The U.S. scrapped an initiative to create a program for reverse-engineering remnants of alien spacecraft over a decade ago, according to a new report the Pentagon’s UFO investigator released in unclassified form Friday.
The report overall found no evidence that any UFOs were reverse-engineered and dismissed whistleblower allegations of such programs as false or misrepresentations of existing national security programs. However, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) in 2012 explored the idea of setting up a program, code-named “Kona Blue,” to reverse-engineer extraterrestrial objects of non-human origin but ultimately canned the program for “lacking merit,” the Pentagon’s All-Domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO) found.
“It is critical to note that no extraterrestrial craft or bodies were ever collected—this material was only assumed to exist by KONA BLUE advocates and its anticipated contract Performers,” the report states. (RELATED: Defense Bill Scales Back Efforts To Increase DOD Transparency Over UFO Investigations)
The Pentagon delivered the report, a historical record of all U.S. government activity related to what are now termed unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAP) going back to 1945, to Congress last week in accordance with Congressional mandate, Pentagon press secretary Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder said in a statement.
Kona Blue was not reported to Congress at the time because it never reached the necessary classification level to qualify as a “special access program,” according to the report.
Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks disclosed the program to Congress only recently “in the spirit of transparency,” Tim Phillips, AARO’s acting director, said, according to Politico.
Kona Blue “would restart UAP investigations, paranormal research (including alleged “human consciousness anomalies”) and reverse-engineer any recovered off-world spacecraft that they hoped to acquire,” the report states. AARO found advocates of the program were convinced the U.S. government was intentionally concealing UAP technologies.
By setting Kona Blue up under DHS and subjecting it to congressional oversight, the technology the Pentagon was suspected of hiding would come to light, the advocates believed, according to the report.
“It is critical to note that no extraterrestrial craft or bodies were ever collected — this material was only assumed to exist by KONA BLUE advocates and its anticipated contract performers,” the report says.
New declassified UFO video just dropped. Sean Kirkpatrick, head of the Pentagon’s All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office, walks senators through a sighting of a “spherical UAP” in the Middle East from last year pic.twitter.com/ep6aujggmY
— Dave Brown (@dave_brown24) April 19, 2023
Investigators collaborated with the U.S. intelligence community and individuals responsible for oversight of special access programs and conducted dozens of interviews to generate the historical record, Ryder said.
It’s unclear whether the report will quell discussion around alleged secret reverse-engineering programs brought forward by former military and intelligence officers, including David Grusch. Grusch told Congress the U.S. intelligence community is illegally concealing classified documentation of UFOs.
“To date, AARO has found no verifiable evidence for claims that the U.S. government and private companies have access to or have been reverse-engineering extraterrestrial technology. Also, AARO has found no evidence that any U.S. government investigation, academic-sponsored research, or official review panel has confirmed that any sighting of a UAP represented extraterrestrial technology,” Ryder said.
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