Where can I find a database of Australian UAP sightings?

An Australian database? 

Recently I was asked if there was a database of Australian UAP sightings, a sort of one-stop shop for these? I had to admit that there wasn't such a thing. Then I began to wonder where I would go to look for a comprehensive listing of sightings from my country? The answer became quite complex. Here are my thoughts.

National Archives

1. The National Archives of Australia's website has a search engine named RecordSearch. If you type in keywords such as "flying saucer," "UFO," "UFOs," and " Unusual aerial sightings," up pops a list of dozens of UAP related files, generated by a range of Australian government Departments and Agencies. Each file contains details of a variety of Australian sighting reports from 1951 to 1996 when the RAAF ceased its interest in the subject. In total there are many hundreds, if not thousands of reported sightings.

My catalogues

2. Over the years this author has compiled a number of UAP related catalogues which summarize Australian observations. Many of these catalogues are available on the website for Project 1947. These include:

* "Unusual aerial sightings: a search through the Australian government's records systems."

* "A catalogue of pre-24 June 1947 Australian Unidentified Aerial Phenomena."

* "Balwyn stage one report."

* "Balwyn stage two report."

* "A catalogue of Australian trace cases."

* Text source material for Westall High School UFO April 6, 1966."

* "A reference catalogue of UAP reported from the Nullarbor Plain region of southern Australia."

* "A catalogue of UAP reports from Victoria, Bass Strait, and Tasmania around the time of the Frederick Valentich disappearance on 21st October 1978."

* "A catalogue of the more interesting Australian UFO reports."

* "A re-examination of the Zanthus, Western Australia aircraft encounter of 22 August 1968."

* " Listing of reports from Woomera, South Australia."

* "A catalogue of Australian abduction cases."

* "A catalogue of South Australian UFO reports."

Blogs

3. Three Australian blogs have carried reports, and often personal investigations. These are written by:

Bill Chalker; Paul Dean, and Keith Basterfield.

Books

4. Over the years, there have been a number of books written about UAP, by Australian authors. Many of these give details of Australian sightings. One of the more recent ones is "Australasian Encounter: UFOs Down Under-The files revisited," by Barry Watts, published by Pegasus Education Group, PO Box 223, McCrae, Victoria, 3938, 241pp. Another prolific Australian author is Moira McGhee of the Independent Network of UFO Researchers. Her books are listed on their website. 

Civilian UAP organisations

5. Since the mid 1950's a number of Australian civilian UAP organisations have come and gone, in Australia. In the age of the internet, and with the ageing of their leadership, most have closed down. Two largish organizations continue, namely UFO Research (Queensland) and UFO Research (New South Wales,) UFO Research (NSW) maintains a website, which has a sub-section labelled "sightings" with details from 1958-2017.  

Facebook

6. There are several dozen UAP related Australian Facebook pages, with membership from single digits to many thousands, which daily report upon local sightings, including photographs and videos. In 2018, a survey was conducted to determine how many FB groups there were at that stage.  

International databases

7. There are at least five international databases which input cases from Australia. These are:

* Mutual UFO Network (MUFON) - if you are a MUFON member then you can access the organization's Case Management System and read details of cases from Australia. 

* National UFO Reporting Center (NUFORC) - in the USA. Go to the NUFORC database where there are thousands of global cases including ones from Australia. 

* National Investigations Commitee on Aerial Phenomena (NICAP) - Check out the chronology tab for thousands of global cases which have been reported, including local cases from here. 

* The PhenomAInon website also provides access to Australian MUFON and NUFORC cases; as does the UPDB database. 

Periodicals

8. Quite importantly, the various civil UAP organizations published a range of periodical Newsletters, Journals and other publications. Thanks to the efforts of such individuals as Isaac Koi in the UK; Barry Greenwood in the USA, and a number of individuals here in Australia, including myself, digital copies of many Australian UAP periodicals have been preserved in the Archives for the Unexplained (AFU). Copies may be downloaded. 

YouTube

9. A range of Australian events are included in videos on Youtube. Try keywords such as "Knowles family" for the 1988 Mundrabille car encounter; "Kelly Cahill" for her 1990's abduction events; or "Amy and Keith Rylance" for details on the 2001 hoaxed Queensland "abduction."

In summary

Due to the large number of places to which anyone can report a sighting from Australia; you can start to see why no one has the ability to compile a master listing of UAP sightings from anyone country, including Australia. Even if one did there would remain the fact that many of the sources cited above do not carry out any form of investigation as to the nature of what was seen, i.e. was it an identified object or an unidentified one? Thus, a database would be an unknown mix of IFOs and unknowns.

My own methodology has been to look at the original source of the details of the sighting; and conduct wherever possible, a virtual forensic investigation to determine IFO or UFO; or sometimes an in the field investigation. My various catalogues are the result of such diligent research, and I would recommend that blog readers who are interested in Australian material perhaps look at these catalogues as a first port of call. Then perhaps look for original material at AFU; or visit the NICAP website to see if PDFs of original documentation exist there. 

What has the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office been doing since it was established?

 Establishment

In a blog article dated 27 July 2022, I reported on the establishment of the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO.) Its director was named as Dr. Sean Kirkpatrick. The current article aims to provide an update on the work of AARO since its establishment, drawn from open sources.

12 January 2023

The Department of Defense announced that AARO Director Sean Kirkpatrick was to speak at the Annual Meeting of the Transportation Research Board , in Washington DC, on 12 January 2023. The title of his talk was "The Defense Department's UAP Mission & Civil Aviation." In the talk, Kirkpatrick spoke about "What is AARO?" and how the AARO Mission was applicable to the Transportation Research Board. To see his full presentation click here. 

19 January 2023

In a Tweet dated 19 January 2023, reporter Bryan Bender stated that:

"AARO is partnering with Enigma Labs to evaluate their application, data stream and filtering capabilities to determine the utility of its open source data to augment its collection efforts focused on national security areas only. Pentagon spokesperson Susan Gough tells me."

19 February 2023

Part of AARO's remit was to hear out the narrative and sighting experiences of individuals who wanted to convey UAP related information to AARO. In a 19 February 2023 article, U.S. researcher Robert Hastings advised that AARO had been in touch with him, regarding his collection of nuclear installation UAP events, and witnesses. As a result, a number of U.S. veterans, with accounts of incidents with UAP near military nuclear weapons facilities, had spoken to AARO.

Also, in February 2023, U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand and Senator Marco Rubio led a group of 16  Senators who signed a letter to Kathleen H. Hicks, Deputy Secretary of Defense, and Stacey Dixon, Principle Deputy Director of National Intelligence.

Kathleen H. Hicks > U.S. Department of Defense > Biography

This letter included:

"...we respectfully request your assistance in securing the necessary funding and organizational support for AARO's success and longevity."

 The letter went on to speak of a "...serious funding gap.." It went on to remind the two addressees, that:

 "The FY23 Intelligence Authorization Act (IAA) requires that the Director of AARO report directly to the Deputy Secretary of Defense and the Principal Deputy Director of National Intelligence.."

which had not occurred as at the date of this letter. 

7 March 2023

Avi Loeb | Department of Astronomy (harvard.edu)

A draft, six page paper, coauthored by Dr. Kirkpatrick and the Galileo Project's Avi Loeb, titled "Physical Constraints on Unidentified Aerial Phenomena" was made available. Its abstract read:

"We derive physical constraints on interpretations of "highly maneuverable" Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (UAP) based on standard physics and known forms of matter and radiation. In particular, we show that the friction of UAP with the surrounding air or water is expected to generate a bright optical fireball, ionization shell and tail - implying radio signatures. The fireball luminosity scales with inferred distance to the 5th power. Radar cross-section scales similarly to meteor head echoes as the square of the effective radius of the sphere surrounding the object, while the radar cross-section of the resulting ionization tail scales linearly with the radius of the ionization cylinder. The lack of all these signatures could imply inaccurate distance measurements (and hence derived velocity) for single site sensors."

19 April 2023

Dr. Kirkpatrick was the sole presenter to the Senate Armed Services sub-committee on Emerging Threats and Capabilities. During this presentation his statement included:

"I want to underscore today that only a very small percentage of UAP reports display signatures that could reasonably be described as 'anomalous.' "

On the question of an extraterrestrial origin for some UAP, Kirkpatrick said:

"I should also state clearly for the record that in our research AARO has found no credible evidence thus far or extraterrestrial activity, off-world technology, or objects that defy the known laws of physics. In the event sufficient scientific data were ever obtained that a UAP encountered can only be explained by extraterrestrial origin, we are committed to working with our interagency partners at NASA to appropriately inform the US Government's leadership of its findings."

A video of the entire hearing is available click here.

May 2023

A vacancy notice for a Deputy Director of AARO recently appeared on an agency website. The direct link to this advert no longer works.

On 31 May 2023, NASA held a public meeting of its Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena Independent Study Team. Dr. Kirkpatrick also made a presentation. In it he gave details of "UAP reporting trends" and provided examples of both identified and unknown UAP cases including some with video evidence. In closing he made several recommendations to NASA which included:

- Taking the lead on the evaluation of crowd sourced metadata from mobile phones

- Use of large-scale scientific instruments

- Use of Earth science satellites

- Reviewing archived data.

Five Eyes

During the course of that public meeting Kirkpatrick stated that he had recently held a meeting with the "Five Eyes" partners (the USA, Canada, UK, Australia and New Zealand) re UAP. The discussions included:

- What kind of analyses can they help us with?

- What kind of calibration can they help us with?

- Data sharing.

- What can we help them with?

- Kirkpatrick stated that those other countries would send their information and data to AARO to be integrated into the AARO processes. 

23 June 2023

A press release on the website of Senator Gillibrand advised that she had secured full funding for AARO in the Senate Armed Services Committee markup of the FY24 National Defense Authorization Act.

6 July 2023

The US Aerospace Corporation advised vacant positions in support of AARO. (Link not active.)

20 July 2023

In an article about a face-to-face interview with the U.S. ABC Network's, Devin Dwyer; Kirkpatrick is reported to have said that being caught off guard by intelligent or extraterrestrial technical surprise remained a top concern. Other points he made included:

- AARO had now received around 800 reports

- "We will follow the data"

- The vast majority of cases are readily explainable

- A small number of reports involved anomalies.

30 August 2023

The Defencescoop's Brandi Vincent reported , in an article dated 30 August 2023 that:

"Deputy Defense Secretary Kathleen Hicks recently moved to personally oversee the Pentagon's UAP investigation formerly known as the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office....Hicks now holds regular meetings with AARO's inaugural director Sean Kirkpatrick who she has also repositioned to report directly to her...AARO is not yet at full operational capability and I look forward to AARO achieving that in fiscal year 2024."

31 August 2023

Pentagon Press Secretary Air Force Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder at a press briefing on 31 August 2023 announced the launch of the AARO website which had been long promised.  The website sets out details of the AARO Mission and Vision; defines UAP as they see it; and has sections which include UAP reporting trends:

- Reported UAP altitudes

- Typically reported UAP characteristics

- Reported UAP morphology

- Reported UAP hotspots.

Under a heading of "Coming soon" is that:

"AARO will be accepting reports from current or former US government employees, service members, or contractors with direct knowledge of US government programs or activities related to UAP dating back to 1945."

Also "coming soon" will be "Current operational UAP reporting":

- For military personnel with the recent GENADMIN process titled "Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena Reporting and Material Disposition"

- For pilots, please report via the FAA.

Several UAP videos both identified, and unknown are available on the website. Following this, there is an "About us" section and "Additional information about AARO." As for reporting sightings from the general public the site states that "...we will advise when a reporting mechanism is available for others to use."

Interestingly, under "AARO Mission Overview" is a 12-slide presentation by AARO. Slide six includes a section headed "UAP object recovery" which states:

"Leads UAP recovery planning and execution, in close collaboration with AARO S & T Group.

Advises commands on the search and safe handling, storage, transport, and transfer of UAP objects and material, for AARO S&T exploitation."

 Slide eight includes "UAP Exploitation":

"Directs exploitation of recovered enigmatic technologies, leveraging cross-sector partnerships and the latest developments in theoretical and applied physics, engineering

Leads structured recording, synthesis and storage of signatures and material analyses for data consistency, across operational, analytic, and research partnerships."

Update: 2 November 2023

1. AARO published its consolidated annual report. 

2. The US DOD issued a news release on 31 October 2023, announcing AARO's secure mechanism for authorized reporting of information about UAP programs, via the aaro.mil website. 

3. On 31 October 2023 AARO director Sean Kirkpatrick held a press briefing about UAP. Here is a transcript of that session.

Update: 13 November 2023

1. On 31 October, the current Director of AARO, Sean Kirkpatrick held an off-camera media roundtable. Here is a link to the transcript of that session. The session described the new AARO reporting system which allows USG employees to confidentially report their knowledge of USG UAP related activities. 

2. On 8 November 2023, the US Department of Defense announced the appointment of a Deputy Director, AARO. The appointee was Timothy A. Phillips. 

3. Also on 8 November 2023, The US Department of Defense announced the upcoming departure of the current AARO Director, Sean Kirkpatrick. 

Update: 2 December 2023

Three Case Resolution Reports were uploaded:

Middle East and Mediterranean Sea 2022 and 2023. 

South East Asia 2017.

Western United States. 2021.

Update: 8 March 2024

AARO advertised two positions titled Chief Science and Technology Officer. Duties:

Incumbents typical work assignments may include the following:

• AARO's Chief of Science & Technology (S&T) will provide oversight and direction to the S&T function of AARO. The Chief of S&T serves as the principal subject matter expert for the Director and Deputy Director of AARO.
• Fosters and cultivates strategic alliances and professional networks with interagency partners, government agencies, national laboratories, and universities/academia, to align and integrate the enterprise's array of S&T capabilities against Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAP) requirements.
• Provide direction and guidance to mission managers with regards to UAP efforts and liaises within AARO as well as external partners.
• Serve as the senior member of the S&T Team and demonstrate a level of managerial experience, including the ability to develop near and long-term strategies, set goals, establish metrics, and oversee projects and initiatives. Serve as a liaison to academia, and private industry to accomplish AARO's mission.

Update: 21 March 2024

On 8 March 2024, Defense Scoop reporter Brandi Vincent reported on her attendance at an off-camera invite only media engagement with Tim Phillips, acting Director of AARO. It was revealed that AARO was developing and deploying a new surveillance system-called Gremlin. The media engagement was basically about the release of AARO's volume 1 of their report on US government engagement with UAP. The unclassified version of the AARO historical report may be read here. 

Update: 12 April 2024

It is being reported that AARO will be giving a briefing to some members of the US Congress between 1-3pm EST on 17 April 2024, in a SCIF. 

Update: 22 April 2024

The AARO website recently published information related to "Kona Blue" a program proposed for the Department of Homeland Security in 2011, which would have continued and extended the work of AAWSAP. It was never formally established and work on it wound up in December 2011. AARO itself provided details of how it had come to learn about Kona Blue. 

"Project Nanu"

"Project Nanu"

I was recently intrigued to see a number of Tweets about an entity called "Project Nanu" on Twitter/X. The Project's 13 August 2023 tweet read:

"We may have been quiet, but we've been very busy behind the scenes building a world first social science platform #coming soon. For pre-release information, to know more about us, & the app...."

The website for Project Nanu advises that:

"Investigate the Unknown presents NANU - Discover - Share - Investigate." There follows:

"At Nanu we promise to ignite the flame of discovery and empower investigative, problem-solving, and creative individuals to investigate, discover and share the unknown in a scientific and approachable way..."

Frequently asked questions

There is a "Frequently Asked Questions" section to the website, which advises that their application "...will be globally available for download enabling users to investigate, share and discover all aspects of the phenomenon." The app will be available "Fall 2023 on Android and iOS."

To the question "Where is the company based" the answer provided is: "The company and developers behind the Nanu app are based in the UK, America and Europe."

As to "Who is the parent company & who is involved" the response is: "Nanu is part of the privately owned Investigate the Unknown group headed up by Nicholas Martin."

At this point of reading the details on the website, a question which came to my mind is what is "the phenomenon" mentioned in the FAQ? I found the answer by looking at earlier tweets posted between 7 and 22 December 2022. There is mention of an interest in "Unexplained Phenomena;" "cryptozoology;"" cryptids;" "scientific anomalies;" "spirituality;" "paranormal;" "haunted locations;" "ghosts and spirits;" "extraterrestrials;" "UFOs/UAPs." In short, a very diverse range of topics.

Company business

I took a look at the parent company cited above, namely "Investigate the Unknown Ltd." via the UK Government's "Companies House" website.

The "Investigate the Unknown Ltd." company is listed as company number 12906585 a "Private Limited Company," incorporated on 25 September 2020, with a registered office in Morden, England.

There is a filing history of relevant documents lodged by the company between 25 September 2020 and 21 July 2023. Under the heading of "People," the following individuals are described:

Edward Crowther. Director. Appointed 11 January 2022, age 38, resides in England.

Philip Jansson. Director. Appointed 13 January 2022, age 25, resides in Sweden.

Nicholas Aaron Martin. Director.  Appointed 25 September 2020, age 31, resides in England.

Ricky Paul Mills, Director, Appointed 15 January 2022, age 26, resides in England. 

Hollyanne Bernadette Wood. Director. Appointed 28 January 2023, age 37, resides in England. 

LinkedIn

On LinkedIn the company Investigate the Unknown has a presence. It states that the company has five employees and:

"We are a company built from passionate individuals that are looking to create a generational project that involves discovery, adventure, investigation, problem solving and to bring the rest of humanity along in our awe-inspiring journey. Our goal for us is to bring the unknown phenomenon to the mainstream and inspire the whole world into discovering, sharing and investigating these mysterious and awe-inspiring stories and sighting."

I then looked for individual LinkedIn profiles for the five employees, and found four:

Ed Crowther

Philip Jansson

Nicholas Martin

Ricky Mills

UAP interests

In browsing all the above information, I wondered who amongst the listed individuals might have an interest in UAP? Ricky Mills' profile speaks to a ghost sighting when he was eight, and "ghosts and spirits" was mentioned in one of the project's tweets. One individual maintains a Twitter/X account where their username is @thatuapgirl and that is Holly Wood, who has been on Twitter/X since 2010. Here is a link to an English newspaper article which describes Holly's UAP interests. Holly may be followed on Facebook here. 

In closing

It is refreshing to see that this particular startup company, is open and transparent in the information which is publicly available about it. I look forward to finding out further details of "Project Nanu" and its application when that is available. 

That 140 page "secret" report on the 2004 Nimitz events

Introduction

On a recent episode of the "WEAPONIZED" podcast, titled "The UFO Hearing-What Happened? What's Next," featuring George Knapp, Jeremy Corbell, Ross Coulthart and Bryce Zabel, there was mention of a 140-page report on the November 2004 Nimitz events. Knapp and Corbell had acquired a copy from unnamed sources. Knapp had considered submitting it to the recent Congressional hearing, but ultimately decided not to. 

What was the report about?

According to Corbell, speaking to Knapp, the 140-page document was:

"...generated by an intelligence agency; all on the Tic Tac. You showed it to certain individuals that would have the power to put that on the Congressional record, and people were threatened by the idea of you doing it...and you didn't put it on the Congressional record, tell me why?" 

Knapp responded, saying:

"Sometimes you have to protect sources even from themselves... it is not classified, but it hasn't been authorised for release."

Corbell went on to say:

"...a 140-page detailed analysis; scientific analysis of the Tic tac UFO encounters of multiple craft above 80,000 feet as Commander Fravor said, in space. Right, that Commander Fravor hasn't ever seen, nor Commander Chad Underwood...hasn't seen it."

Recall

At this point in listening to the podcast detail concerning the report; I had a recollection of seeing something similar, about 140-page length document on the Nimitz encounters. I turned to my copy of the book by Lacatski et al, "Skinwalkers at the Pentagon." There I found it.

"Advanced Physics Analysis of Tic Tac:

In an additional 141 page-report delivered to DIA in December 2010, AAWSAP included a detailed advanced physics analysis of the Tic Tac velocity and acceleration that was distinct from Axelrod's report discussed previously and submitted separately to DIA.

A major part of the analysis of Tic tac speed and acceleration performance utilised ANSYS Engineering Software. Back in 2010, the ANSYS Workbench platform was a powerful multi-domain simulation environment that harnessed the core physics from ANSYS, enabled their interoperability, and provided common tools for interfacing with CAD (computer-aided design), repairing geometry, creating meshes, and post-processing results.

To BAASS's knowledge, this powerful computational capability had not been previously utilized in the 75-year history of UFO study. The 141-page report that was submitted to DIA stated:

"It is hypothesized that through this broader ranging ANSYS analysis, additional theoretical constructs can be generated regarding UAP and USO behavior. These in turn could provide the scaffolding for advanced engineering concepts."

The report included ANSYS simulations and analysis of Tic Tac velocities and acceleration as well as simulations of a Tic tac entering the water and simulations of Tic Tac movement through water. These latter simulations could form a baseline for future UAPTF studied and analysis of the so called "trans medium" UAP behavior, as reported by documentary filmmaker Jeremy Corbell and George Knapp. A 'trans medium vehicle' is usually defined in this context as one capable of operating in multiple domains, for example in the air and underwater.

This 141-page UAP Analysis report, which has been archived at DIA since December 2010, could provide current investigators with useful baseline parameters from which to catalogue future UAP behaviors."

Note: AAWSAP was the Advanced Aerospace Weapon System Applications Program; BAASS was Bigelow Aerospace Advanced Space Studies; and DIA was the Defense Intelligence Agency.

I also checked the Lacatski book's list of BAASS documents submitted to the DIA for the AAWSAP project. One of these was as follows:

"Summary report on BAASS UAP Analysis Capabilities. Tic Tac and sphere Assessment. 23 November 2010 (141 pages.)"

Are they the same document?

It looked to me that the 140-page document referred to by Knapp and Corbell was most likely this 141-page BAASS AAWSAP report. Under the BAASS AAWSAP contract, copies of reports generated were only kept by BAASS and the DIA. Neither BAASS nor the DIA has officially released copies of the multiple documents generated by the Project, as listed in the Lacatski et al book. Knapp said about the report he has: "...it is not classified, but it hasn't been authorised for release." That would fit the circumstances of the BAASS AAWSAP document. All in all, my best hypothesis is that these two documents are one.  

This would not be the first time that "unofficially released" data from the BAASS AAWSAP project has appeared in public. See my article on the resurfacing of the BAASS AAWSAP CAPELLA data warehouse. 

BAASS

Is there any other evidence that can support my hypothesis? Actually, there is. Some time ago I compiled an Excel spreadsheet of all the employees of the BAASS AAWSAP of which I was aware. Some of these employees listed details of their work at BAASS on LinkedIn. One of interest is:

"Education:

2004-2006 University of Nevada Las Vegas (UNLV) MSE Mechanical Engineering.

2007-2012 UNLV PhD Mechanical engineering and nuclear engineering.

2012-2015 UNLV Nuclear engineering.

Career:

Jul 2005-Aug 2008 Engineer 1 Mastec,

Aug 2009-June 2010 BAASS Research Engineer II.

Oct 2010-Jul 2011 Engineer II Arcadis.

Jul 2011-Sep 2011 Bigelow Aerospace. Thermal analyst and computational fluid dynamicist.

"Worked in an interdisciplinary team of scientists and engineers studying advanced aerospace weapon system applications including lift, propulsion, control, power generation, signature reduction, materials and armament. Further tasks included: Develop company research topics requiring ANSYS, FEA calculation and carry out research within the fields of aerodynamics, heat transfer, stress analysis and chemical reaction...responsible for compiling, formatting and ongoing technical accuracy of completed scientific analysis reports."

So, this indicates that there was at least one employee of BAASS in the period August 2009 to June 2010 who worked at BAASS; who was using ANSYS; and was responsible "...for compiling, formatting and ongoing technical accuracy of completed scientific analysis reports."

I am aware of this individual's name, but have chosen not to reveal it here, for privacy reasons. There is no suggestion implied here, that this individual provided Knapp and Corbell with a copy of the AAWSAP report.  

Update 8 August 2023

A Twitter/X user, MonkeeSage, noted that there was a relevant portion of George Knapp's submission to the recent Congressional Hearing. MonkeeSage had read Knapp's statement courtesy of a Tweet by John Greenewald, who credited D. Dean Johnson. Included in that statement was the following:

"The very first case investigated by AAWSAP was the Tic Tac incident from 2004. An initial report was compiled by DIA personnel then shared with AAWSAP. A much larger 140-page report, packed with detailed analysis of the Tic Tac and its capabilities, was written by AAWSAP scientists and engineers. Neither Congress nor the public has ever seen the Tic tac report..."

Thus, my deduction that the two reports were one and the same, is borne out. 

The recent French 'webinar' on UAP optical features/signatures

A global issue

Sometimes people forget that the study of UAP is a global issue, and not just centred in the United States of America. I have previously reported on the work of the SIGMA2 Technical Commission of L'Association Aeronautique et Astronautique de France (3AF for short) which is a learned body of the aerospace industry in France. In the clamour surrounding the U.S. Congressional activity re UAP, an event was held on 16 June 2023, both in person in Paris, France and via the internet, put on by SIGMA2.The webinar was organised to discuss the topic of the optical features/signatures of UAP, in order to learn what data exists and how best to collect future data.

The webinar was opened by Luc Dini, Chair of SIGMA2, and followed by an address by Alain Juilet,  former head of the French Foreign Intelligence Service; who two years ago, revealed his interest in UAP.

Speakers

A number of individuals then provided input on the webinar's theme of the optical features/signatures of UAP. Namely;

Dr. Beatriz Villarroel, on "Searches for Extraterrestrial Probes near the Earth with the VASCO and EXOPROBE Projects."

Home - Beatriz Villarroel

Professor Massimo Teodorani, "A Second Life for Project Hessdalen."

Peter A. Reali   "A Forensic Analysis of 'Rubber Duck' A Publicly Available Video Showing a UAP Purportedly Filmed by Arizona National Guard on November 2, 2019."

Dr. Jacques Vallee, "An Approach to UAP Radiated Energy Observables: 5 Study cases."

Luc Dini, "Approach of UAP Optical Observables." 

Professor Kevin Knuth, "UAP Optical Observables."

Round table

Following the presentations, there was a round table discussion, by numerous individuals who were either present in the room in Paris or attending via the Internet. 

Listed participants who were not speakers were:

Rtd. Brigadier Pierre Bescond; Dr. Mike Cifone; Baptiste Friscourt; Pr. Richard Griffins; Dr. Sarah Little; Dr. Filipe Nascimento; Robert Powell; Michael Vailant; Dominique Filhol; Michel Scheller; Dr. Gerard Labaune; Dr. Joel Deschamps; Rtd. Brig. Gen. Jean-Marc Andre; Geoffrey Metchersky; Dr. Andreas Muller; Dr. Nicholas Nasse; Dr. Stephane Pfister; Raymond Piccoli; Dr. Mark Rodhieger. 

Many of the above names will be recognised by blog readers as associated with 3AF Sigma2; the Scientific Coalition for UAP Studies; the Society for UAP Studies; independent UAP researchers; plus others. 

Baptiste Friscourt, a student of French UAP research, in a report dated 21 June 2023, gave an excellent overview report of the event. 

The "Tic tac" encounter - a forgotten participant

Douglas Kurth 

An often-overlooked participant in the 14 November 2004 "Tic tac" incident, is former U.S. Navy pilot Lt. Col. Douglas Kurth. Then Lt. Col. Douglas Kurth was the Commanding Officer of Marine Hornet Squadron VMFA-232 on that date. On the day in question, he was in the area flying a single seater aircraft.

In 2021, in the most Indepth interview with Kurth of which I am aware, U.S. researcher Christian Lambright, asked Kurth about that day. In part, Kurth responded:

"That's when they vectored Fravor's flight toward the Unidentified Contact. After a few minutes when my checks were completed, I accepted their vector toward the Unidentified Contact.

I had Fravor's flight on radar and was directly over the top of them when they were observing the supersonic tic tac. I was not on the same frequency as Fravor's flight.

I saws the visual disturbance in the water (which had been previously and accurately reported) and that is what I used as my reference point to orbit around. The disturbance on the water cleared suddenly. It all seemed odd to me at the time. I never saw the object physically myself."

I reported on the above in a blog article dated 29 May 2021. 

Bigelow Aerospace Advanced Space Studies

Later, Kurth was recruited by Colm Kelleher for Bigelow Aerospace Advanced Space Studies (BAASS) which was successful in bidding for the Defense Intelligence Agency's (DIA) Advanced Aerospace Weapon System Applications Program (AAWSAP.) In that capacity, Kurth led a BAASS team down to South America looking for pieces of UAP and hoping to learn about their propulsion systems. For more information about this South American trip please click here and here and here and here. 

Further to all of the above, Jacques Vallee's "Forbidden Science: Volume 5" references Kurth a number of times. So, in order to add some additional data, I will extract the relevant portions from Vallee.

12 December 2008

Vallee was talking with Colm Kelleher.

"He has now hired three leaders, including Doug Kurth, a sharp ex F-18 pilot from the Nimitz who will start on Monday and get to work on my Capella project..."

23 January 2009 

"Later Doug Kurth gave me a detailed description of an encounter off the coast of Mexico on 8 December 2004. As Commanding Officer of an F-18 squadron, the VMFA-232, Red Devils, he had taken off from the deck of the Nimitz, on a maintenance test flight. They were vectored to check on a disturbance in the water that corresponded to an unusual blip picked up on radar by several ships. 

He did see the disturbance and heard the conversations between other pilots who saw the object, a white rounded cylinder shaped like a "tic tac" candy, which outmaneuvered them and flew up at enormous speed. It was picked up on infrared and tracked. The event was reported in Naval routine. Nobody was told to keep it secret, and it was the subject of much joking aboard the carrier."

5 April 2009

"Now Doug Kurth has sent me the user's guide he has compiled for Capella, a fine piece of work covering the six databases now assembled..."

Comments:

1. We now have an accurate date for when Kurth commenced work with BAASS, namely Monday 15 December 2008. There has been some confusion previously about when he started, as Kurth's own LinkedIn page states that he commenced with BAASS in December 2007, not 2008. The Vallee date is supported by the fact that BAASS wasn't registered as a company until January 2008, and the DIA's AAWSAP contract did not commence until Sep/Oct 2008.

2. Regarding Vallee's diary entry dated 24 January 2009 with a summary of the "Tic tac" event. The date given for the event, of 8 December 2004, is clearly wrong and there is a mixing of information about Kurth's and Fravor's flights, some correct; some incorrect. 

Amazon.com: Skinwalkers at the Pentagon: An Insiders' Account of the Secret Government UFO Program: 9798487639653: Lacatski D.Eng., James T, Kelleher Ph.D., Colm A, Knapp, George: Books

3. Interesting that Kurth was working on Vallee's Capella database system, and was the one, not Vallee, who compiled a user's guide for it. In the book by Lacatski et al, titled "Skinwalkers at the Pentagon" there is a list of documents which BAASS sent to the DIA. One of these documents is listed as "Capella Date Warehouse Database/spreadsheet User's Guide (12 pages.)"

Slowly, albeit years later, we are getting to understand the role which Kurth played at BAASS.

The three views on UAP of an Australian astronomer, an Australian Defence analyst, and an Australian academic

Introduction

In recent years, very few Australian professionals have expressed views on Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAP.) This article takes a look at three individuals, who have publicly commented about the subject. 

Adam Dodd - Queensland academic

Dr Adam Dodd - School of Communication and Arts - University of Queensland (uq.edu.au)

In March 2018, Dr. Adam Dodd, an academic tutor in Communication and Writing, in the School of Communication & Arts, the University of Queensland, authored a paper titled "Strategic Ignorance and the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence: Critiquing the Discursive Segregation of UFOs from Scientific Inquiry" in the Journal "Astropolitics."

The abstract of the paper read:

"Since the late 1940's, a tenacious disconnect between popular interest and professional disinterest in unidentified flying objects (UFOs) has typified the controversy surrounding the subject. Numerous high-profile scientists have seen the topic of UFOs as an opportunity to denounce and rectify a popular, yet allegedly misguided conviction - that some UFOs are physical anomalies indicating the existence of extraterrestrial intelligence - and thus to advance the explanatory authority of science.

Rather than constituting rigorous, informed, and effective assessments, however, the ways in which many prominent scientists publicly address the UFO question often exemplify both the problematic "boundary-work" of scientific discourse in this area, and more specifically, the role that logical fallacy can play in the rhetorical construction of scientific authority in public domains. 

Through a critical discourse analysis, this article argues that ignorance of UFO phenomena is socially and discursively constructed in ways that are conducive to the public faces of individuals and institutions. More broadly, it suggests that the rudimentary standard of science communication attending to the extraterritorial intelligence (ETI) hypothesis for UFOs, inhibits public understanding of science, dissuades academic inquiry within the physical and social sciences, and undermines progressive space policy initiatives."

Jonti Horner - Queensland astrobiologist

Astronomer says declassified UFO reports will open way for scientific discovery - ABC News

In an article, dated 1 July 2021, author Malcolm Sutton of ABC Radio Adelaide, reported on the UAP views of a Queensland astronomer, Jonti Horner. Professor Horner, is an Australian astronomer and astrobiologist, at the University of Southern Queensland's Centre for Astrophysics.

In the article, Professor Horner was commenting on the release and contents of the June 2021 UAP report from the US Office of the Director of National Intelligence, especially declassified videos and sightings.

He commented:

"As soon as you take these out of the top-secret locker and make them public, you suddenly open them up to scrutiny of a much wider variety of people with very different expertise."

Horner went on to say that in this way you can find explanations for some of the cases, and perhaps find novel explanations; citing the research on atmospheric "elves" and "sprites," previously doubted to exist.

"So, I think a release like this is a really positive thing, because it encourages people to voice the things, they see without feeling embarrassed about it."

"I think it's really good fun, because almost all of them - if not all of them - will end up having an explanation and we'll figure it out...But the beauty will be the ones you can't explain, because they're sometimes a window into new physics and new science."

However, Horner stated that it was highly unlikely that any of the ODNI cases were due to ET, although he would not rule that out entirely.

Dr. Malcolm Davis - analyst on Defence matters

Malcolm Davis | Australian Strategic Policy Institute | ASPI

Dr. Malcolm Davis is a Senior Analyst at an independent "think tank," the Australian Strategic Policy Institute with a focus on Defence Strategy and Capability issues, including Space Policy and Space Security, based in Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia. I found three occasions on which Dr. Davis has commented on UAP.

In late 2021, the Australian TV channel; Channel 9's "Under Investigation" program featured an hour-long episode focusing on UAP. Dr. Davis appeared on that show. In an article written by Lauren McWilliams on the show's website, Dr. Davis explained to the panel, that in his opinion, the mystery objects they had been discussing were most likely advanced military aircraft: 

"...created by a hostile foreign power...It could be some sort of breakthrough that we don't know about in terms of maneuverability and aerodynamics," he said.

"They want to gather intelligence on US military activity, so they're testing these things out."

On 4 January 2022, on an episode of US "The Space Show," the topic of UAP came up and Dr. Davis who was talking of other matters, was asked for his views on UAP. After mentioning that he was on a recent Australian TV show about UAP, he said he thought there were two possibilities for explanations for UAP. They could be foreign controlled drones, or they could be a US Black project. He favoured the first explanation. 

He went on to say that he did not think there was a need to look at an extraterrestrial hypothesis. He had seen no convincing evidence for the ETH. On the possibility they were foreign controlled drones he favoured the source being China rather than Russia. He did note that the performance of these objects was way above what normal aircraft are capable of. He was asked if he had heard of Ross Coulthart's book on UAP, and replied that he had not. 

Recently, via Twitter, Dr. Davis has been making some interesting observations on the recent U. S. Congressional hearing on UAP; and on UAP in general. Naturally, although working for an independent think tank organisation, his views are solely his personal thoughts. Nevertheless, as it is extremely rare for an Australian "think tank expert", let alone one with a focus on Defence issues, to speak out on this topic I thought it worthwhile to point out to readers just what his views are. 

The initial tweet

In a tweet on 27 July 2023, Dr Davis wrote:

"Watching the #uaphearing - it's fascinating material. But I can't work out why these objects - if they are not from Earth - would fly across interstellar space and clearly display technology well beyond human capabilities - only to crash?

Thats why my thinking is that these are terrestrial in origin - probably foreign controlled. Thats concerning in of itself."

As at the time of my writing these words, there were 133 comments in response to the tweet, including one from Australian investigative journalist, Ross Coulthart. Ross wrote:

"As a well respected senior Defence analyst @Dr_M-Davis do you have a view on @Defence Aust Australia's DOD's reluctance to engage on #UAPs, after hearing Ryan  Graves @uncertainvector & David Fravor's view about the flight safety and national security concerns?"

On 28 July 2023, in response to Ross' question, Dr. Davis responded with:

"I'd say be patient. Look how long it's taken the Americans to get their act together and they are just getting started."

The second tweet 

Back on 27 July 2023, in another Tweet, Dr. Davis wrote:

"Lots of interesting responses to my initial tweet. Let me state my perspective clearly.

(1) I don't know what the truth is, but two possibilities - either they originate here on Earth, or they are from elsewhere - are clear. Whichever it turns out to be, there clearly needs to be a much deeper investigation to this issue, and if there is any attempt to suppress the truth by government - that needs to be challenged. 

(2) If they are extraterrestrial in origin, then that represents the single most important discovery in human history. Its virtually 'first contact' and humanity would be profoundly affected. We can't ignore the possibility that some of the #UAP cases cannot be explained. Today's hearings by highly credible witnesses reinforced the case for a serious investigation and make it important to challenge the stigma associated with this issue.

(3) If they are terrestrial in origin - and evidence suggested by events such as Tic Tac, and so on, suggest technologies way beyond current human levels, then that too is very significant, because we then have to consider how that technology emerged - and who has access to such advanced technology. If it is controlled by US adversaries, then that's a real worry. If it's a US Black Project, that's interesting, in itself.

(4) More broadly, I don't for one second believe that humanity is the only intelligent civilisation. The universe is vast and incredibly old, and life is likely prolific, and can evolve. Fermi Paradox aside, there is more than enough time for other intelligent civilisations to have emerged, perhaps far more advanced than us, nor do I think that we somehow have the sum total understanding on physics and maybe there is a way around constraints of the speed of light. Simply put - we don't know what's out there. We've only been looking for a very short period, with relatively crude technologies and our radio emissions have only been extending across a tiny portion of our galaxy. So, it is possible that we are being visited - yes. But the galaxy is huge, and interstellar civilisations might be limited in number, and spread across vast distances, so getting from there to here may be challenging - especially if Einstein is correct.

(5) Above all we need proof. If we apply scientific method, then a hypothesis for UAPs being extraterrestrial must be supported by evidence and tested rigorously through peer review. We're just starting to get to that process now - I'd argue that today's #uaphearings are the beginning. The hypothesis may not prove correct in the end, but it must be tested.

(6) And it's really vital to embrace skepticism and avoid confirmation bias. I can quite understand how many out there, and here on #ufotwitter 'want it to be aliens' - but that's yet to be proven, and indulging in conspiracy theory thinking is the worst thing we could do at this point. If it's aliens - as I said, it's the most momentous day in human history. If it's not, then we need to work out what it is - it clearly is 'something.'"