The United States has the most advanced aerospace capabilities of any country and spends more than twice as much on defense as Russia and China combined.
The Administration and Congress concur that these objects are not classified U.S. aircraft.
In the Nimitz incident and other cases, some of these vehicles have been observed doing things that we cannot replicate and do not understand.
Official records from the U.S. and other countries indicate that this is a global phenomenon that has been occurring since at least WW2 and perhaps far longer.
We have no reason to believe that many of these objects are from Russia or China, and in fact it seems improbable. Especially when we consider how long this phenomenon has been observed.
Consequently, the “not invented here” hypothesis is the only theory currently consistent with the known facts.
From any vantage point, we are more likely to encounter probes than signals from ET because probes are far safer, more efficient, and more effective for purposes of space exploration.
The radical capabilities and mysterious appearance of some of the vehicles being observed are consistent with what we'd expect of probes or craft from a space-faring civilization. As Arthur Clarke famously observed, “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic."
There is no scientific barrier to interstellar travel even if superluminal travel is impossible. My grandfather was born before the Wright brothers got off the ground. Now there are already a number of nations with robots on Mars and a consortium led by Yuri Millner is designing the first probe to visit another star system. It would take only a tiny fraction of the age of the Milky Way for a space-faring civilization, travelling at one-fifth the speed of light, to explore the entire galaxy.
Our government should establish a cleared panel of UAP, intelligence and scientific experts to study this issue. Mainstream scientists currently lack any detailed understanding either of the phenomenon or its long history, nor do they understand the range of sensor capabilities available to the U.S. or have the knowledge needed to understand where to look within our vast national security apparatus for answers. This has been shockingly evident in recent months with astronomers expressing their ignorance of the UAP topic by asking embarrassing questions such as “If UFOs are real how come commercial pilots never see them?” and “How come only Americans report UFOs?”
To be effective, the panel therefore needs to include people familiar with the long but obscure international and U.S. Government history of the issue as well as the classified data and capabilities our government possesses that can be used to obtain more information. Large expenditures are not required; progress will largely be a function of leadership, intellectual integrity, data access and organization.
Someone at a high level urgently needs to be assigned responsibility to find out where these objects are coming from, how they work and why they are here. Engineering and scientific efforts to replicate observed capabilities also require a high priority.
We can no longer deny that someone has mastered technology beyond our understanding and is using it to monitor U.S. military forces and probably much else. In some cases, such as the famous encounters of the Nimitz Carrier Strike Group, non-human origin is presently the theory that best fits all the facts. Until a better explanation emerges it is time to squarely confront the data and accord this revolutionary discovery the attention it deserves. Regardless of the source, we need a serious national effort to understand and emulate the capabilities we are observing.
Regardless of the origin of these craft, the stakes could not be higher. Ignorance is not a national security strategy, and we have never before been a nation deterred by fear of the unknown. The benefits that might result could include massive technological breakthroughs and revolutionary advances and insights that might otherwise take eons to acquire. The only responsible course of action is to proceed expeditiously with open minds, perhaps jointly with other nations to make faster progress and mitigate growing international tensions and rivalries.
How can we turn aside knowing what we now know? There is really no choice other than to press forward in pursuit of the truth with the hope and expectation that new frontiers of knowledge will be discovered for our nation and hopefully for the benefit of all mankind.