By Tim Binnall
The much-discussed Pentagon Report on UFOs wound up becoming a topic of conversation in Britain's Parliament this week as multiple politicians questioned an official with the country's Ministry of Defense about the potential threat posed by the phenomenon. The enlightening exchange reportedly occurred during a House of Lords session on Wednesday when MP Lord Sarfraz detailed how the DoD assessment "does not rule out that these could be military aircraft with very fast capabilities or even extraterrestrial phenomena." He then asked defense minister Baroness Goldie if she could "reassure members of the public that the Ministry of Defense takes reports of unidentified objects in our airspace very seriously?"
In response, she acknowledged the findings of the report and indicated that the MoD "holds no reports on unidentified aerial phenomena, but constantly monitors UK airspace to identify and respond to any credible threat to its integrity, and is confident in the existing measures in place to protect it." Goldie went on to express what appeared to be a fairly skeptical take on the phenomenon, stressing that "the MoD deals with actual threats substantiated by evidence." The conversation continued when another MP, Viscount Ridley, argued that "the idea that in an era of mobile phone cameras, drones and frequent travel there could possibly be alien spaceships whizzing about undetected in our atmosphere on a regular basis is not, I think, very plausible."
Ridley finished up his remarks by musing that "it's much more likely that these blurred images have boring explanations." While Goldie did not offer an opinion on the quality of the materials that were examined by the Pentagon, she stressed again that "the UK air defense community detect and monitor all flying air systems 24 hours a day to provide an identified air picture as part of the UK's national security posture." The issue of UFOs being a possible threat was brought up once more by another MP, Lord Coaker, who asked Goldie if she agreed with the Pentagon's assessment of the phenomenon as a serious national security matter.
The defense minister noted the DoD's assessment, but indicated that Britain's Ministry of Defense "regard threats as having to exist in the first place. We regard them as having to be substantiated by evidence and that's because we need to know what we are addressing and how best we can address it." As for the possibility that Britain might launch its own investigation into UFOs akin to what the Pentagon just produced, Goldie said that "the MoD has no plans to conduct its own report into UAP, because in over 50 years no such reporting had indicated the existence of any military threat to the United Kingdom."