Just in from Reuters, the Pentagon has announced that Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (UAP) have landed in a new organization inside the five-sided building. Liberty Nation has reported extensively on the government’s evolving approach to the official office for mysterious flying objects. After coming clean about the presence of aerial craft for which it had no explanation, the Department of Defense (DOD), at Congress’ direction, is looking at UAP more earnestly. The new organization will be the Department of Defense’s investigative arm to focus on reports of UAP – formerly known as UFOs (unidentified flying objects) – flying in restricted airspace. Not only has the Defense Department created the new office, but it has a nifty, albeit cumbersome, acronym.
The group will be called the AOIMSG (not making this up) that stands for Airborne Object Identification and Management Synchronization Group – a name only the most complex and insular bureaucracy in the world could love. The folks on the Potomac will identify, manage, and synchronize what heretofore was unidentified, not managed, and apparently, not synchronized.
In a November 23 press release, the DOD announced that the AOIMSG would replace the Unidentified Aerial Phenomena Task Force established in August 2020. According to the DOD press office:
“The AOIMSG will synchronize efforts across the Department and the broader US government to detect, identify and attribute objects of interest in Special Use Airspace (SUA), and to assess and mitigate any associated threats to safety of flight and national security. To provide oversight of the AOIMSG, the Deputy Secretary also directed the USD(I&S) to lead an Airborne Object Identification and Management Executive Council (AOIMEXEC) to be comprised of DOD and Intelligence Community membership and to offer a venue for US government interagency representation.”
Looking more closely at this statement, a couple of things pop out. First, the AOIMSG will “synchronize” efforts within the DOD and interested whole-of-government agencies. The word synchronize is a curious verb to use. If you take its meaning literally, the AOIMSG will attempt to ensure that whatever agencies are doing regarding detecting and identifying unknown airborne craft, the agencies will be doing at the same time, not necessarily the same tasks or programs working toward a common goal. More useful words would have been “coordinate” or “integrate.” Those words would have suggested an effort to eliminate duplication and inefficiency. Even when you go to the official source document, the November 23, 2021, memorandum from the Deputy Secretary of Defense sent to “Senior Pentagon Leadership, Commanders of the Combatant Commands, Defense Agency, and Field Activity Directors,” laying out who does what to whom, the bureaucratic gobbledygook gets no better.
The memorandum does explain the Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence and Security (USD(I&S)) will be the lead for the Defense Department and that the AOIMSG will reside within the office of the USD(I&S). Additionally, there will be an Airborne Object Identification and Management Executive Council or AOIMEXEC. Ah, a committee, now we are getting somewhere. America can take comfort that a committee is in charge. The committee will “provide oversight and direction.” However, the memorandum does not explain how the committee will do anything, but declares that implementation guidance will come later.
The second aspect of DOD’s approach to mysterious flying objects that seems odd is where the new organization intends to identify and detect these unknown craft. It seems the area of interest for the DOD is exclusively that “the presence of unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP) in Special Use Airspace (SUA)…represents a potential safety of flight risk to aircrews and raises potential national security concerns.” So, it’s not just any airspace that is of concern, but SUA.
As Howard Altman, writing for Military Times, explains, “Special Use Airspace, according to the Federal Aviation Administration, includes areas over military bases, training ranges, and national security areas.” What the public affairs folks in the Pentagon announced was:
“Incursions by any airborne object into our SUA pose safety of flight and operations security concerns and may pose national security challenges. DOD takes reports of incursions – by any airborne object, identified or unidentified – very seriously and investigates each one.”
Well, “each one” in SUA. So, what is not of interest? All other airspace is, evidently, available for alien saucers to fly in at will. What we don’t know and is not made clear is how many UAP occur over time in SUA versus the vast amount of other airspaces? If you live in Escanaba, Michigan, and not near an SUA, you’re on your own. If you are abducted, leave a note.
Lastly, should the detecting, identifying, and attributing be successful, then the DOD is going to “mitigate any associated threats to safety of flight and national security.” From what we’ve seen in the fighter videos and have learned from a host of eyewitness accounts, the UAP has aerodynamic characteristics heretofore unknown. One might even postulate that the UAP demonstrates technologies beyond what the U.S., or any ally or adversary, possesses. How, pray tell, will the committee determine the objects are a threat and then what is meant by “mitigate?” Unfortunately, what the DOD has announced is just a bureaucratic kabuki dance to give the impression it’s doing something. There are no clear lines of responsibility, authority, and accountability.
The views expressed are those of the author and not of any other affiliation.
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