On December 16, 2017, the Department of Defense (DOD) broke its long-held silence on the UFO issue and released three videos of separate incidents in which Navy jets chased UFOs off the East and West coasts of the United States.

          The chases of the unidentified flying objects are seen from inside the cockpits of Navy F/A-18F Super Hornets, cameras locked on the wingless objects while pilots discuss what they’re seeing. Two of the short videos were recorded in 2004 from USS Nimitz jets flying off the West Coast of the United States, while the third video was recorded in 2015 off the East Coast.

“The government’s recent disclosure is red-hot, fresh-off-the-presses information that once and for all verifies what many people have long-suspected: UFOs are in our skies!” exclaims New York UFO expert Joseph Flammer, an author of books about the unidentified flying object phenomenon and noted field investigator for the Mutual UFO Network (MUFON). 

          Flammer continues, “From these videos, which come complete with pilot discussions and indisputable chain of custody trackability, we now have official confirmation that unidentified aerial phenomena are regularly tracked in our skies by the military.”

          In April, all three videos were presented at a gathering of Main Line MUFON UFO enthusiasts in Strafford, Pennsylvania. Each of the videos is clear and shows oblong objects “locked-on” by Raytheon AN/ASQ-228 Advanced Targeting Forward-Looking Infrared cameras, the most advanced technology available to the Navy.

          “These objects have no familiar signatures, such as sound or heat or smoke trails, and no familiar flight surfaces, like wings, fins or tails. They are not shaped like airplanes and do not move like them either,” observes Flammer. “They are shaped like Tic Tacs and can move at hypersonic speeds of Mach 5 or better. That’s 4,000 miles per hour. So, what are they?”

          This historic disclosure of F/A-18s pursuing unidentified flying objects—a real phenomenon bearing no conventional likenesses to known aircraft and eluding the fighter jets—coincided with the release of a New York Times article announcing the U.S. government had quietly studied UFOs for five years, 2007-2012, at a cost of $22 million, but dropped the program because of a lack of benefits for the money spent.

A Quiet Operation

While the government has openly studied UFOs in the past, in recent years such studies were thought to be top secret, and the Pentagon denied their existence completely. 

          Ironically, the 2007-2012 program was not “top secret” but quietly operated out of the Pentagon under a project titled Advanced Aviation Threat Identification Program. The program was headed by Luis Elizondo, who continued to study UFOs even after the program ended. Although  official funding had stopped, the need for study was clear since reports of chases and sightings continued to land on his desk while he worked at a different position within the DOD. Last year, he resigned from the agency, citing lack of support
for UFO study as one reason for his departure.

Experts Speak in New Jersey

While Elizondo is clearly at the center of the recent whirlwind of breaking news about the government’s disclosure of UFOs, a host of respected speakers will join him in presenting at the upcoming 2018 MUFON Symposium in Cherry Hill, New Jersey.

          In The Demon Haunted World, Carl Sagan notes, “I am often asked, ‘Do you believe in UFOs?’ I’m always struck by how the question is phrased, the suggestion that this is a matter of belief and not evidence. I’m almost never asked, ‘How good is the evidence that UFOs are alien spaceships?’”

          “That’s what we at MUFON do,” explains researcher Cheryl Costa. “We gather and review evidence from around the world searching for the most credible.”

The 2018 MUFON Symposium will be held at the Crowne Plaza, 2349 W. Marlton Pike, in Cherry Hill, NJ, on July 27-29. The annual, ticketed event features speakers, lectures, panel discussions, film screenings and classes, as well as a special day of free events. For complete details, visit MufonSymposium.com.