--- title: "The U.S. Navy Will Start Taking UFO Sightings Much More Seriously" description: "The U.S. Navy is working on new guidelines for its personnel to report UFO sightings and other mysterious aerial phenomena." date: "2019-04-24" modified: "2019-05-14" authors: - name: "Victor Tangermann" job_title: "Senior Editor" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/victor" url: "https://futurism.com/us-navy-take-ufo-sightings-seriously" categories: - "Off-World" - "Space" tags: - "air force" - "u.s. navy" - "ufos" - "unidentified flying object" --- # The U.S. Navy Will Start Taking UFO Sightings Much More Seriously ![The U.S. Navy is working on new guidelines for its personnel to report UFO sightings and other mysterious aerial phenomena.]() *\Image: Peter Lomas via Pixabay/Victor Tangermann\* ## Close Encounters The U.S. Navy is working on new guidelines for its personnel to report sightings and other encounters with "unidentified aircraft," [*Politico* reports](). It sounds like a major step toward taking UFO encounters more seriously: the Navy's new process would create formalized guidelines for sailors and pilots alike to report and analyze each one of the encounters. ## The Truth Is Out There No, this is definitely not the Navy confirming the existence of extraterrestrials, as *Politico* points out. It's just giving the rank and file a chance to have their encounters examined by military authorities. "There have been a number of reports of unauthorized and/or unidentified aircraft entering various military-controlled ranges and designated air space in recent years," the Navy said in a statement to *Politico*. "For safety and security concerns, the Navy and the \[U.S. Air Force\] takes these reports very seriously and investigates each and every report." ## A Second Look Rather than ignoring and dumping the data collected during sightings of UFOs and other "unexplained aerial phenomena," as Pentagon officials put it, the sightings would be investigated and studied by personnel — though exactly who gets to review the data is unclear. In 2017, the [*New York Times* reported]() on a $22 million program by the Pentagon called the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program that [allegedly was devoted]() to the investigation of UFOs. Perhaps the Navy's upcoming guidelines could simply be an outcome of that. **READ MORE:** [U.S. Navy drafting new guidelines for reporting UFOs]() \[*Politico*\] **More on UFOs:** *[Former Senator Wants Congress to Listen to UFO Reports]()* ## Author I've been at Futurism since 2017, where my role has evolved to encompass design, writing, and increasingly editing. I've always been fascinated by space exploration and advanced transportation, which I've leaned into by interviewing luminaries in those fields while closely following the dimensions of policy and regulation that allow next-generation projects to succeed -- or, sometimes, to fail. I'm also keenly interested in the effects of generative AI on society, policies, and democratic institutions, as well as clean energy, physics and biology, and the vagaries of tech leadership. My work for Futurism has been cited by publications including Ars Technica, Gizmodo, PC Magazine, Jalopnik, Fox News, and the New York Post. I spent my childhood living in locations including Manila, the Philippines, and Geneva, Switzerland, attended McGill University, and now live in Toronto, Canada. Before Futurism I worked at AskMen and a small photography studio. In my free time, I'm an avid gardener, foodie, and craft beer lover, as well as a maker of artisanal hot pepper sauces. I have a magnificent dog named Freida. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()