Officials: UFO Sightings Are 'Frequent and Continuing'

UFO enthusiasts are hoping government officials will be more forthcoming about flying saucers than in days of old as Congress convenes its first hearing on UFOs in 50 years Tuesday. Two top military officials tasked with investigating UFOs—which the government now refer to as Unexplained Aerial Phenomena (UAPs)—are speaking about their findings in the first public congressional hearings since 1966, when a UFO sighting was observed by 40 people in Michigan, per the BBC. Navy disclosures and a 2021 Pentagon report describing 143 unexplained encounters from 2004 have led to new focus on UFOs. But some in Congress believe the Pentagon knows more than it's letting on.

"There's an arrogance in government at that level that we cannot handle what's going on out there," GOP Rep. Tim Burchett of Tennessee tells News Nation. "It's a bogus cover-up." Rep. André Carson also believes the public deserves more transparency. The Indiana Democrat is chairing the closely watched public hearing of the House Intelligence Counterterrorism, Counterintelligence, and Counterproliferation Subcommittee, broadcast live on YouTube, to be followed by a closed, classified session with lawmakers. "For too long … DOD officials relegated the issue to the backroom," Carson said at the start of the hearing, which began at 9am ET, per CBS News. "Today, we know better," he added. UAPs "are a potential national security threat, and they need to be treated that way."

Scott Bray, deputy director of naval intelligence—who is testifying alongside the Pentagon's top intelligence official, Ronald Moultrie—said sightings are "frequent and continuing" with the number of reported incidents now totalling more than 400. He showed footage of a spherical UAP whizzing by a Navy aircraft last year. "I do not have an explanation for what this specific object is," he said. Christopher Mellon, a former top Pentagon intelligence official, is hoping the hearing will elicit confirmation of UAPs in space, outside Earth's atmosphere. That would “make history and help to eliminate an entire category of potential explanations having to do with atmospheric phenomenon, Chinese lanterns, civilian drones, etc," he wrote in a blog post, per the BBC. (More UFOs stories.)