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With an increasing number of unidentified flying objects (UFOs) reported over the past 20 years, US Congress held its first meeting in half a century to demystify the unexplained sightings in the sky.
US Congressional hearing on UFOs. 5 points
1. US Defense officials said they have seen an increasing number of unauthorized and/or unidentified aircraft or objects in military-controlled training areas and training ranges and other designated airspace since the early 2000s.
2. Pentagon officials did not disclose additional information from their ongoing investigation but they said they had picked a director for a new task force to coordinate data collection efforts on what the government has officially labeled “unidentified aerial phenomena."
3. US lawmakers have pointed out that UFOs are a national security concern. Sightings of what appear to be aircraft flying without discernible means of propulsion have been reported near military bases and coastlines, raising the prospect that witnesses have spotted undiscovered or secret Chinese or Russian technology.
4. An interim report released by intelligence officials last year counted 144 sightings of aircraft or other devices apparently flying at mysterious speeds or trajectories. In all but one of the sightings investigated, there was too little information for investigators to even broadly characterize the nature of the incident.
5. Scott Bray, deputy director of Naval intelligence attributed the rise to efforts by the US military to "destigmatize the act of reporting sights and encounters" as well as to technological advances