. military have seemingly shown UFOs flying around before vanishing into thin air. One of the most notable cases this year was a leaked video that showed what appeared to be a UFO flying around a Navy ship off the coast of San Diego before suddenly disappearing. The Pentagon later confirmed the images to be real and said that it had initiated an investigation into the matter. The sighting, however, remains unexplained.