U.S.A.F's National Air and Space Intelligence Center to receive UAP data

Bill S.2610

Thanks to the efforts of Twitter user UAP36665648 and the Silva Record blog,  we find out that S.2610, a bill before the Unites States Congress, mentions UAP. Note, that it is currently a "Bill" and not an "Act." Thus the wording of the final version of the "Act" may be somewhat different. 

S.2610 is a bill "To authorize appropriations for fiscal year 2022 for intelligence and intelligence-related activity of the United State Government, the Intelligence Community Management Account, and the Central intelligence Agency retirement and Disability System, and for other purposes."

UAP mentioned in the bill

https://www.congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/senate-bill/2610/text#toc-id627E022ABE1340C99913763DC904F68C

Section 345 of the bill is titled "Support for and oversight of Unidentified Aerial Phenomena Task Force" and reads as follows:

(a) Definitions- In this section:

(1) APPROPRIATE COMMITTEES OF CONGRESS - The term "appropriate committees of Congress" includes:

(A) The Congressional intelligence Committee.

\(B) The Committee on Armed Services of the Senate.

(C) The Committee on Armed Services of the House of Representatives.

(2) UNIDENTIFIED AERIAL PHENOMENA TASK FORCE - The term "Unidentified Aerial Phenomena Task Force" means the task force established by the Department of Defense on August 4, 2020, to be led by the Department of the Navy, under the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence and Security.

(b) AVAILABLITY OF DATA ON UNIDENTIFIED AERIAL PHENOMENA - The Director of National intelligence and the Secretary of Defense shall each, in coordination with each other require each element of the Intelligence Community and the Department of defense with data relating to unidentified aerial phenomena, to make such data available immediately to the Unidentified Aerial phenomena Task Force and to the National Air and Space Intelligence Center.

(C) QUATERLY REPORTS TO CONGRESS

(1) IN GENERAL - Not later than 90 days after the enactment of this Act and not less frequently than quarterly thereafter, the Unidentified Aerial Phenomena Task Force, or such other entity as the Deputy Secretary of Defense may designate to be responsible for matters relating to Unidentified Aerial Phenomena, shall submit to the appropriate committees of Congress quarterly reports on the  findings of the Unidentified Aerial phenomena task Force or such other designated entity as the case may be.

(2) CONTENTS - Each report submitted under paragraph (1) shall indicate, at a minimum, the following:

(A) All reported unidentified aerial phenomena-related events that occurred during the previous 90 days.

(B) All reported unidentified aerial phenomena-related events that occurred during a time period other than the previous 90 days but were not reported in an earlier report.

(3) FORM - Each report submitted under paragraph (1) shall be submitted in classified form."

What is the National Air and Space Intelligence Center?

According to its website, NASIC (for short) is "...the Department of Defense' s primary source for foreign air and space threat analysis. NASIC is the Air Force's service intelligence center, the nation's air and space intelligence center, and an operational wing in the Air Force's ISR enterprise."

NASIC is based at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, near Dayton, Ohio. It reports directly to the Deputy Chief of Staff, for Intelligence, Surveillance, Reconnaissance, and Cyber Effects operations.

For a comprehensive article on NASIC in the context of UAP, please take a look at a blog, dated 17 February 2019, by Melbourne based researcher Paul Dean. 

Project Blue Book

The U.S.A.F. previously ran a UFO Project, Project Blue Book, between 1952 and 1969, headquartered at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. It had two goals, to see if UFOs were a threat to national security and to analyze UFO data. 

Comment:

This is the first time I can recall, that NASIC has been mentioned, in a Congressional document, as a recipient for UAP related data. It will be interesting to see which area of NASIC will actually process the data. 

Update: 10 August 2021

In an article dated 9 August 2021, POLITICO journalist Bryan Bender wrote about the above topic. In the article there were some additional information:

1. "The Pentagon is considering giving the Space Force a greater role in a stepped up effort to track and investigate reports of UFOs. But the newest military branch isn't over the moon about the idea."

2. "A congressional staffer also told POLITICO the classified portion of the bill includes a provision outlining more parameters for tackling the subject over the longer term, including recommending additional funding to finance the effort."

3. "A former Pentagon official also said he expects there will also be legislative guidance on UAPs in a final version of the National Defense Authorization Act."

4. "But in addition to the Space Force, which works in tandem with the newly re-established U.S. Space Command, officials are considering a number of military and intelligence organizations at this early stage that could take the lead or combine their efforts in a new organization.

One is the secretive Space Security and Defense Program, which reports to both the Pentagon and the director of national intelligence, which oversees all, spy agencies.

The outfit had a broad writ to assess potential space threats and also has authority to award contracts to develop new collection capabilities.  Other candidates for a greater role in overseeing UFO issues are the Defense Intelligence Agency, which studies foreign weapons systems and has a history of researching such sightings, as well as the North American Aerospace Defense Command in Colorado, which is responsible for defending the nation's airspace."

Update: 19 August 2021

Thanks to D. Dean Johnson (Twitter 19 August 2021) we find out that on 28 July 2021  the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence met to consider the Intelligence Authorization Bill FY 2022. "Among the amendments adopted en bloc, by voice vote, was an amendment moved by SSCI Chairman Senator Mark Warner." 

"Ranking SSCI Republican Marco Rubio (R-FL) and SSCI members Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), Marttin Heinrich (D-NM) and Ray Blunt (R-MO), 'to require support for and oversight of the Unidentified Aerial Phenomena Task Force ' to quote the SSCI explanatory report released August, 10, 2021."

Update: 10 March 2022

Once again thanks to Douglas Dean Johnson (Twitter 9 March 2022) who informs us that a bill containing the Intelligence Authorization  Act (IAA) FY 2022, is on its way to enactment. The UAP portion of the IAA"...imposes two new requirements on the Dept. of Defense and Director of National Intelligence. " One of these is that all components of the Intelligence Community and the Department of Defense, must in addition to sending UAP reports to the Airborne Object Identification and Management Sychronization Group (AOIMSG,) also send them to the USAF's National Air and Space Intelligence Center (NASIC.) For a comprehensive look at NASIC in relation to the UAP topic I refer you to a blog article by Melbourne research Paul Dean.