Incredible but true, almost half of the new UFO cases, opened in 2022, are unexplained, as written by Pentagon officials. The US government has been flooded with hundreds of reports. About half of them remains unexplained, as reported by an unclassified document from the American Defense Department (ref.) on January 12th.
The Pentagon report
The 11-page report, filed by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), reveals that the Pentagon has catalogued a total of 510 reports of alleged sightings of unidentified flying objects (UFOs). Of these cases, 366 were recently identified in 2022. The remaining 144 were identified in a previous ODNI report that examined UFO data collected between 2004 and 2017.
Of the 366 recent open cases, 195 were initially solved with relatively banal explanations. According to the report, 26 cases were identified as drones, 163 were classified as “balloons or balloon-like entities”. Six were labeled as air disorder, such as birds or plastic bags. The results fit with previous statements from Pentagon officials that the most recent cases were probably the result of drones and foreign surveillance disorder.
The remaining 171 UFO cases, however, are considered by the Pentagon as unexplained due to the lack of detailed data, according to the report. Some of these cases, involving objects that moved in unusual or inexplicable ways, are still under investigation. Fortunately, the document specifies that “no UFO encounter has directly contributed to adverse effects on the observer’s health”.
Interest in UFOs
The US government has shown renewed interest in UFO investigations in recent years. Since leaked military footage of unidentified aircraft moving in seemingly impossible ways, made its way into mainstream media. In early 2022, the Pentagon founded a new office specifically to coordinate and investigate UFO reports from US military personnel.
The office, called All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office, has taken charge of the 366 newly identified reports and expects to receive many more. Meanwhile, the government is working to destigmatize UFO reports in the interest of national security and citizen safety, as agency officials have emphasized.