UFO hearing - live: Sightings are ‘frequent and continuing’, Navy tells Congress

There have been 144 encounters of mysterious craft between 2004 and 2021

Related: US Defense Department release video of possible UFO in 2017

A House Intelligence subcommittee will today hold a hearing about unidentified flying objects and the possibility that we have encounted alien life.

The hearing on “unidentified aerial phenomena” will be broadcast on the House Intelligence’s YouTube page at 9:00am ET (2:00pm GMT).

Testimony is expected from many high-ranking intelligence and defence officials. It follows a report on UAPs last year which found that there were 144 encounters between 2004 and 2021.

Although the report said that the evidence was “largely inconclusive”, it stated the most of the phenomena reported “do represent physical objects” and that the United States currently lack data to indicate any UAP are part of a foreign collection program or indicative of a major technological advancement by a potential adversary.”

The proceedings will be chaired by Representative Andre Carson, who said that people needed to be informed about the events.

“Congress hasn’t held a public hearing on unidentified aerial phenomena (UFO’s) in over 50 years”, he tweeted. “Americans need to know more about these unexplained occurrences.

House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff has also said that “there’s much to learn about unidentified aerial phenomena” and that “the American people deserve full transparency.”

[17 May 2022 14:51 · Adam Smith]

“Allies have seen these. China has set up a UAP task force”, Mr Bray says. “We share data with some and some share data with us”, but not with all.

[17 May 2022 14:49 · Adam Smith]

“Many of the objects we have are physical objects”, Mr Bray says

[17 May 2022 14:48 · Adam Smith]

The hypothesis on a video of a series of triangular UAPs is that they are a series of drones due to the nature of night-vision goggles, Mr Bray says. “UAP task force are aware of studies that have [tested his hypothesis]”, Mr Brays says.

[17 May 2022 14:47 · Adam Smith]

“We make no assumption about the origins of this”, Mr Bray adds.

[17 May 2022 14:46 · Adam Smith]

18 in the report could “move at considerable speed without discernable means of propulsion”. Mr Schiff asks if we have knowledge of a foreign adversary that could manage this. Mr Bray says no, but there could be sensor artefacts that could be hiding it or other variables.

“There are a number of events where we do not have an explanation ... those are obviously the ones that are of the most interest”.

[17 May 2022 14:44 · Adam Smith]

Of the 144 reports, 80 per cent were recorded on multiple sensors. “The majority had multi-sensor data”, Mr Bray says. There are currently 400 reports, but some of these are narrative-based and historical.

[17 May 2022 14:38 · Adam Smith]

When seeing an unexplained spacecraft, aviators would contact their intelligence officer, preserve the data, fill out a form about what they would observed and other information - then that form goes through the oeprational chain of command and to the UAP task force so they can have individuals from the task force investigate, Mr Bray says

[17 May 2022 14:36 · Adam Smith]

“Sometimes it’s very fleeting data that we have”, he continues, but wants to ensure that sensors are calibrated to this data, that the data is stored in a standardised method, and have “high fidelity information”

[17 May 2022 14:34 · Adam Smith]

Mr Moultrie says he wants to encourage reporting this information becoming the norm

[17 May 2022 14:33 · Adam Smith]

“It’s not about finding alien spacecraft”, Mr Crawford says, but asks how AOIMSG can stop “intelligence surprises”