The US government has consistently recognized that UFOs exist. That is that things are seen in the sky by people who can’t identify what they saw; they have not said that UFOs are alien or any other type of craft or technology. A few highly placed individuals have expressed that opinion, but that’s all it is – their opinion. Those people are allegedly in a knowledgeable position, so they should be able to produce evidence, but they haven’t, just stories and opinions like every other UFOlogist.
The government has explained most sightings as weather balloons, reflected lights, mistaken identification of common aircraft, radar glitches, and more; they use the term UAP, Unidentified Aerial Phenomena, because some sightings are not objects at all but optical illusions. They are investigating because pilots seeing things that aren’t there could be a hazard to flight, or there is a possibility that some of these could be enemy stealth activity, a danger to national security.
The Air Force’s previous major study, Project Blue Book. was terminated, finding no threat to national security, no evidence of advanced technology, and no evidence of extraterrestrial origin. Unfortunately, people who make money pushing UFO books, documentaries, and highly exaggerated TV shows like the recent Project Blue Book – an absurdly fictionalized version of the real study, The X-Files, Stargate, and more have managed to convince people that the alien’s explanation is less ridiculous than things we can prove exist.
Aliens sell. Weather balloons don’t.
They’ve made “weather balloons” a joke, even though every air station in the US releases two huge balloons a day, and light reflected off them can cause them to appear as odd shapes. The self-proclaimed UFOlogists – a doubtful title; not one of them has ever had a captured UFO to study and who don’t consider them unidentified but definitely aliens – can come up with a brilliant excuse for their utter lack of evidence by saying that the government is silencing people, seizing evidence and covering up the truth.
It’s easy to accuse people of coverups, then when they deny that they know anything beyond what they have released, yelping, “See? Coverup!” Actually, it is UFOlogists who are guilty of covering up; their stories tend to leave out details like confessed hoaxes, psychiatric evaluations of delusions, and failed lie detector tests. Unlike the Air Force, they don’t investigate UFOs as unknowns – they assume aliens and report every absurd story verbatim. Aliens sell. Weather balloons don’t.