Revelations about unidentified aerial phenomena, or UAPs, expose the hubris of ridiculing a topic worthy of scientific study. UAPs, better known as UFOs, exist, with Navy pilots reporting them routinely violating our restricted military airspace. Yet our government evidently has ignored, quashed or compartmentalized information about UAPs for decades — jeopardizing scientific progress, national security and democratic accountability.
Fortunately, NASA is now investigating UAPS, and the Pentagon is examining its handling of the matter. Congress awaits a report on UAPs from the director of national intelligence, and many expect the report largely to rule out UAPs being U.S. or foreign technology. If so, policymakers should consider how America can better understand these potentially paradigm-changing phenomena.
One approach is to form an independent science and technology agency to research UAPs, along with other priorities such as cancer and artificial intelligence. The agency’s chief, the director of national research, would advise the president, sit on the National Security Council and bring an interdisciplinary, whole-of-government approach to science that’s nonexistent among today’s sprawling bureaucracy.
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