THE Pentagon has launched an online UFO reporting tool as military officials admit to uncovering “some things.”
This comes as the agency has made an effort to be more transparent in its investigation into unidentified anomalous phenomena.
AFPAn online UFO reporting tool was released by the Pentagon[/caption]
Only current or former federal employees, or those “with direct knowledge of US government programs or activities related to UAP dating back to 1945” are eligible to use the form, which was released on Tuesday.
The form was made available on the website of the Department of Defense’s All-Domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO).
It will be available to the public soon, said officials.
The launch follows the appointment of former Pentagon liaison Mark McInerney as the first director of UAP research at Nasa last month.
Nasa promised to create an army of citizen skywatchers around the world to improve observations of UAPs.
The new tool “is intended as an initial point of contact… it is not intended for conveying potentially sensitive or classified information,” read the AARO website.
Sean Kirkpatrick, the director of AARO said in a statement on Tuesday that secondhand information on UAPs or encounters aren’t welcome.
“This reporting mechanism that is on the website is for people who think they have first-hand knowledge of clandestine programs that the government has been hiding,” he said.
“[If a] pilot’s flying around, and he sees something in his airspace and he needs to report it, that goes through operational channels.”
Theories related to the possible level of government involvement and knowledge of UFO research and programs have swirled for decades.
Some rumors include the infamous secret facility in Area 51 containing alien spacecraft and lifeforms.
Kirkpatrick said those who believe in these rumors will most likely be disappointed.
“I currently have no evidence of any program having ever existed to do any sort of reverse engineering, of any sort of extraterrestrial UAP program,” he said.
“We do have a requirement by law to bring whistleblowers or other interviewees in who think that it does exist, and they may have information that pertains to that.”
He also teased the possibility of confidential information being made public soon.
“We’ve got a package of a lot of new material that we’ve got ready for release. We’ve uncovered some things that we are having declassified. Not just operational videos, but historical documents,” he said.
Kirkpatrick described the information as “educational material that will help inform the public.”
This comes as the Pentagon is trying to be more transparent about UFOsSenate Armed Services Committee Published: [#item_custom_pubDate]