The U.S. Has Spent Millions on UFO Research

In recent years, the U.S. Department of Defense has spent twenty million dollars on research regarding UFOs or unidentified flying objects. According to NPR, there is a 'secret program' at the Pentagon that examines reports related to UFO incidents. Among these reports is a statement from a U.S. Army pilot who claimed to have seen flying objects that 'violated the laws of physics.' A video published on the New York Times website shows a circular object in the sky, filmed from the cockpit of a Navy F-18 fighter jet. The background voice in the video says, 'Look at this! It's spinning!' This secret Pentagon program was called the 'Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program,' and although it was said to have ended in 2012, the New York Times reports that parts of it may still be operational. According to Politico, Harry Reid, a Democratic senator, approved the budget for this program in 2009. Reid told the New York Times that he is not ashamed or embarrassed by this work, stating, 'I think it was one of the good things I did during my time in Congress. It was something that no one had done before.' According to the Washington Post, this 22 million dollars was spent on 'collecting and analyzing unusual aerial threats' from advanced aircraft made by U.S. competitors to commercial drones and 'encounters with extraterrestrials.' Politico reports that one reason the Pentagon allocated funding to this program was to identify new aerial and space technologies, especially those from China and Russia.