The UFO search by the U.S. government appears to be ongoing and is part of a program called the Unidentified Aerial Phenomenon Task Force (UAPTF), operating under the U.S. Office of Naval Intelligence, according to recent Senate committee reports.
A report by Live Science reveals that UAPTF has assumed the responsibilities of a defunct UFO-hunting program, which disbanded in 2012. Now, with UAPTF assuming the role, it's possible that new findings of the unknown could be made public within the next six months.
For now, all investigations made by the UAPTF are classified, but a briefing delivered to Defense Department representatives in March by a former consultant for the UFO program mentioned retrievals from "off-world vehicles not made on this earth," according to a New York Times report. Despite this claim, any evidence of alleged extraterrestrial technology has yet to be produced.
UFOs, also called UAP or unidentified aerial phenomena, are objects that defy explanation. At the same time, most people would think that investigating UFOs is part of our search for intelligent life outside our own, the goal of military agencies to determine whether these mysterious flying objects are a threat to humanity.
Pioneering UFO programs in the U.S. include the National Investigations Committee on Aerial Phenomena (NICAP) and the Air Force's Project Blue Book, which investigated UFO appearances in the U.S. from the 1950s through the 1980s. The Pentagon in 2007 founded the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program (AATIP), but budget cuts led to the organization's demise in 2012.
But Pentagon apparently did not stop looking for UFOs. The NY Times has revealed that the Department of Defense representatives confirmed that the U.S. government had been actively investigating UFO cases since 2017 and, to this day, remains active under UAPTF.
In June, the U.S. Senate intelligence committee addressed the activities of UAPTF during its Intelligence Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2021. This was when it was uncovered that America's UFO-hunting efforts have continued and did not cease at all.
"The committee understands that the relevant intelligence may be sensitive," committee members wrote in the bill. "Nevertheless, the committee finds that the information sharing and coordination across the intelligence community has been inconsistent."
The committee's bill seeks to regulate the tracking, organization, and accessibility of UFO-related information gathered by the task force. This means that within six months of the bill's enactment, a public report will be "submitted in unclassified form."
