The Pentagon released over 1,500 pages of previously classified documents related to its unidentified flying objects (UFO) program this week.
In 2017, The British tabloid newspaper The Sun requested information through a Freedom of Information Act request (FOIA) to the U.S's Advanced Aviation Threat Identification Program (AATIP).
The AATIP was focused on investigating unexplained aerial phenomena and was first made public in December of last year, although there had been speculation about its existence for several years before that.
On Tuesday, following the release of the 1,574 pages of documents by AATIP in response to the request, UFO expert Nick Pope spoke to NewsNation's Leland Vittert about what we know about the UFO phenomenon in the U.S.
Pope has overseen the British government's UFO investigations during his time as a government official, investigated various UFO phenomena for several years, and helped determined whether they have any defense or security significance.
He has also researched alien abductions, crop circles and other strange phenomena, according to NewsNation.
Pope said the information we have on unidentified flying objects did not yet mean that Earth has been visited by beings from another planet. However, he did say that humanity is getting closer to discovering whether aliens exist.
"We are not quite there yet, but what we have seen over the last three or four years is this subject coming out of the fringe and into the mainstream," Pope said.
"We have seen multiple videos, U.S. Navy videos, of jets chasing these things tracked on radar.
"We have had some of the pilots and intelligence people talking about them and now we learn this is an ongoing situation and it is not just UFOs. Frankly, they have been looking at other things that sound like they have come straight out of an X-Files script."
Pope also attempted to explain what some of the phenomena could be and considered whether they could be the next step in stealth fighter jet technology.
"What is the chance that these are nothing more than the next evolution of stealth fighters or the next evolution of things that are being tested at Area 51? "Vittert asked.
"Of course, the government is going to say we have no idea what they are because they don't want our enemies to know about it."
"That is certainly possible," Pope replied.
"One theory is that this is next-generation aerospace tech, secret prototype aircraft and drones. Some people say it might be U.S. tech that is secretly tested on one part of the military by another to see how we react.
"Of course, there is another theory that this is adversary technology from Russia or China," Pope said.
Pope added that the alien hypothesis was still a viable one, despite these possibilities. He went on to say that regardless of the origin of these phenomenons, Congress has begun to take more of an interest.
"All of this is why Congress is taking note of this, the Senate intelligence committee in particular but the arms service committee in both the Senate and the House are looking at this," he continued.
"There were multiple UFO provisions in the latest defense bill, so people are taking this seriously."
Pope closed by saying humanity is closer than we have ever been to discovering non-human life, adding that "if they are out there, we are closing in on them."
He also said this would be the greatest discovery in human history while the host joked that we can only hope we are closing in on the aliens faster than they are on humanity.
Uncommon Knowledge
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
About the writer
Gerrard Kaonga is a Newsweek U.S. News Reporter and is based in London, U.K. His focus is reporting on U.S. ... Read more
