‘Aliens,’ or a foreign power? Pentagon UFO chief says someone is in our backyard
BY MARIK VON RENNENKAMPFF, OPINION CONTRIBUTOR - 11/10/23 7:00 AM ET
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This week, the director of the U.S. government’s UFO analysis office stated that there is “evidence” of concerning unidentified flying object activity “in our backyard.” According to physicist Seán Kirkpatrick, who heads the congressionally-mandated All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office, this alarming UFO activity can be attributed to one of two extraordinary sources: either a foreign power or “aliens.”
To be sure, the ramifications of either would be significant. But Kirkpatrick’s comments, which come as he is about to retire after a 27-year defense and intelligence-focused career, are more intriguing because he also says that “none” of the hundreds of military UFO reports analyzed by his office recently “have been positively attributed to foreign activities.”
At the same time, Kirkpatrick and senior defense officials have ruled out the possibility that secret U.S. programs or experimental aircraft explain the phenomena.
While suspicious UFO cases will “continue to be investigated” for foreign links, the facts at hand appear to support Kirkpatrick’s more startling explanation for the UFO activity in America’s backyard: “aliens.”
Aside from this remarkable development, the mere suggestion by a top government official that “aliens” could explain some UFO activity is the latest example of a striking shift in tone regarding the UFO phenomenon.
For well over half a century, obfuscation, deflection and ridicule defined the government’s approach to what it officially refers to as “unidentified anomalous phenomena” or UAP. But in recent years, former presidents, senior defense and intelligence officials and members of Congress have speculated openly about extraordinary explanations for the most perplexing UFO incidents.
Kirkpatrick’s “aliens” comment fits a broader pattern. Earlier this year, Kirkpatrick raised eyebrows when he co-authored a draft scientific paper with Harvard astrophysicist Avi Loeb hypothesizing that extraterrestrial “parent craft” could release “many small probes” to explore Earth-like planets.
With the best-known contemporary UFO encounters occurring over the ocean, Kirkpatrick and Loeb’s suggestion that such “extraterrestrial technological probes” “would necessarily be looking for water” to refuel is noteworthy.
More importantly, Kirkpatrick stated in a recent presentation that U.S. government sensors and servicemembers are observing “metallic orbs” that are “making very interesting apparent maneuvers” “all over the world.”
Speaking to the Daily Mail, an intelligence source stated that there are “dozens” of unreleased videos recorded by surveillance drones, some of which show “orbs” conducting “remarkable [maneuvers], like suddenly bolt[ing] off the screen.”
Moreover, multiple sensors have apparently observed “metallic orbs” and “translucent” spherical objects traveling at speeds ranging from “stationary to Mach 2,” or twice the speed of sound, with “no [detectable] thermal exhaust.” According to Kirkpatrick, the objects’ enigmatic flight characteristics amount to a unique UFO profile that his panel is “out hunting for.”
Could these seemingly highly advanced “metallic orbs” have inspired the director of the government’s UFO office to theorize that “extraterrestrial probes” might be exploring Earth?
“Metallic orbs” matching Kirkpatrick’s description have perplexed U.S. military aircrews for 80 years. During World War II, American aviators reported encounters with “large numbers of silver spheres.” The New York Times, Associated Press, Reuters, Stars and Stripes and the now-defunct International News Service all published stories in late 1944 describing military aircrews’ encounters with “mysterious silver balls which float in the air.”
According to the reporting, the “silver colored spheres” “hang in the air either singly or in clusters” and, with noteworthy parallels to Kirkpatrick’s contemporary UFO profile, occasionally appeared “semi-translucent.”