By Tim Binnall
In a rather remarkable development, the United States Navy is updating their reporting protocol for pilots and other witnesses who encounter UFOs. The intriguing procedural change was revealed in a story broken by Politico on Wednesday evening. In a statement to the website, the Navy indicated that they have received "a number of reports of unauthorized and/or unidentified aircraft entering various military-controlled ranges and designated air space in recent years."
Noting that they already investigate "each and every" incident in light of "safety and security concerns," the Navy explained that they are "updating and formalizing the process" for pilots and other personnel to report "suspected incursions" by unidentified craft. It is uncertain what these new guidelines will consist of, but the statement said that the Navy is currently drafting a "new message to the fleet that will detail the steps for reporting."
As one can imagine, the news is being seen by UFO enthusiasts and disclosure advocates as a significant turn of events in that the Navy is openly acknowledging that they have received reports of unidentified craft. They also appear to be encouraging pilots and other witnesses to officially share their accounts of encountering these mysterious intruders rather than keep quiet about what they saw for fear of damaging their reputation or career. Whether that proves to be the case, of course, remains to be seen, but it should hopefully lead to more reports of strange and unusual craft in our skies.
Undoubtedly, telling pilots and other witnesses that they can and should report what they see is a positive policy change. However and at the risk of putting the proverbial cart before the horse, it raises the question of where, exactly, these reports will go and who, precisely, will be tasked with studying them. Considering that the Navy stated that they have already received and investigated such accounts "in recent years" and we've yet to learn about such cases, the prospect of this information being made public seems unlikely, regardless of the method in which witnesses report what they saw.
Be that as it may, the Navy also shared another tantalizing revelation which suggests that interest in the UFO phenomenon is percolating in Washington. According to their statement, some members of Congress and their respective staffs received "a series of briefings by senior Naval Intelligence officials" concerning the subject after they had requested more information. Both the change in reporting protocol as well as the curiosity from Congress were foreshadowed back in January by retired Senator Harry Reid, who lamented at the time that pilots were discouraged from reporting their UFO encounters and promised that he'd be speaking with lawmakers about the issue.