As such, the DOD is now actively working on expanding an existing office that was initially established to document and catalog such sightings, which necessarily means that there are far more sightings and phenomena occurring than Americans have been told.
"On July 15, 2022, Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks, in coordination with the Director of National Intelligence (DNI), amended her original direction to the Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence & Security by renaming and expanding the scope of the Airborne Object Identification and Management Group (AOIMSG) to the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO), due to the enactment of the National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal 2022, which included a provision to establish an office, in coordination with DNI, with responsibilities that were broader than those originally assigned to the AOIMSG," says a DOD press release published last week.
"[The] Hon. Ronald S. Moultrie informed the department of the establishment of AARO within the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence and Security, and named Dr. Sean M. Kirkpatrick, most recently the chief scientist at the Defense Intelligence Agency's Missile and Space Intelligence Center, as the director of AARO," the formal announcement continued.
"The mission of the AARO will be to synchronize efforts across the Department of Defense, and with other U.S. federal departments and agencies, to detect, identify and attribute objects of interest in, on or near military installations, operating areas, training areas, special use airspace and other areas of interest, and, as necessary, to mitigate any associated threats to safety of operations and national security. This includes anomalous, unidentified space, airborne, submerged and transmedium objects," the statement added.
It should be noted that until only recently, UFOs were only thought to be able to move through the air, but according to recently leaked videos, U.S. Navy warships have tracked "transmedium" objects that move between the air and water effortlessly.
The most credible UFO footage I’ve seen in regards to “transmedium craft” (crafts that fly seamlessly through air, water, space or whatever). I cannot wait til we see the intelligence briefing on all UAP data. pic.twitter.com/6izZsFGkMf
— TOBY (@TobyTinelli) February 4, 2021
Leaked footage taken by the Navy aboard the USS Omaha in July 2019 when the warship was sailing off the coast of San Diego.
Footage shows UFO zipping along, parallel to the water's surface, before disappearing down into the depths pic.twitter.com/1eGecpKn0N
— My Mixtapez (@mymixtapez) May 15, 2021
The press release also noted what the DOD's new office will focus on specifically:
-- Surveillance, Collection and Reporting
-- System Capabilities and Design
-- Intelligence Operations and Analysis
-- Mitigation and Defeat
-- Governance
-- Science and Technology
"Mitigation and defeat" appears to indicate that the Pentagon now believes that these craft, whatever they are, have become legitimate national security threats.
One journalist has focused on these phenomena and has attempted to get to the bottom of what they are: Fox News' Tucker Carlson. Last year, Carlson released a special on Fox Nation, the network's streaming service, that investigated some of the most recent sightings in which he spoke to several experts, all of whom cannot really explain what they've seen but know they are not 'of this earth.'
"The strategic questions with UFOs are what are we dealing with, what are their capabilities, and what is their intention," said Nick Pope, a former investigator for the UK Ministry of Defense.
At this point, however, the federal government has yet to answer that question publicly.
Sources include: