Three more U.S. senators have received classified Pentagon briefings about a series of UFO sightings reported by the Navy.
In a statement to the media on Thursday, Joseph Gradisher, spokesman for the Deputy Chief of Naval Operations for Information Warfare, also confirmed the briefing took place. “Navy officials did indeed meet with interested congressional members and staffers on Wednesday to provide a classified brief on efforts to understand and identify these threats to the safety and security of our aviators,” he said. “Follow-up discussions with other interested staffers are scheduled for [a] later [time]. Navy officials will continue to keep interested congressional members and staff informed. Given the classified nature of these discussions, we will not comment on the specific information provided in these Hill briefings,” Gradisher added.
According to congressional and military officials, this meeting between DoD and Congress is part of a growing trend: More and more requests have been coming from members of key oversight committees to be briefed on the UFO phenomenon.
One of the senators to be briefed by Defense was Mark Warner (D-VA), the vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee. According to Warner, UFO sightings reported by the military was something the administration needs to “get to the bottom of.”
Indeed, UFO sightings by the armed forces, particularly the Navy, have been increasing in recent months. In an article published in May, several pilots told The New York Times about multiple encounters with UFOs with no visible engine or infrared exhaust plumes.
According to CNN, the Navy introduced guidelines two months ago for its pilots to report unexplainable events so the military can keep track of what may, or may not, be happening.
It should be noted that the tracking of, or interest in, UFO sightings within the government is not a driven “alien seeking” agenda. The primary concern is that of the safety of military personnel who seem to be running into unidentified aircraft with increasing regularity.
As a representative of Senator Warner’s office put it: “…if naval pilots are running into unexplained interference in the air, that’s a safety concern.”
It is also worth pointing out that UFOs have been a concern of the military for decades. Technological discovery and good old-fashioned investigation tend to engender explanations.
