Editing Unidentified flying object (section)

====Synopsis====
U.S. investigations into UFOs include:
* [[Project Sign]], by the [[Air Materiel Command]] (AMC) USAF, precursor to Project Grudge, 1948.
* [[Ghost rockets]] investigations by the Finnish, Swedish and British militaries, later the US and Greece, 1946–1947.
* [[Project Grudge]], USAF from February 1949, succeeded by Project Blue Book, from March 1952.
* Project Twinkle investigation into [[green fireballs]], by the U.S. Army/Air Force, briefly, from December 1949.
* The [[Central Intelligence Agency Directorate of Science & Technology]] (DS&T), study 1952–53.
* [[The Report on Unidentified Flying Objects]], by USAF Cpt (rtd.), later director of Project Blue Book, 1956.
* The [[Identification studies of UFOs#Project Blue Book Special Report No. 14|Project Blue Book Special Report No. 14]] by the Battelle Memorial Institute for USAF, 1951–1954
* The [[Aerial Phenomena Research Organization]] (APRO), a private research group, 1952–1988.
* The [[Robertson Panel]] was a scientific committee which met in January 1953 to review the Project Blue Book report January 1953
* The [[Brookings Report]], ''Proposed Studies on the Implications of Peaceful Space Activities for Human Affairs'', in conjunction with NASA's Committee on Long-Range Studies, reported to Congress 1960
* The [[Condon Committee]], an informal University of Colorado UFO Project funded by the USAF, 1966 to 1968.
* The [[RAND Corporation]] study, a private and internal study, 1968.<ref>[[#Kocher|Kocher 1968]]</ref>
* The [[Mutual UFO Network]] (MUFON), is a US-based, civilian, non-profit, volunteer organization studying reported UFO sightings, May 1969 and continuing.
* The [[National Investigations Committee On Aerial Phenomena]] (NICAP) is a UFO research group most active in the United States from the 1950s to the 1980 and remains as an informational depository on UFO phenomena.
* The [[Center for UFO Studies]] (CUFOS), a privately funded UFO research group, 1973 and continuing.
* The [[Peter A. Sturrock|Sturrock panel]], private investigation arising from the [[Society for Scientific Exploration]], 1982.
* The [[Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program]] which was funded from 2007 to 2012.<ref name="NYT-20171216"/><ref name="NYT-20200514"/>
* The [[All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office]], a continuing program within the United States [[Office of Naval Intelligence]] which was acknowledged in 2017.
* The ''Airborne Object Identification and Management Synchronization Group'', the Pentagon, to investigate unidentified objects that may compromise the airspace of the United States, from November 24, 2021, ongoing.<ref name="WP-20211124">{{cite news |last=Demirjian |first=Karoun |title=Pentagon will track unexplained airborne objects through new intelligence group |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2021/11/24/ufos-pentagon/ |date=November 24, 2021 |newspaper=[[The Washington Post]] |access-date=November 24, 2021 |archive-date=November 25, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211125085817/https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2021/11/24/ufos-pentagon/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

In addition to these, thousands of documents released under [[Freedom of Information Act (United States)|FOIA]] also indicate that many U.S. intelligence agencies collected (and still collect) information on UFOs. These agencies include the [[Defense Intelligence Agency]] (DIA), [[FBI]],<ref name="AP-20130329">{{cite news|last=Contreras|first=Russell|title=FBI 'flying saucers' NM memo bureau's most viewed|url=http://apnews.excite.com/article/20130329/DA5AVRAG0.html|date=March 29, 2013|agency=[[Associated Press]]|access-date=April 1, 2013|archive-date=September 27, 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130927222146/http://apnews.excite.com/article/20130329/DA5AVRAG0.html|url-status=live}}</ref> CIA, [[National Security Agency]] (NSA), as well as military intelligence agencies of the Army and [[United States Navy|U.S. Navy]], in addition to the Air Force.<ref group="note">Many of these documents are now online at the FOIA websites of these agencies such as the {{cite web |url=http://foia.fbi.gov/foiaindex/ufo.htm |title=FBI FOIA site |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080524114748/http://foia.fbi.gov/foiaindex/ufo.htm |archive-date=May 24, 2008 }}, as well as private websites such as [http://www.theblackvault.com/ The Black Vault] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110902090822/http://www.theblackvault.com/ |date=September 2, 2011 }}, which has an archive of several thousand U.S. government UFO-related documents from the USAF, Army, CIA, DIA, DOD, and NSA.</ref>

=====USAAF and FBI response to the 1947 sightings=====
{{Unbalanced section|date=November 2021}}
Following the large U.S. surge in sightings in June and early July 1947, on July 9, 1947, [[United States Army Air Forces]] (USAAF) intelligence, in cooperation with the FBI,<ref name="AP-20130329" /> began a formal investigation into selected sightings with characteristics that could not be immediately rationalized, such as Kenneth Arnold's. The USAAF used "all of its top scientists" to determine whether "such a phenomenon could, in fact, occur". The research was "being conducted with the thought that the flying objects might be a celestial phenomenon," or that "they might be a foreign body mechanically devised and controlled."<ref>{{cite web |title=Federal Bureau of Investigation FOIA Documents – Unidentified Flying Objects |url=http://www.gutenberg.org/files/25706/25706.txt |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121110121822/http://www.gutenberg.org/files/25706/25706.txt |archive-date=November 10, 2012 |access-date=September 7, 2013 |website=[[Project Gutenberg]]}} Internal FBI memo from E. G. Fitch to [[D. M. Ladd]] concerning a request by General George F. Schulgen, Chief of the Requirements Intelligence Branch of Army Air Corps Intelligence, for the FBI to help with their investigation of UFO reports.</ref> Three weeks later in a preliminary defense estimate, the air force investigation decided that, "This 'flying saucer' situation is not all imaginary or seeing too much in some natural phenomenon. Something is really flying around."<ref>[[#Hall & Connors|Hall & Connors 1998]], p. 83</ref>

A further review by the intelligence and technical divisions of the [[Air Force Logistics Command|Air Materiel Command]] at [[Wright-Patterson Air Force Base|Wright Field]] reached the same conclusion. It reported that "the phenomenon is something real and not visionary or fictitious," and there were disc-shaped objects, metallic in appearance, as big as man-made aircraft. They were characterized by "extreme rates of climb [and] maneuverability", general lack of noise, absence of a trail, occasional formation flying, and "evasive" behavior "when sighted or contacted by friendly aircraft and radar", suggesting a controlled craft. It was therefore recommended in late September 1947 that an official Air Force investigation be set up. It was also recommended that other government agencies should assist in the investigation.<ref group="note">The so-called [http://www.majesticdocuments.com/pdf/twiningopinionamc_23sept47.pdf Twining memo of September 23, 1947] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090226081323/http://www.majesticdocuments.com/pdf/twiningopinionamc_23sept47.pdf |date=February 26, 2009 }}, by future USAF Chief of Staff, General [[Nathan Farragut Twining|Nathan Twining]], specifically recommended intelligence cooperation with the Army, Navy, [[United States Atomic Energy Commission|Atomic Energy Commission]], the Defense Department's Joint Research and Development Board, Air Force Scientific Advisory Board, [[National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics]] (NACA), Project [[RAND]], and the [[Nuclear aircraft|Nuclear Energy for the Propulsion of Aircraft]] (NEPA) project.</ref>

=====USAF=====

====== Projects Sign (1947–1949), Grudge (1948–1951), and Blue Book (1951–1970) ======
{{main|Project Sign|Project Grudge|Project Blue Book}}
Project Sign's final report, published in early 1949, stated that while some UFOs appeared to represent actual aircraft, there was not enough data to determine their origin.<ref name="Blum1990">Blum, Howard, Out There: The Government's Secret Quest for Extraterrestrials. Simon and Schuster, 1990</ref>

The Air Force's Project Sign was created at the end of 1947, and was one of the earliest government studies to come to a secret extraterrestrial conclusion. In August 1948, Sign investigators wrote a top-secret intelligence estimate to that effect, but the [[Chief of Staff of the United States Air Force|Air Force Chief of Staff]] [[Hoyt Vandenberg]] ordered it destroyed. The existence of this suppressed report was revealed by several insiders who had read it, such as astronomer and USAF consultant J. Allen Hynek and Capt. Edward J. Ruppelt, the first head of the USAF's Project Blue Book.<ref>[[#Ruppelt|Ruppelt 1956]], Chapter 3: [http://www.nicap.org/rufo/rufo-03.htm "The Classics"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070906190034/http://www.nicap.org/rufo/rufo-03.htm |date=September 6, 2007 }}</ref>

Another highly classified U.S. study was conducted by the CIA's Office of Scientific Investigation (OS/I) in the latter half of 1952 in response to orders from the [[United States National Security Council|National Security Council]] (NSC). This study concluded UFOs were real physical objects of potential threat to national security. One OS/I memo to the CIA Director (DCI) in December read that "the reports of incidents convince us that there is something going on that must have immediate attention&nbsp;... Sightings of unexplained objects at great altitudes and traveling at high speeds in the vicinity of major U.S. defense installations are of such a nature that they are not attributable to natural phenomena or any known types of aerial vehicles."<ref name="auto">{{cite web |url=https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/csi-publications/csi-studies/studies/97unclass/ufo.html |title=CIA's Role in the Study of UFOs, 1947–90 |last=Haines |first=Gerald K. |date=1997 |publisher=[[Central Intelligence Agency]] |oclc=713270503 |access-date=July 13, 2013 |archive-date=October 1, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191001174318/https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/csi-publications/csi-studies/studies/97unclass/ufo.html |url-status=dead }}</ref>

The matter was considered so urgent that OS/I drafted a memorandum from the DCI to the NSC proposing that the NSC establish an investigation of UFOs as a priority project throughout the intelligence and the defense research and development community. It also urged the DCI to establish an external research project of top-level scientists, now known as the Robertson Panel to analyze the problem of UFOs. The OS/I investigation was called off after the Robertson Panel's negative conclusions in January 1953.<ref name="auto"/>

Project Sign was dismantled and became Project Grudge at the end of 1948. Angered by the low quality of investigations by Grudge, the Air Force Director of Intelligence reorganized it as Project Blue Book in late 1951, placing Ruppelt in charge. [[J. Allen Hynek]], a trained astronomer who served as a scientific advisor for Project Blue Book, was initially skeptical of UFO reports, but eventually came to the conclusion that many of them could not be satisfactorily explained and was highly critical of what he described as "the cavalier disregard by Project Blue Book of the principles of scientific investigation".<ref>[[#Hynek 1972|Hynek 1972]], p. 76</ref> Leaving government work, he founded the privately funded [[Center for UFO Studies|CUFOS]], to whose work he devoted the rest of his life. Other private groups studying the phenomenon include the [[Mutual UFO Network|MUFON]], a grassroots organization whose investigator's handbooks go into great detail on the documentation of alleged UFO sightings.

====== USAF Regulation 200-2 (1953–1954) ======

[[s:Air Force Regulation 200-2, Unidentified Flying Objects Reporting|Air Force Regulation 200-2]],<ref name="AFD-070703-004">{{cite web |url=http://www.foia.af.mil/shared/media/document/AFD-070703-004.pdf |title=AFD-070703-004.pdf |work=Air Force Freedom of Information Act |publisher=United States Air Force |access-date=September 7, 2013 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120910051437/http://www.foia.af.mil/shared/media/document/AFD-070703-004.pdf |archive-date=September 10, 2012  }}</ref> issued in 1953 and 1954, defined an Unidentified Flying Object ("UFOB") as "any airborne object which by performance, aerodynamic characteristics, or unusual features, does not conform to any presently known aircraft or missile type, or which cannot be positively identified as a familiar object." The regulation also said UFOBs were to be investigated as a "possible threat to the security of the United States" and "to determine technical aspects involved." The regulation went on to say that "it is permissible to inform news media representatives on UFOB's when the object is positively identified as a familiar object" but added: "For those objects which are not explainable, only the fact that ATIC [Air Technical Intelligence Center] will analyze the data is worthy of release, due to many unknowns involved."<ref name="AFD-070703-004" />

===== Blue Book and the Condon Committee (1968–1970) =====
{{main|Condon Committee}}

A public research effort conducted by the Condon Committee for the USAF and published as the Condon Report arrived at a negative conclusion in 1968.<ref name="COMETA" /> Blue Book closed down in 1970, using the Condon Committee's negative conclusion as a rationale, thus ending official Air Force UFO investigations. However, a 1969 USAF document, known as the Bolender memo, along with later government documents, revealed that non-public [[Federal government of the United States|U.S. government]] UFO investigations continued after 1970. The Bolender memo first stated that "reports of unidentified flying objects that could affect national security&nbsp;... are not part of the Blue Book system," indicating that more serious UFO incidents already were handled outside the public Blue Book investigation. The memo then added, "reports of UFOs which could affect national security would continue to be handled through the standard Air Force procedures designed for this purpose."<ref group="note">For example, current USAF general reporting procedures are in [http://www.theblackvault.com/documents/ufos/AFI10-206.pdf Air Force Instruction (AFI)10-206] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080618065117/http://www.theblackvault.com/documents/ufos/AFI10-206.pdf |date=June 18, 2008 }}. Section 5.7.3 (p. 64) lists sightings of "unidentified flying objects" and "aircraft of unconventional design" as separate categories from potentially hostile but conventional, unidentified aircraft, missiles, surface vessels, or submarines. Additionally, "unidentified objects" detected by missile warning systems, creating a potential risk of nuclear war, are covered by Rule 5E (p.35).</ref>

In the late 1960s, a chapter on UFOs in the Space Sciences course at the [[United States Air Force Academy|U.S. Air Force Academy]] gave serious consideration to possible extraterrestrial origins. When word of the curriculum became public, in 1970, the Air Force issued a statement to the effect that the book was outdated and cadets instead were being informed of the [[Condon Committee|Condon Report]]'s negative conclusion.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.cufon.org/cufon/afu.htm |title=Introductory Space Science |website=CUFON.org |publisher=Computer UFO Network (CUFON) |location=West Jacksonville, FL |access-date=May 16, 2013 |archive-date=May 30, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130530172640/http://www.cufon.org/cufon/afu.htm |url-status=live }} Air Force Academy UFO material.</ref>

Controversy surrounded the report, both before and after its release. It has been observed that the report was "harshly criticized by numerous scientists, particularly at the powerful AIAA&nbsp;... [which] recommended moderate, but continuous scientific work on UFOs."<ref name="COMETA" /> In an address to the [[American Academy of Arts and Sciences|AAAS]], [[James E. McDonald]] said he believed science had failed to mount adequate studies of the problem and criticized the Condon Report and earlier studies by the USAF as scientifically deficient. He also questioned the basis for Condon's conclusions<ref name="default">{{cite conference |first=James E. |last=McDonald |title=Science in Default: Twenty-Two Years of Inadequate UFO Investigations |conference=[[American Association for the Advancement of Science]], 134th Meeting |book-title=UFO's: A Scientific Debate |editor1-last=Sagan |editor1-first=Carl |editor1-link=Carl Sagan |editor2-last=Page |editor2-first=Thornton |url=https://archive.org/details/ufosascientificd0000unse_n5n6 |edition=Reprint |orig-year=Originally published 1972 |date=1974 |publisher=[[W. W. Norton & Company]] |location=New York |isbn=978-0-393-00739-8 |oclc=934695 |lccn=72004572 |access-date=March 30, 2011  |url-access=registration }}</ref> and argued that the reports of UFOs have been "laughed out of scientific court".<ref name="McDonald" /> J. Allen Hynek, an astronomer who worked as a USAF consultant from 1948, sharply criticized the Condon Committee Report and later wrote two nontechnical books that set forth the case for continuing to investigate UFO reports.

Ruppelt recounted his experiences with Project Blue Book, a USAF investigation that preceded Condon's.<ref>[[#Ruppelt|Ruppelt 1956]]</ref>