British military says it’s ‘aware’ of UFO report referenced by Obama

The British military has said it is ‘aware’ of a forthcoming US report on UFOs that could have global significance.

The Ministry of Defence (MoD) confirmed it has heard of the study but is not ‘officially engaged’ in the high-level work across the Atlantic.

The terse response came four months late after a Freedom of Information (FoI) challenge that reached the information watchdog.

Commentators have speculated that the highly-anticipated research into unexplained aerial phenomena (UAP) by the Department of Defense (DoD) may contain seismic revelations.

In March last year, the Pentagon piqued global interest in UFOs by releasing three declassified videos showing what it described as UAP.

Astonished navy fighter pilots filmed objects apparently moving at angles and speeds far outstripping any man-made craft.

On Tuesday, Barack Obama further heightened anticipation of the report due before Congress by acknowledging the existence of objects without an ‘easily explainable pattern’. The former US President said on James Corden’s The Late Show that ‘there is footage and records of objects in the skies that we don’t know exactly what they are’.

The Task Force has been set up by the US Government to examine evidence of UAP that could be a security threat.

The Senate Intelligence Committee expects the DoD’s Director of National Intelligence to deliver the report next month, although it is now subject to an ‘evaluation’, suggesting it is enduring a rocky path to Congress.

The MoD initially failed to reply to or acknowledge a response for information about its knowledge of the report until Metro.co.uk made a complaint to the Information Commissioner’s Office.

When the brisk answer did arrive, the Air Command Secretariat, based with the RAF in Buckinghamshire, said it had ‘no information’.

However, the guarded reply, which followed the request sent in January 2021, continued: ‘Under Section 16 of the Act (Advice and Assistance) you may wish to note that while the MoD is aware of the existence of the report quoted in your request, the MoD has neither had foresight of the report nor has it been formally engaged during its writing.’

Nick Pope, who ran the Government’s now-defunct UFO desk, told Metro.co.uk he would be willing to ‘come out of retirement’ if there was no engagement between the two nations on the issue.

‘National security issue’

‘Let’s just suppose there’s no sleight of hand or mistake here, and the MoD’s response is accurate,’ he said.

‘In a way, that’s worse, because it means the UK is out of the loop on a rapidly-developing situation that the US Government is clearly treating as a defence and national security issue.

‘If the US, as a global superpower, is concerned, then the UK should be worried too.

‘I call on the Secretary of State for Defence to raise this subject with his US opposite number and ensure that the appropriate MoD staff engage with the UAP Task Force, sharing data and exchanging ideas.

‘If the MoD genuinely has no corporate memory on this issue, I’ll willingly come out of retirement to help.

‘The MoD, the UK military and the UK intelligence community have some of the finest resources, capabilities and people in the world.

‘We should want to be a part of this, and the US should welcome our involvement and collaboration.’

‘Off radar’

However, the UFO expert believes it is likely that there is a secure channel for sharing information between the two nations.

He said: ‘I wonder if the denial of formal engagement with the US authorities masks an informal involvement that might be kept unofficial – perhaps even routed through a defence contractor – to keep it off the radar and outside the scope of FoI.’

Mr Pope said the US had shown an awareness of UK UFO cases such as the Rendlesham Forest incident and the Task Force had shared some preliminary data with ‘Five Eyes’ intelligence-sharing nations on secure servers to which agencies including GCHQ have access.

He added: ‘Another issue is that since the MoD’s public-facing UFO work was terminated in 2009, there’s no real corporate memory on this.

‘Staff in Air Secretariat will simply know that investigations of the public’s sightings have ceased, but they may have no visibility of highly classified and rigorously compartmentalized MoD interest in the US Navy sightings and the intelligence assessment being prepared for Congress.

‘Simply put, they may not have identified the right people to ask – particularly if the work has been contracted out to an aerospace company.’

‘No defence purpose’

A spokesperson for the MoD, which has an official line of not dealing with UFO speculation, referred back to the FoI response.

The representative also reiterated the department’s existing position, which states: ‘Since 2009 the MoD no longer responds to reported UFO sightings, or investigates them as in over 50 years, no UFO report has revealed any evidence of a potential threat to the United Kingdom.

‘The MOD UFO desk was closed because it served no defence purpose and was taking staff ‘away from more valuable defence-related activities.
There was/is no defence benefit in such investigations and therefore, it was, and is, an inappropriate use of defence resources.’

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