Government and military
Hearings, briefings, letters and laws, from the 1966 House hearing to the 2025 task force. 122 events, newest first.
Government9 Feb 2023
At a Senate Appropriations defense subcommittee hearing, Pentagon official Melissa Dalton said Chinese balloons had briefly crossed the U.S. at least three times under the prior administration. Officials said they waited to shoot over water to limit risk from debris.
Photo: Leonard Fitzgerald, Public domain
GovernmentFeb 2023
After an F-22 downed the Chinese balloon off South Carolina, recovered debris went to the FBI laboratory at Quantico, where officials said specialists in 20-plus forensic disciplines focused on its electronics. The White House said the debris included electronics and optics from the payload.
Photo: U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation, Public domain
Military2023
At the July 2023 House Oversight UAP hearing, Rep. Matt Gaetz said a member of an Eglin AFB flight crew showed him a photo of an orb a pilot saw near four craft in a diamond formation over the Gulf of Mexico. He asked that the image and radar data be given to the committee.
Photo: Ike Hayman, U.S. House Office of Photography/House Creative Services, Public domain
Government23 Dec 2022
The FY2023 defense authorization law required a secure channel for authorized reporting of UAP events and of any government program on UAP material, rewrote the statute for the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office including a historical record report, and ordered a GAO audit of that record.
Government13 Jul 2022
The House adopted by voice vote an amendment from Reps. Ruben Gallego and Mike Gallagher to its FY2023 defense bill, creating a secure system to receive UAP reports, including from people previously bound by nondisclosure agreements.
Photo: U.S. Senate Photographic Studio, Public domain
Government12 Jul 2022
The Senate Intelligence Committee reported its FY2023 intelligence bill (S. 4503) with UAP sections. One authorized witnesses to report UAP events or related government programs through a new secure system, notwithstanding nondisclosure agreements; a version was later enacted in the FY2023 NDAA.
Photo: Ryan Donnell, Public domain
Government17 May 2022
A House Intelligence subcommittee held an open hearing on UAP with Under Secretary of Defense Ronald Moultrie and Deputy Director of Naval Intelligence Scott Bray, who showed newly declassified video. It was described as the first open congressional hearing on the subject in about 50 years.
Photo: U.S. House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, Public domain
Government17 May 2022
At the House Intelligence subcommittee's UAP hearing, Deputy Director of Naval Intelligence Scott Bray said triangle-shaped objects filmed by Navy crews were likely small drones, their shape an effect of light passing through night-vision goggles onto an SLR camera.
Photo: U.S. House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, Public domain
WhistleblowersMay 2022
Former intelligence officer David Grusch filed an urgent-concern and reprisal complaint with the Intelligence Community Inspector General, alleging UAP information was withheld from Congress. He says the IG found it credible and urgent in July 2022; his underlying claims remain unverified.
Photo: ODNI, Public domain
Whistleblowers2022
Stanford pathologist Garry Nolan and anthropologist Peter Skafish co-founded the Sol Foundation, a research institute and policy think tank on UAP that says it formed in 2022 after Congress received an intelligence report on the subject. It went on to hold annual symposia and publish policy papers.
Skinwalker Ranch28 Dec 2021
Former Senate majority leader Harry Reid of Nevada died at 82 after a four-year fight with pancreatic cancer. NBC News coverage noted that as majority leader he had pushed for funding of a UFO program.
Photo: United States Congress, Public domain
Government27 Dec 2021
The FY2022 defense bill, signed Dec. 27, 2021, ordered the Pentagon and intelligence community to set up an office on unidentified aerial phenomena, with unclassified annual reports and semiannual classified briefings to Congress. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand pushed the provision.
Photo: The White House, Public domain
Government6 Dec 2021
After the Pentagon set up the Airborne Object Identification and Management Synchronization Group, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand's office told The Debrief it did not go nearly far enough. Days later her own UAP office amendment was included in the final FY2022 defense bill.
Photo: US Senate Photography, Public domain
Government4 Nov 2021
Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand filed an amendment to the FY2022 defense bill, cosponsored by Sen. Marco Rubio, to replace the UAP Task Force with a permanent office reporting to Defense and intelligence leaders. Her office said on Dec. 9, 2021 that a version was included in the final NDAA.
Photo: US Senate Photography, Public domain
Government1 Sep 2021
At its September 1, 2021 markup the House Armed Services Committee approved an FY2022 defense bill with a section creating an office in the Office of the Secretary of Defense to take over the UAP Task Force's work and report each year.
Photo: U.S. Senate Photographic Studio, Public domain
Government25 Jun 2021
Sen. Marco Rubio, vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, whose committee requested the ODNI report, called it an important first step in cataloging incidents but only a first step, saying military personnel who reported encounters had often been ignored.
Photo: US Senate, Public domain
Government25 Jun 2021
Responding to the ODNI preliminary UAP assessment, Senate Intelligence chair Mark Warner called the report rather inconclusive and said the U.S. must understand and mitigate threats to its pilots, whether from adversary technology, drones or balloons.
Photo: Ryan Donnell, Public domain
Government16 Jun 2021
Days before the ODNI preliminary UAP report, House Intelligence Committee members received a closed briefing from Navy and FBI officials. Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney said members wanted to know what they were dealing with; Rep. Andre Carson said he hoped for a public hearing.
Photo: Architect of the Capitol, Public domain
Whistleblowers30 Apr 2021
Former Senate majority leader Harry Reid told The New Yorker he had been told for decades that Lockheed held retrieved materials and that the Pentagon refused his request for clearance to see them. He did not claim to have seen any himself.
Photo: CIA, Public domain
Media30 Apr 2021
Gideon Lewis-Kraus published a long New Yorker account of how UFOs moved from punch line to Pentagon concern, centered on journalist Leslie Kean and the 2017 AATIP story. It ran online weeks before a promised intelligence report on UAP was due to Congress.
Government27 Dec 2020
The Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021, signed Dec. 27, 2020, carried the FY2021 Intelligence Authorization Act. The Senate Intelligence Committee's report on that bill directed the DNI to deliver a UAP report within 180 days of enactment, leading to the June 2021 assessment.
Photo: The White House from Washington, DC, Public domain
Media6 Oct 2020
James Fox's documentary, narrated by Peter Coyote, surveyed UFO cases since the 1940s alongside the newly released Navy videos. It featured former Senate leader Harry Reid, ex-New Mexico governor Bill Richardson and researcher Jacques Vallee. It was released for digital download.
Photo: OldDominionVA89, CC BY-SA 4.0
Sightings1 Aug 2020
After loud booms over Central Tapanuli, a stone of over 2 kg punched through the roof of coffin maker Josua Hutagalung's house in Kolang, with more fragments found nearby. Arizona State University classified it as a rare carbonaceous (CM) meteorite.
Photo: Ahmad Fairuz, CC BY-SA 4.0
Media23 Jul 2020
The New York Times reported that Pentagon UFO work had continued inside the Office of Naval Intelligence as the UAP Task Force and that a Senate report expected periodic public findings. Consultant Eric Davis said he had briefed officials on 'off-world vehicles'; none has been publicly verified.
Photo: U.S. Navy, Public domain
Government17 Jun 2020
In the report on its intelligence bill, the Senate Intelligence Committee, then chaired by Marco Rubio, directed the DNI and Defense Secretary to report on UAP within 180 days of enactment. The resulting preliminary assessment was released in June 2021.
Photo: US Senate, Public domain
