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NDTV
an hour ago
- Politics
- NDTV
US Military Planted UFO, Area 51 Myths To Mask Classified Weapons: Report
New Delhi: The US Justice Department deliberately fuelled UFO conspiracy theories, including those centred around Area 51, to conceal Cold War-era military projects, a new report has revealed. Area 51, a classified US Air Force facility in the Nevada desert, has long been the subject of rumours suggesting the government hid aliens, crashed spacecraft and extraterrestrial technology there. A Department of Defence review, reported by The Wall Street Journal, found that in the 1980s, an Air Force colonel was sent on a mission to spread false information. He visited a bar near Area 51 and gave the owner fake photos of flying saucers, which sparked new UFO rumours around the already secretive military base. The now-retired colonel later confessed to Pentagon investigators that the mission aimed to divert attention from the real purpose of the site: testing the then-secret F-117 Nighthawk stealth aircraft. Officials believed embedding the programme within alien folklore was the best way to shield it from Soviet surveillance during the Cold War. US defence agencies allegedly leaned into UFO myths multiple times to safeguard sensitive military developments. Sean Kirkpatrick, appointed in 2022 as the first director of the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO), was tasked with reviewing decades of military reports on unexplained aerial phenomena. His investigation uncovered several instances where UFO conspiracies appeared to originate within the Pentagon itself. One such case involved an internal Air Force prank called "Yankee Blue," in which new recruits were briefed on a fictitious unit investigating alien aircraft. They were ordered never to discuss the content, with many unaware the entire scenario was fabricated. This practice reportedly continued until the Pentagon issued a directive to stop it in 2023. Mr Kirkpatrick's review also revisited a well-known 1967 incident involving former Air Force captain Robert Salas, who claimed he saw a UFO disable ten nuclear missiles at a Montana base. Mr Salas said he was ordered to remain silent about the event. AARO's findings, however, suggest the phenomenon was likely the result of a failed electromagnetic pulse (EMP) test meant to assess the base's resilience to nuclear interference, a test Mr Salas and others were never briefed on.
Time of India
4 hours ago
- Politics
- Time of India
Pentagon planted UFO myths to hide secret weapons programs?
A new Department of Defense (DoD) report reviewed by The Wall Street Journal reveals that the U.S. military deliberately fueled UFO conspiracy theories—including those linked to Area 51—to conceal top-secret weapons programs such as the F-117 Nighthawk stealth fighter during the Cold War. The report, compiled by the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO), found that the Pentagon spread disinformation, including doctored photographs of flying saucers, and intentionally withheld information from witnesses who had unknowingly seen classified military tests. One striking example uncovered in the 2024 report involves a retired Air Force colonel who, during the 1980s, visited a bar near Area 51 and handed the owner fabricated images of flying saucers. The colonel later admitted to Pentagon investigators that he was acting under official orders to spread false information and divert attention from the F-117 stealth jet tests being conducted at the site. Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like How Much Does It Cost to Rent a Private Jet - The Prices May Surprise You! Private Jet I Search Ads Learn More Undo The AARO, created in 2022 to investigate decades of UFO-related claims, discovered a culture of misinformation and even internal pranks. Its first director, Sean Kirkpatrick, led a wide-ranging investigation into decades of Defense Department memos, briefings, and classified communications. Among the findings: Air Force officers routinely hazed new recruits with fake briefings about a fictional unit called 'Yankee Blue' tasked with investigating alien spacecraft. The briefings came with strict orders never to speak about them. Many recipients believed the stories for years, unaware it was an elaborate ruse. The Pentagon only issued an order to end the practice in 2023. Live Events The motive behind the fake briefings remains unclear, though some speculate it was used as a loyalty test or a deeper tactic to seed confusion and misdirection. The report also highlights how real eyewitnesses were misled. Former Air Force captain Robert Salas, for example, has long claimed he saw a UFO hover over a Montana nuclear missile silo in 1967, disabling all 10 warheads and shutting down electrical systems. He was later ordered to remain silent about the incident. Kirkpatrick's team found that what Salas actually witnessed was an early electromagnetic pulse (EMP) test intended to evaluate whether U.S. silos could withstand nuclear radiation and still retaliate. The test failed—and rather than admit to the vulnerability, officials opted to let witnesses draw their own, more otherworldly conclusions. The AARO report also confirms that several well-known UFO rumors, including the Area 51 legend, were seeded to distract the public and foreign adversaries from ongoing experimental aircraft development. These revelations explain why last year's transparency report from the Pentagon omitted crucial details about the origins of these myths. The Department of Defense has acknowledged that not all AARO findings have been made public but has pledged to release a follow-up report later this year. 'The department is committed to releasing a second volume of its Historical Record Report, to include AARO's findings on reports of potential pranks and inauthentic materials,' the Pentagon said in a statement. While the revelations help explain the origins of several Cold War-era conspiracies, they also cast doubt on the authenticity of more recent UFO footage released by the military, including the viral 2020 Navy pilot videos.
Yahoo
21 hours ago
- Yahoo
Air Force Colonel Gave Out Photos of Flying Saucers Near Area 51
The Pentagon's real-life "X-Files" office has uncovered an inconvenient truth about military officials spreading UFO disinformation to unsuspecting Americans and coworkers alike. As the Wall Street Journal reports, the Defense Department's All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO) uncovered an anecdote from an Air Force colonel who trolled people near Area 51 with doctored photos of flying saucers. Back in 2023, the colonel in question admitted to AARO investigators that he had, some 43 years prior, given the photos to a bartender at a local pub near the classified military base. The photos went up and the incident was added to the lengthy lore surrounding the base, but as the ranking officer revealed, the whole gambit was meant to distract from a secret weapons program being developed at the massively-classified Air Force base. In interviews with dozens of former and current officials, as well as contractors and scientists who have worked with the AARO, the WSJ learned that the Pentagon repeatedly played into conspiracy theories surrounding what the government refers to as unidentified anomalous phenomena, or UAPs — and those campaigns weren't limited to the unsuspecting public. Perhaps the most jarring of the AARO discoveries shared with the newspaper is the suggestion that higher-ups in the Air Force would haze new commanders by telling them that they were being inducted into a secretive program called "Yankee Blue." The phony project, according to since-retired AARO director Sean Kirkpatrick, involved the reverse-engineering of alien crafts — a key tenet of some of the more outlandish claims from UFO whistleblowers in recent years. After being told about their "induction," the officers were warned to never speak of the program again, lest they be jailed or even executed. Multiple officers told Kirkpatrick they had never revealed what they'd been told, even to their spouses, out of fear of the retribution with which they'd been threatened. Others still didn't learn that they'd been subjected to a cruel joke until 2023, when the the DOD — which acknowledged the program's existence to the WSJ — banned the hazing ritual that had apparently been going on for decades. Unfortunately, these shocking revelations aren't all that surprising. As much as we want to believe the truth is out there, it's far more believable that military officials would lie to the public — and to their subordinates — about alien tech than it would be for the Pentagon to actually have such artifacts in its possession. More on UAPs: A Military Whistleblower Showed a Photo of an Allegedly Huge "Disc-Shaped" Object, But There's an Incredibly Obvious Explanation
Daily Mail
20-05-2025
- Science
- Daily Mail
UFO crashes into U.S. Air Force fighter jet over Arizona during terrifying encounter
A UFO slammed into a U.S. fighter jet over Arizona, cracking the canopy protecting the pilot, and forcing the $63million plane to land, new reports have revealed. According to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), the F-16 Viper fighter jet was hit by an 'orange-white UAS' - which stands for uncrewed aerial system, better known as a drone - on January 19, 2023. Within a day of this collision, there were three more unidentified aircraft sightings over the Air Force's Barry Goldwater Range, where the fighter was damaged, the documents stated. Barry Goldwater Range is an expanse of desert along the Arizona-Mexico border where the military practices air-to-air and ir-to-ground combat. The FAA's report of the F-16 collision revealed that the fighter was flying in restricted airspace near Gila Bend, Arizona, when it was hit by the object in the rear of the canopy, the glass bubble which protects the pilot. No injuries were reported. The Air Force did not reveal how much damage the jet suffered, but the plane was grounded for repairs. These new details come as a stunning report from the Department of Defense's All-Domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO) shows there have been hundreds of UFO reports made in recent years and Arizona is becoming the nation's new UFO hotspot. AARO serves as a centralized department which looks into all things related to Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (UAP) sightings and reports which could impact national security or air safety. The F-16 collision is just one of 22 incidents involving Air Force fighter pilots seeing or crashing into strange objects between October 2022 and June 2023, according to Most of the encounters took place within 100 miles of Luke Air Force Base, where many of the F-16 fighter jets using Barry Goldwater Range launch from. Although the FAA said there's no evidence that the collision involved something extraterrestrial, it's one of several recent UFO incidents that have plagued U.S. airspace over Arizona. In fact, some of these strange sightings involved swarms of up to eight mysterious objects flying over Air Force training bases along the US border with Mexico. Between 2016 and 2020, military pilots reported seeing unidentified drone-like objects over the state eight times. The new FAA details come as another government report shows that there were 757 sightings of Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (UAP) worldwide reported between May 2023 and June 2024 alone - and only 49 of these cases have been solved. When incidents like the F-16 collision occur, the pilot files a report, which the FAA investigates using radar and other data. If the incident involves a UFO, it's sent to AARO for further investigation. At least 410 of these 757 new UAP reports from around the world occurred over the US, with the vast majority being sent in by the FAA between May 1, 2023 and June 1, 2024. However, many more of these encounters took place over restricted military airspace, and the AARO report did not reveal where exactly these sightings occurred. Despite the secrecy, UFO whistleblowers are revealing that many are taking place in Arizona. That includes Luis Elizondo, a former government intelligence officer who investigated these cases before leaving the Pentagon. 'A lot of people reporting a lot of things out of Arizona, particularly on the border,' Elizondo disclosed. Bob Thompson, who spent 14 years with U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), also recently shared never-before-seen videos of UFOs spotted over Arizona. 'I've seen orbs that were off in the distance. I've seen crafts that were cigar-shaped, I've seen triangles,' the whistleblower told NewsNation. Thompson added that over 100 CBP agents have confessed to him that they have seen strange and unidentified objects flying along the US border. Specifically, there's a growing belief that the surge in unidentified drone sightings is due to drug cartels launching high-tech spy missions into the U.S. 'We're seeing drones… used as scouting patrols, to watch Border Patrol,' NewsNation's border report Ali Bradley explained. Unlike drones which the U.S. government believed were launched by China, these new drones are harder to detect and also larger so they can potentially carry bigger packages of drugs across the border. Trump Administration border czar Tom Homan has added that many of these sightings are likely high-tech drones spying on U.S. military bases in Arizona. Bradley noted that one of the cartels' top goals is to infiltrate U.S. military facilities, so they can stay one step ahead of patrols enforcing illegal immigration and drug trafficking. Of the 49 AARO investigations that have been closed, the UFOs were determined to be airplanes, balloons, birds, drones, and satellites that were mistaken as alien aircraft. AARO has recommended that another 243 cases be closed for the same reasons.
Daily Mail
19-05-2025
- Science
- Daily Mail
Report: UFO crashed into US Navy fighter jet over Arizona in 2023
Within a day of this collision, there were three more unidentified aircraft sightings over the Air Force's Barry Goldwater Range, where the fighter was damaged, the documents stated. Barry Goldwater Range is an expanse of desert along the Arizona-Mexico border where the military practices air-to-air and air-to-ground combat. The FAA's report of the F-16 collision revealed that the fighter was flying in restricted airspace near Gila Bend, Arizona , when it was hit by the object in the rear of the canopy, the glass bubble which protects the pilot. No injuries were reported. The Air Force did not reveal how much damage the jet suffered, but the plane was grounded for repairs. These new details come as a stunning report from the Department of Defense's All-Domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO) shows there have been hundreds of UFO reports made in recent years and Arizona is becoming the nation's new UFO hotspot. AARO serves as a centralized department which looks into all things related to Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (UAP) sightings and reports which could impact national security or air safety. The F-16 collision is just one of 22 incidents involving Air Force fighter pilots seeing or crashing into strange objects between October 2022 and June 2023, according to . Most of the encounters took place within 100 miles of Luke Air Force Base, where many of the F-16 fighter jets using Barry Goldwater Range launch from. Although the FAA said there's no evidence that the collision involved something extraterrestrial, it's one of several recent UFO incidents that have plagued US airspace over Arizona. When incidents like the F-16 collision occur, the pilot files a report, which the FAA investigates using radar and other data. If the incident involves a UFO, it's sent to AARO for further investigation. At least 410 of these 757 new UAP reports from around the world occurred over the US, with the vast majority being sent in by the FAA between May 1, 2023 and June 1, 2024. However, many more of these encounters took place over restricted military airspace, and the AARO report did not reveal where exactly these sightings occurred. Despite the secrecy, UFO whistleblowers are revealing that many are taking place in Arizona. That includes Luis Elizondo, a former government intelligence officer who investigated these cases before leaving the Pentagon. 'A lot of people reporting a lot of things out of Arizona, particularly on the border,' Elizondo disclosed . Bob Thompson, who spent 14 years with US Customs and Border Protection (CBP), also recently shared never-before-seen videos of UFOs spotted over Arizona. 'I've seen orbs that were off in the distance. I've seen crafts that were cigar-shaped, I've seen triangles,' the whistleblower told NewsNation. Thompson added that over 100 CBP agents have confessed to him that they have seen strange and unidentified objects flying along the US border. These sightings included US border agents witnessing terrifying 'portals' opening into the sky. 'I got told that they witnessed a portal opening up in the sky and there were pictures of it on a camera that I was able to see,' Thompson revealed. Although hundreds of these strange sightings sent to AARO are still marked as open investigations, many in the government are blaming Mexico - not aliens. Specifically, there's a growing belief that the surge in unidentified drone sightings is due to drug cartels launching high-tech spy missions into the US . 'We're seeing drones… used as scouting patrols, to watch Border Patrol,' NewsNation's border report Ali Bradley explained. Unlike drones which the US government believed were launched by China, these new drones are harder to detect and also larger so they can potentially carry bigger packages of drugs across the border. Trump Administration border czar Tom Homan has added that many of these sightings are likely high-tech drones spying on US military bases in Arizona. Bradley noted that one of the cartels' top goals is to infiltrate US military facilities, so they can stay one step ahead of patrols enforcing illegal immigration and drug trafficking. Of the 49 AARO investigations that have been closed, the UFOs were determined to be airplanes, balloons, birds, drones, and satellites that were mistaken as alien aircraft. AARO has recommended that another 243 cases be closed for the same reasons.
