Overview

• AARO investigators found that in the 1980s an Air Force colonel circulated doctored flying-saucer photos at an Area 51 bar to distract from F-117 Nighthawk testing
• The Air Force’s decades-long hazing ritual involving mock briefings on a fictitious “Yankee Blue” alien reverse-engineering project was ended by Pentagon order in 2023
• Former Air Force captain Robert Salas and other witnesses were kept uninformed of a 1967 electromagnetic pulse test they mistook for a UFO disabling nuclear missiles
• From May 2023 to June 2024, AARO logged 757 UFO reports with 736 identified as mundane and 21 remaining unexplained, prompting Pentagon denials of extraterrestrial encounters or retrievals
• Congressional hearings have increased demands for more UFO data; the Department of Defense plans to publish a second volume of its UFO records later this year