“More than 50 years ago, the U.S. Government ended Project Blue Book, an effort to catalogue and understand sightings of objects in the air that could not otherwise be explained.”
House Intelligence UAP Hearing - May 17, 2022
- Date
- 17 May 2022
- Venue
- House Intelligence Subcommittee on Counterterrorism, Counterintelligence, and Counterproliferation
- Language
- en
- Status
- Extracted
308
statements
18
speakers
11
entities mentioned
Speakers
18 speakers, A to ZAdam SchiffChairman8 statementsChairman CarsonChairman21 statementsChairman SchiffChairman1 statementDr. WenstrupU.S. Representative (Ohio)10 statementsMr. BrayDeputy Director of Naval Intelligence96 statementsMr. CrawfordRanking Member18 statementsMr. GallagherCongressman13 statementsMr. HimesCongressman7 statementsMr. KrishnamoorthiCongressman14 statementsMr. LaHoodCongressman4 statementsMr. MoultrieUnder Secretary of Defense for Intelligence and Security48 statementsMr. SchiffChairman17 statementsMr. WelchCongressman6 statementsRonald S. MoultrieUnder Secretary of Defense for Intelligence and Security14 statementsScott W. BrayDeputy Director of Naval Intelligence8 statements
Unknown3 statements
Unknown (Testimony)17 statements
Unknown Questioner3 statements
Transcript
308 statements, in transcript orderEach entry is one claim, quoted word for word. These are extracted statements, not the full record: the original document has everything.
- 001
- 002
“For more than 20 years, that project had treated unidentified anomalies in our airspace as a national security threat to be monitored and investigated.”
- 003
“In 2017, we learned for the first time that the Department of Defense had quietly restarted a similar organization, tracking what we now call unidentified aerial phenomena, or UAPs.”
- 004
“Last year Congress rewrote the charter for that organization, now called the Airborne Object Identification and Management Synchronization Group, or AOIMSG for short.”
- 005
“For too long the stigma associated with UAPs has gotten in the way of good intelligence analysis. Pilots avoided reporting or were laughed at when they did.”
- 006
“DOD officials relegated the issue to the back room or swept it under the rug entirely, fearful of a skeptical national security community.”
- 007
“Today we know better. UAPs are unexplained, it is true, but they are real. They need to be investigated, and any threats they pose need to be mitigated.”
- 008
“Secondly, you have to convince the audience today, and most especially our military and civilian aviators, the culture has changed, that those who report UAPs be treated as witnesses, not as kooks.”
- 009
“I am looking for you to assure us today that all conclusions are on the table.”
- 010
“We are mindful today that AOIMSG is not starting from scratch. This is the third version of this task force in DOD, and civil society groups like the Mutual UFO Network, Mr. Corbell, and others have been collecting data on this issue for years.”
- 011
“The last time Congress had a hearing on UAPs was half a century ago. I hope that it does not take 50 more years for Congress to hold another because transparency is desperately needed.”
- 012
“While this topic evokes the creative imaginations of many, aside from all the hype and speculation, there are important underlying issues posed by UAPs.”
- 013
“I have to say I am more interested in our understanding of Chinese and Russian hypersonic weapon development or understanding why this administration was so slow to share actionable intelligence with the Ukrainians.”
- 014
“However, in as much as this topic may help us better understand unknown activities of Russia and China, I am on board.”
- 015
“The Intelligence Community has a serious duty to our taxpayers to prevent potential adversaries, such as China and Russia, from surprising us with unforeseen new technologies.”
- 016
“As overseers of the Intelligence Community, this committee has an obligation to understand what you are doing to determine whether any UAPs are new technologies are not, and if they are, where are they coming from?”
- 017
“In general, the IC spends much of its time and resources trying to understand what we call known-unknowns. When it comes to foreign nations' weapons systems and sensors, known-unknowns are these features we don't fully understand yet. The challenge associated with UAP is that they are completely unknown and require a more expansive collection analysis effort.”
- 018
“The IC must take it seriously when there are credible observations of phenomena that seem to perform in ways that could pose a threat to safe flight operations or that could be signs of a foreign adversary's attempt to develop a strategic technological surprise against the United States.”
- 019
“It is also essential that our pilots and others feel they can report UAPs they observe without any stigma for doing so.”
- 020
“This is the open, unclassified portion of our hearing. We will have a closed, classified part later. It is important for the public to know that the classification of information exists to protect national security, not to try to hide the truth.”
- 021
“When we are trying to determine if any UAPs are new technologies being developed by foreign governments, we are inevitably going to run into classified information about what new systems and technologies we do know are in the works here or abroad.”
- 022
“But more information does not risk national security. It should be shared with our allies and the public when feasible.”
- 023
“It is my hope that the Intelligence Community will continue to try to determine the nature of UAPs we have observed and will keep Congress fully apprised of all developments.”
- 024
“Thank you, Chairman Carson, for holding this open hearing on unidentified aerial phenomena and for your leadership on this issue.”
- 025
“Holding a portion of our discussion today in open session is critical to the cause of transparency and openness which was Congress' intent in authorizing and funding this new task force.”
- 026
“The larger effort that is being undertaken to study and characterize UAP reports is an important step towards understanding these phenomenon, what we know and don't know.”
- 027
“UAP reports have been around for decades, and yet we haven't had an orderly way for them to be reported without stigma and to be investigated.”
- 028
“UAP reports need to be understood as a national security matter. And that message needs to go out across DOD, the IC, and the whole of the U.S. Government.”
- 029
“When we spot something we don't understand or can't identify in our airspace, it is the job of those we entrust with our national security to investigate and to report back.”
- 030
“It is also the responsibility of our government and this panel to share as much as we can with the American people since excessive secrecy only breeds distrust and speculation.”
- 031
“Among the most fascinating questions: Are these phenomena that we can measure? That is, instruments report there is something there. It is not the human eye confusing objects in the sky. There is something there, measurable by multiple instrument.”
- 032
“And yet it seems to move in directions that are inconsistent with what we know of physics or science more broadly. And that, to me, poses questions of tremendous interest and as well as potential national security significance.”
- 033Ronald S. MoultrieUnder Secretary of Defense for Intelligence and SecurityFactual AssertionUnder oath
“Thank you. Chairman Schiff, Committee Chairman Carson, Ranking Member Crawford, distinguished members of the subcommittee, it is a privilege to be here with you today to address your questions regarding unidentified aerial phenomena, or UAP.”
- 034Ronald S. MoultrieUnder Secretary of Defense for Intelligence and SecurityFactual AssertionUnder oath
“I am pleased to be joined by Mr. Scott Bray, the Deputy Director of Naval Intelligence, who will speak to the Navy's Unidentified Aerial Phenomena Task Force, which laid the foundation for the efforts we will discuss today.”
- 035Ronald S. MoultrieUnder Secretary of Defense for Intelligence and SecurityFactual AssertionUnder oath
“First, I would like to thank Congress for supporting the Department's UAP efforts. The NDAA for fiscal year 2022 has helped us to establish a dedicated office to oversee processes and procedures for the timely collection, processing, analysis, and reporting of UAP-related data.”
- 036Ronald S. MoultrieUnder Secretary of Defense for Intelligence and SecurityFactual AssertionUnder oath
“Put simply, UAP are airborne objects that, when encountered, cannot be immediately identified. However, it is the Department's contention that, by combining appropriately structured collected data with rigorous scientific analysis, any object that we encounter can likely be isolated, characterized, identified, and, if necessary, mitigated.”
- 037Ronald S. MoultrieUnder Secretary of Defense for Intelligence and SecurityFactual AssertionUnder oath
“We know that our servicemembers have encountered unidentified aerial phenomena and, because UAPs pose potential flight safety and general security risks, we are committed to a focused effort to determine their origins.”
- 038Ronald S. MoultrieUnder Secretary of Defense for Intelligence and SecurityFactual AssertionUnder oath
“Our effort will include the thorough examination of adversarial platforms and potential breakthrough technologies, U.S. Government or commercial platforms, allied or partner systems, and other natural phenomenon.”
- 039Ronald S. MoultrieUnder Secretary of Defense for Intelligence and SecurityFactual AssertionUnder oath
“We also understand that there has been a cultural stigma surrounding UAP. Our goal is to eliminate the stigma by fully incorporating our operators and mission personnel into a standardized data-gathering process.”
- 040Ronald S. MoultrieUnder Secretary of Defense for Intelligence and SecurityOpinionCertainty: BelievedUnder oath
“We believe that making UAP reporting a mission imperative will be instrumental to the effort's success.”
- 041Ronald S. MoultrieUnder Secretary of Defense for Intelligence and SecurityFactual AssertionUnder oath
“To optimize the Department's UAP work, we are establishing an office within the Office of the Secretary of Defense. That office's function is clear: to facilitate the identification of previously unknown or unidentified airborne objects in a methodical, logical and standardized manner.”
- 042Ronald S. MoultrieUnder Secretary of Defense for Intelligence and SecurityFactual AssertionUnder oath
“These goals will ensure that we are working closely with operational personnel on training and reporting requirements, developing data and intelligence requirements, standardizing and integrating processes and procedures for collection, operational surveillance, analysis, and reporting, leveraging our research and development capabilities to improve detection, characterization, and identification of UAPs, developing mitigating solutions and procedures, and identifying strategy and policy solutions.”
- 043Ronald S. MoultrieUnder Secretary of Defense for Intelligence and SecurityFactual AssertionUnder oath
“This effort will maximize collaboration and build upon already existing relationships with the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, the FAA, DHS, and the FBI. We are also committed to strong partnerships with the Department of Energy, NOAA, the DEA, NASA, and the National Labs and, just as importantly, our international partners and allies.”
- 044Ronald S. MoultrieUnder Secretary of Defense for Intelligence and SecurityFactual AssertionUnder oath
“With regard to the importance of transparency, the Department is fully committed to the principle of openness and accountability to the American people. However, we are also mindful of our obligation to protect sensitive sources and methods.”
- 045Ronald S. MoultrieUnder Secretary of Defense for Intelligence and SecurityOpinionCertainty: BelievedUnder oath
“Our goal is to strike that delicate balance, one that enables us to maintain the public's trust while preserving those capabilities that are vital to the support of our service personnel.”
- 046Ronald S. MoultrieUnder Secretary of Defense for Intelligence and SecurityFactual AssertionUnder oath
“In closing, the Department is committed to this effort and welcomes the challenge. We thank you for your committed support and look forward to your questions.”
- 047
“Chairman Schiff, Chairman Carson, Ranking Member Crawford, and committee members, thank you very much for the opportunity to be here today to highlight the ongoing work of the Department of Defense regarding unidentified aerial phenomena.”
- 048
“Since the early 2000s, we 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.”
- 049
“Reports of sightings are frequent and continuing.”
- 050
“We attribute this increase in reporting to a number of factors including our work to destigmatize reporting and increase in the number of new systems such as quadcopters and unmanned aerial systems that are in our airspace, identification of what we can classify as clutter, mylar balloons and other types of air trash, and improvements in the capabilities of our various sensors to detect things in our airspace.”
- 051
“Almost 2 years ago, in August of 2020, Deputy Secretary of Defense Norquist directed the establishment of the Unidentified Aerial Phenomena Task Force within the Department of the Navy.”
- 052
“The UAP Task Force was built on the foundation of the Navy's initial efforts to respond to the reports from our aviators on unidentified objects observed in our training ranges.”
- 053
“The basic issues then and now are twofold. First, incursions in our training ranges by unidentified objects represent serious hazards to safety of flight.”
- 054
“In every”
- 055Unknown (Testimony)Factual AssertionUnder oath
“Deputy Secretary of Defense Norquist directed the establishment of the Unidentified Aerial Phenomena Task Force within the Department of the Navy”
- 056Unknown (Testimony)Factual AssertionUnder oath
“The UAP Task Force was built on the foundation of the Navy's initial efforts to respond to the reports from our aviators on unidentified objects observed in our training ranges”
- 057Unknown (Testimony)Factual AssertionUnder oath
“Incursions in our training ranges by unidentified objects represent serious hazards to safety of flight. In every aspect of the naval aviation, safety of our air crews is paramount”
- 058Unknown (Testimony)Factual AssertionUnder oath
“Intrusions by unknown aircraft or objects pose potential threats to the security of our operations. Our aviators train as they would fight. So any intrusions that may compromise the security of our operations by revealing our capabilities, our tactics, techniques, or procedures are of great concern to the Navy and the Department of Defense”
- 059Unknown (Testimony)Factual AssertionUnder oath
“We instituted a data-driven approach to the investigations where we could collect as much data as possible and use all available resources to analyze and make informed decisions on the best ways to address our findings”
- 060Unknown (Testimony)Factual AssertionUnder oath
“Our main objective was to transition UAP efforts from an anecdotal or narrative-based approach to a rigorous science and technology engineering focused study”
- 061Unknown (Testimony)Factual AssertionUnder oath
“We also spent considerable efforts engaging directly with our naval aviators and building relationships to help destigmatize the act of reporting sightings or encounters”
- 062Unknown (Testimony)Factual AssertionUnder oath
“Navy and Air Force crews now have step-by-step procedures for reporting on a UAP on their kneeboard in their -- in the cockpit and in their postflight debrief procedures”
- 063Unknown (Testimony)Factual AssertionUnder oath
“The direct result of those efforts has been increased reporting with increased opportunities to focus a number of sensors on any objects”
- 064Unknown (Testimony)Factual AssertionUnder oath
“The message is now clear: If you see something, you need to report it. And the message has been received”
- 065Unknown (Testimony)Eyewitness AccountUnder oath
“In fact, recently I received a call from a senior naval aviator with over 2,000 flight hours. He called me personally from the flight line after landing to talk about an encounter that he had just experienced”
- 066Unknown (Testimony)Factual AssertionUnder oath
“We also made a concerted effort to assemble subject-matter experts from across the Department of Defense and the Intelligence Community and other U.S. Government agencies and departments”
- 067Unknown (Testimony)Factual AssertionUnder oath
“We forged partnerships with the research, development, and acquisition communities, with industry partners, and with academic research labs”
- 068Unknown (Testimony)Factual AssertionUnder oath
“Subject-matter experts from a wide variety of fields, including physics, optics, metallurgy, meteorology, just to name a few, have been brought in to expand our understanding in areas where we may not have organic expertise”
- 069Unknown (Testimony)Factual AssertionUnder oath
“Any given observation may be fleeting or longer. It may be recorded or not. It may be observable by one or multiple assets. In short, there is rarely an easy answer”
- 070
“There it was. That is in many cases that is all that a report may include, and in many other cases, we have far less than this”
- 071
“This often limited amount of high-quality data and reporting hampers our ability to draw firm conclusions about the nature or intent of UAP”
- 072
“If and when individual UAP incidents are resolved, they likely fall into one of five potential explanatory categories: airborne clutter, natural atmospheric phenomena, U.S. Government or U.S. industry developmental programs, foreign adversary systems, or an other bin that allows for a holding bin of difficult cases and for the possibility of surprise and potential scientific discovery”
- 073
“We stand by those initial results”
- 074
“Since the release of that preliminary report, UAP database has now grown to contain approximately 400 reports”
- 075
“The stigma has been reduced”
- 076
“We have also made progress in resolving the character of a limited number of UAP encounters”
- 077
“In this video, U.S. Navy personnel recorded what appears to be triangles, some flashing, recorded several years ago off the coast of the United States”
- 078
“This was the recorded while the U.S. Navy ship observed a number of small, unmanned aerial systems in the area”
- 079
“The video was taken through night vision goggles with a single-lens reflex camera”
- 080
“These remained unresolved for several years”
- 081
“Several years later and off a different coast, U.S. Navy personnel, again in a swarm of unmanned aerial systems and, again, through night vision goggles and an SLR camera, recorded this image”
- 082
“But this time other U.S. Navy assets also observed unmanned aerial systems nearby, and we are now reasonably confident that these triangles correlate to unmanned aerial systems in the area”
- 083
“The triangular appearance is a result of light passing through the night vision goggles and then being recorded by an SLR camera”
- 084
“I don't mean to suggest that everything that we observe is identifiable”
- 085
“But this is a great example of how it takes considerable effort to understand what we are seeing in the examples that we are able to collect”
- 086
“In this example, we accumulated sufficient data from two similar encounters from two different time periods in two different geographic areas to help us draw these conclusions”
- 087
“That is not always the case, though”
- 088
“We recognize that that can be unsatisfying or insufficient in the eyes of many”
- 089
“It is a popular topic in our Nation with various theories as to what these objects may be and where they originate”
- 090
“By nature, we are all curious. And we seek to understand the unknown. And, as a lifelong necessary professional, I am impatient. I want immediate explanations for this as much as anyone else”
- 091
“However, understanding can take significant time and effort”
- 092
“It is why we have endeavored to concentrate on this data-driven process, to drive fact-based results”
- 093
“And given the nature of our business, national defense, we have had to sometimes be less forthcoming with information in open forums than many would hope”
- 094
“If UAP do indeed represent a potential threat to our security, then the capability, systems, processes, and sources we use to observe, record, study, or analyze these phenomena need to be classified at appropriate levels”
- 095
“We do not want, we do not want potential adversaries to know exactly what we are able to see or understand or how we come to the conclusions we make”
- 096
“Therefore, public disclosures must be carefully considered on a case-by-case basis”
- 097
“We are concentrating on a seamless transition to the new organization”
- 098
“Future analysis of complicated issues, of UAP issues, will greatly benefit from the infrastructure of the process and the procedures that we have developed to date”
- 099
“I am confident that the task force under Navy leadership has forged a path forward that will allow us to anchor assessments in science and engineering vice anecdotal evidence”
- 100You followed a link to this statement
“We remain committed to that goal, as I know the USDI organization does as well”
- Claim type
- Confirmation
- Certainty
- Certain
- Tone
- Cooperative
- Specificity
- 0.70
- 101
“The team has made a lot of progress, but we really are just establishing”
- 102Unknown (Testimony)ReferenceUnder oath
“As detailed in the ODNI report, if and when individual UAP incidents are resolved, they likely fall into one of five potential explanatory categories”
- 103Unknown (Testimony)Factual AssertionUnder oath
“We brought many allies and international partners into our discussions on UAP”
- 104
“You mentioned fidelity, and I think it is important to talk about the relationship from the Navy is the lead agency on this. How do you interact with Space Force, Air Force to create that degree of fidelity?”
- 105
“We are talking about sensors and so on. And I guess where I have some concerns is that many of the images that we see commonly in this committee and even in open source, the resolution and the clarity that would allow a robust technical intelligence analysis is challenging.”
- 106
“So is AOIMSG prepared to address the quality and quantity of data collected on UAP to advance intelligence collection? Do you have the adequate sensors you need to collect that high-quality data?”
- 107
“One of the lines of effort that we have is looking at our sensor capabilities and to understand whether or not, as the video showed that Mr. Bray displayed sometimes it is very fleeting data that we have on some of these objects.”
- 108
“We want to make sure that, one, our systems are calibrated to actually be able to collect on the objects. You know, our sensors today are calibrated for specific things. We want to make sure they are calibrated for things of this nature, things of this size, things of this velocity, if I can use that term.”
- 109
“We want to make sure that, once we have that, that that data is stored in some standardized method that we can then extract and that we can feed into our system real time. So we do not, like, want this to take some prolonged period of time for us to get that data.”
- 110
“But our goal is absolutely to have that high-fidelity information that we get from all sensors, and we want to be able to integrate that with what we may have off of ground-based sensors. So whatever we may have on the platform, whatever we may have on the ground, whatever we may have from other sensors that we may have in different domains, we want to be able to integrate that all and get this integrated picture as we would, as I said, with any other unidentified objects or things we are tracking as a part of our normal intelligence responsibilities.”
- 111
“Last question, Mr. Bray, if you would, I am a Navy pilot. I have encountered a UAP. Walk me through the reporting protocol once I see something that I think needs reporting.”
- 112
“The first thing that aviator would do after landing as a part of their normal debriefing is they would contact their intelligence officer. Their intelligence officer would then walk them through, first, filing a -- first, actually, data preservation to ensure that, whatever sensor data may be on the aircraft, that we preserve that so that it is available for later analysis.”
- 113
“Second, they would actually fill out a form that includes details like where they were operating, altitudes they were operating, speeds, what they observed, whatever sensor data they may have recorded from that.”
- 114
“And then that report is filed. It goes two places. One, it goes through the operational chain of command so that operational units are aware of what is being observed and also to the UAP Task Force so that they can take that data, database it, and quite often have individuals from the task force contact the aviator and ask them additional questions if there were things that weren't clear in the report.”
- 115
“That then goes into a database where we then compare it with other observations that we have, again, comparing for locations, comparing for altitudes, speeds, shapes, if any RF emissions were detected from the platform, all of that so that we can try to reach some conclusions on that.”
- 116
“Mr. Bray, can you rerun that first image that looked like it was outside the plane window? And if you wouldn't mind going up to the screen and tell us what we are seeing, not that you can necessarily tell us what we are seeing but -- explain what we should be looking at in that first image.”
- 117
“You are looking outside a U.S. Navy F-18, and it shows how difficult the analysis is.”
- 118
“As you can see, finding a UAP is harder than you may think. What you will find eventually on this, when we find the right frame, is for literally about one frame here is a spherical object that passes right through here, passes right through there, because the aircraft is moving pretty fast in this direction of the flyby of it.”
- 119
“Right here. It is right -- [pointing to screen] No, that is not the one. Lexi, just push "play." Let's see if -- here, what you will see coming up right here is -- there it went. Now back up just a -- a spherical object right here zooms by the window right in this area right there. There we go.”
- 120
“So, as you can see, it is difficult. And I think a part of the issue here is the laptop we are working with is not as easy for us stopping that video in the right spot.”
Showing 120 of 308
Entities mentioned
11 across 1 typeEverything the statements in this source refer to. People open their own page; everything else opens in the graph.