Yesterday, a senior U.S. naval intelligence officer told the congressional intelligence committee members that UFO encounters are "frequent and continuous."

Scott Bray, the Deputy Director of Naval Intelligence, told the committee that UFO sightings, or Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (UAPs) under the Pentagon's new name, have been commonplace on military ranges since the early 2000s.

Mr. Bray's evidence before the subcommittee on Counterterrorism, Counterintelligence, and Counterproliferation of the U.S. House Intelligence Committee is part of the first legislative hearing on UFOs in more than 50 years.

He was joined by U.S. Undersecretary of Defence for Intelligence and Security Ronald Moultrie, who oversees the Pentagon's Airborne Object Identification and Management Synchronisation Group (AOIMSG), which was established to investigate UFOs following the 2021 release of an intelligence report on the phenomenon.

According to the research, more than 140 UFO encounters since 2004 could not be explained and were neither optical illusions nor sensor malfunctions. Mr. Bray stated at yesterday's hearing, "Based on the data we have, it is evident that many of the sightings involve physical objects."

While some of the sightings have been attributed to mundane causes, such as Mylar from balloons and commercial and military drones, both Mr. Bray and Mr. Moultrie cautioned that many sightings remain unexplained and potentially dangerous. Mr. Bray disclosed that while there have been no collisions between UFOs and military equipment, there have been 11 near-misses.

AOIMSG is instituting a structured reporting procedure to remove the stigma associated with pilots and other military personnel reporting UFO encounters to collect more data and better understand any potential threats.

Mr. Bray submitted two UAP video clips to the panel.

The triangle-shaped objects were later revealed to be optical artifacts caused by light traveling through night-vision goggles. The second image depicted a spherical, reflective object flying through the cockpit window of a military aircraft.

Regarding this UFO, Mr. Bray stated, "I have no idea what this particular object is."

The concept of extraterrestrial spacecraft was not mentioned in June's UAP presentation. As was the case in yesterday's hearing, the focus was on potential consequences for U.S. national security and aviation safety.

However, the study does include several UAPs previously shown in Pentagon-released video footage of mysterious aerial objects with speed and maneuverability beyond known aviation technology and with no discernible propulsion or flight-control surfaces.

Andre Carson, chairman of the subcommittee, stated that the Pentagon must take the issue of UAPs seriously. "UAPs are unexplained, it's true. But they are genuine," Mr. Carson said, expressing concern that Pentagon officials in the past have "avoided the ones that cannot be explained" in favor of examples that are relatively simple to explain.

After the public hearing, Mr. Moultrie and Mr. Bray were slated to provide a classified testimony.

After decades of diverting, refuting, and discounting observations of UFOs dating back to the 1940s, yesterday's hearing represented a turning point for the U.S. government.

Since the United States Air Force halted the inconclusive Project Blue Book UFO program in 1969, there had been no formal congressional hearing on the subject.