Pentagon launches UFO reporting form
Think you have evidence of a clandestine government UFO program? Now there's a form for that.
The Department of Defense launched a new online tool Tuesday to report government activity related to unidentified anomalous phenomena, also known as UFOs — the latest addition to the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office's website, unveiled in August after the office was established under last year's defense authorization act.
Now, in addition to housing photos and videos of potential cases, the website offers those claiming “firsthand knowledge of a U.S. Government program/activity related to UAP” to submit that information to the government.
While the secure form's use is limited to current or former U.S. government employees, service members and contractors, the office's director, Sean Kirkpatrick, said he understands the public would like to report sightings to his office.
"We are exploring methods for how the public can do so in the forthcoming third phase of the secure reporting mechanism," he said.
Kirkpatrick told reporters that his office has been tasked with gathering information on UFO incidents going back to 1945, according to a Defense Department transcript of the meeting. That data will go into a congressionally mandated report due this June that's intended to aid investigations into alleged U.S. government programs related to unidentified aerial phenomena.
“I’d also like to take this opportunity to strongly encourage any current or former U.S. government employees, military or civilian, or contractors who believe that they have firsthand knowledge of a U.S. government UAP program or activity to please come forward using this new secure reporting mechanism,” Kirkpatrick said in the transcript. “We want to hear from you.”
Any information submitted "will be protected as personal and confidential" and will be shared with his staff "only for the purposes of contacting people for interviews," he said.
Sensitive or classified information should not be included in the form, Kirkpatrick said, explaining it's meant as an “initial point of contact” with his office.
The form will provide guidance on how to submit reports, gather contact information and data about a submitter's affiliation with the U.S. government, and determine if he or she has any "direct knowledge" of a government UAP program or activity.
Kirkpatrick said the form is different from other established reporting measures, such as for sightings by military pilots or the FAA's process for civilian pilots.
What Congress asked his office to do in this review is to have whistleblowers "and anyone that wants to come forward ... present their case and make their statement, for the record,” Kirkpatrick said.
“Operational reporting is different,” he said. “That is, pilot’s flying around, and he sees something in his airspace and he needs to report it. That goes through operational channels.”
Kirkpatrick said his office's site is a “living thing” that will evolve as the work continues, and his office is preparing to release “a lot of new material.”
“We’ve uncovered some things that we are having declassified — not just operational videos, but historical documents that we’ve had declassified, that we’re about to release in the coming days and weeks,” Kirkpatrick said.
The office's latest initiative comes after David Grusch, a former U.S. intelligence official, testified to the House Oversight Committee in July that he had been informed about a "multidecade" program in the Pentagon to collect and reassemble damaged UAPs. He also said he has interviewed individuals who have recovered “nonhuman biologics” from UAP crash sites.
Grusch said in testimony that he prefers to use the term “nonhuman” rather than alien or extraterrestrial.
In response to Grusch’s claims, a Pentagon spokesperson said at the time that the Defense Department “has not discovered any verifiable information to substantiate claims that any programs regarding the possession or reverse-engineering of extraterrestrial materials have existed in the past or exist currently.”
