Washington (AFP)

An official U.S. report on unidentified flying objects (UFOs) concluded that there is no evidence that aliens exist, without however explaining the mysterious phenomena observed by U.S. military pilots, according to U.S. media.

Citing U.S. government officials briefed on the findings of the report, which is due for release at the end of the month, The New York Times reported on Thursday that most of the phenomena seen by U.S. military pilots in recent years remain difficult to explain.

The Pentagon released videos taken by US Navy pilots last year showing in-flight encounters with what appear to be UFOs.

One of these videos is from November 2004 and the other two are from January 2015.

After decades of secrecy, Congress last year ordered the executive to brief the general public on the activities of the Pentagon unit responsible for studying these phenomena, which has been entrusted to the US Navy.

This report, placed under the authority of the Directorate of Intelligence (DNI), concludes with certainty that the vast majority of the more than 120 such incidents are not related to technologies tested by the United States military, according to a officials quoted by the New York Times.

But that is the only firm conclusion in the document and the report does not categorically exclude the possibility that they may be aircraft of extraterrestrial origin, according to officials quoted by CNN who are also speaking under cover. anonymity.

Some of the officials quoted by the New York Times admit that the fact that part of the report will remain a defense secret risks fueling speculation about secret US government information about the existence of aliens.

- Difficult to explain -

The accelerations of objects filmed by pilots and their ability to change direction remain difficult to explain.

The American intelligence services fear that China or Russia test hypersonic technologies, moving at 10 or even 20 times the speed of sound, and very maneuverable, according to one of the officials quoted by the newspaper.

The American public's fascination with extraterrestrials was reignited by a recent report from the very serious American television magazine "60 Minutes" on the forthcoming publication of this report.

The former President Barack Obama had, shortly after, mischievously put on a diaper, admitting during a humorous program to have asked upon his arrival at the White House if there was a secret laboratory where "we keep extraterrestrial specimens and spaceships ".

"They did some research and the answer was no," he added with a smile.

"What is true - and here I am serious - is that there are videos and images of objects in the sky that we do not know exactly what they are," added Mr. Obama.

At the Pentagon, these images are taken very seriously.

To encourage airmen to report these appearances without fear of being mocked, the military no longer designates them as "unidentified flying objects" (UFOs) but as "unidentified aerial phenomena".

The objective is that military experts and those of the intelligence services have at their disposal as many videos as possible in order to analyze them and identify as many aircraft as possible.

"The more data we collect, the more we can reduce the gap between identified and unidentified, and the more we can avoid strategic surprises in terms of adversary technologies," said a spokeswoman for the US Department of Defense, Susan Gough.

© 2021 AFP