The US has ruled that 'no credible evidence' for extraterrestrial life exists in the first Senate hearing on UFOs in fifty years.
Testimony at the hearing deemed that the hundreds of cases under review by the Pentagon's All-Domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO) could be explained by 'natural phenomena'.
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Dr Sean Kirkpatrick, the director of the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office, told the Senate Armed Services Committee that hundreds of sightings of unidentified flying items remained under review.
He said: "I should also state clearly for the record that in our research AARO has found no credible evidence thus far of extraterrestrial activity, offworld technology or objects that defy the known laws of physics."
Dr Kirkpatrick's office is currently looking at 650 cases, but has stressed that priority is placed on items spotted by pilots flying at a high altitude.
One video shown to the panel was filmed by a MQ9 Reaper drone in the Middle East, which picked up what looks like a metal orb.
Although he cautioned that it was 'virtually impossible' to identify the object based solely off the video, Dr Kirkpatrick said his agency was still investigating the matter.
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This rare hearing came a few months after a Chinese spy balloon entered US airspace.
Speaking of the ongoing investigations, Senator and panel chair Kirsten Gillibrand said: "We don’t know where they come from, who made them or how they operate.
"Because of the UFO stigma the response has been irresponsibly anemic and slow."
Gillibrand lamented that the AARO had been underutilised by the Pentagon during the Chinese spy balloon crisis earlier this year and needed more resources.
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Speaking of the threat posed by American adversaries like Russia and China, Dr Kirkpatrick said: "The adversary is not waiting. They are advancing and they are advancing quickly. They are less risk averse at technical advancement than we are. They are just willing to try things and see if it works."
The Pentagon and US intelligence are reviewing hundreds of UAPS (Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena) after President Biden called for it following the Chinese balloon crisis.
Recent leaks from the Pentagon have shown that US officials have knowledge of four other Chinese spy balloons.
A January report from the Director of the Office of National Intelligence stated that the number of UFO reports was on the rise, with 510 UAPs being reported.
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Of the 366 that have been investigated, half were deemed unremarkable, 26 were likely drones, 163 were balloons and the remaining six were 'clutter'.
Ben Thompson