As far back as 2019, Navy officials briefed certain members of the Congressional Armed Services and Intelligence committees that some strange UFOs had strong potential to be conventional counterintelligence-related security threats, the Washington Examiner has learned. Congress was also told repeatedly that the primary purpose of Navy investigations was not to look for UFOs but to address flight safety concerns.
A number of personnel speaking to the Washington Examiner on the condition of anonymity say that they believe that the leadership of the now-defunct Unidentified Aerial Phenomena Task Force co-opted reports of what were likely foreign espionage tools involving small balloons or drones in order to characterize them as extraordinary for purposes of personal bias. They believe that military flight crews were sometimes ill-served by the manner in which their witness reporting was later presented by the UAP Task Force as evidence of truly extraordinary, rather than more conventionally explainable, UFOs belonging to a foreign government.
CHINA REMINDS US WHY THE SPACE FORCE WAS CREATED
These reports created tension among the Defense Department, other government officials, and the UAP Task Force. That task force was established to investigate reports of "unidentified aerial phenomena," otherwise known as unidentified flying objects, in deference to growing flight safety concerns. The government's UFO investigation is now supervised by, but not wholly dependent upon, the Pentagon's All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office. This office is attempting to identify the origin, capability, and mission of UFOs feasibly affecting U.S. interests.
Relevant to the now-public activity of Chinese surveillance balloons, there have been tensions over whether some recently militarily recorded UFOs were truly extraordinary or whether they were suspected Chinese intelligence devices.
To be clear, a 2022 intelligence community report identifies a small subset of UFOs recorded by the U.S. military as exhibiting "unusual flight characteristics or performance capabilities." Indicative of intelligent control, some of these UFOs evince exceptionally advanced technologies beyond anything in the possession of any nation. They fit with a historic range of witness and data recordings reaching back decades.
A particularly striking UFO incident involving the Navy occurred in 2004. Other notable reports include incidents in 1957, 1968, and others involving nuclear weapons facilities. Congress almost certainly would not have legislated the improved analysis of these UFOs without the efforts of officials such as Luis Elizondo, who formerly headed the Pentagon's UFO investigations effort. The White House recently underlined the stigma attached to UFOs by making jokes about the movie E.T.
Yet China is the U.S. intelligence community's primary concern across a range of areas and the U.S. military's top priority amid escalating tensions over Taiwan. China's balloon program has been a known U.S. intelligence concern for a number of years, with the People's Liberation Army itself identifying its balloon intelligence activities in 2021. The operational security characterizing China's aerial intelligence efforts proximate to U.S. airspace has been impressive. The Washington Examiner understands that U.S. government searches of civilian freighters and domestic locations both turned up only limited evidence of where suspected surveillance devices are being operated from.
As reported by the Drive and others, China's intelligence efforts off U.S. coasts have been bold. But officials say the Chinese balloons have been a well-known foreign intelligence concern for a number of years. They say that the UAP Task Force, then led by Jay Stratton, was reluctant to confront the balloon UFO consideration. Stratton's relationship with Tom DeLonge, a musician who established a UFO research group, and his association with research at Skinwalker Ranch (where anomalous phenomena have been reported) also raised concerns with the Navy.
Stratton adamantly resists this characterization and rejects the aforementioned claim of other officials that the UFO task force was primarily focused on air safety. In a statement to the Washington Examiner, he asserted, "No one involved with the Pentagon’s UAP Task Force ever labeled something a UAP, Unidentified Aerial Phenomena, if it was identified as anything known or if it performed in a similar manner to known conventional technology, obviously including balloons. Anyone suggesting otherwise is simply trying to mislead the public into thinking very real UAP are balloons."
Regardless, one key contention was whether radar returns indicating some UFOs traveling at very high speed (multi-Mach) were truly unconventional UFOs or simply balloons producing bad data returns due to their particular physical profile. Directly knowledgeable personnel convinced of the latter scenario felt ignored by leaders in Congress and the Pentagon when they offered their concerns. They say they believed that the UAP Task Force was diverting government resources to researching truly unconventional UFOs at the expense of addressing Chinese balloons. It bears noting, however, that some UFO reports include military eyewitness sightings of apparently sizable vehicles performing extraordinary maneuvers (with apparently corroborating radar/other sensor recordings of the same object). This type of UFO is not what the complainant sources are referring to.
China has taken advantage of the stigma associated with the UFO subject for its espionage efforts. The PLA explicitly notes that "balloons are emerging as viable, capable alternatives to aerial weapons that are less likely to be detected by enemy air defenses or often mistaken for UFOs." This assessment reflects the difficulty of even advanced radar systems to sustain accurate tracks on balloons. Active electronically scanned array radar systems deployed on fighter jets often struggle to produce accurate data returns on balloons and helicopters.
The outstanding question: whether a willingness by senior Pentagon and congressional leaders to allow foreign intelligence devices to be cataloged or otherwise ignored as unexplained UFOs has granted China freedom to conduct aggressive intelligence collection activities. Top line: The U.S. has an interest in understanding truly extraordinary UFOs, but also effectively assessing and responding to more conventional foreign threats.