Investigation of UFO reports by the United States government

UFO investigations by the United States
Time period1947–present
Historical precedents
Project or team leaders
Key events
Websites

Investigation and analysis of reported UFO incidents under the federal government of the United States has taken place under multiple branches and agencies, past and current, since 1947. In spite of decades of interest, there remains no evidence that there are any UFOs with extraordinary origins and, indeed, those identified all have been shown to be natural phenomena, human technology, misapprehensions, delusions, or hoaxes.

The first programs were established under the U.S. Air Force between 1947 and 1969 with Project Sign, Project Grudge, and finally Project Blue Book. The Condon Report in 1968 led the U.S. to stop spending resources on the effort to receive and analyze UFO reports because "nothing has come from the study of UFOs in the past 21 years that has added to scientific knowledge" and "further extensive study of UFOs probably cannot be justified".

In 2017 The New York Times revealed that $22 million had been spent over the past ten years on an unpublicized Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program (AATIP) funded by the U.S. Congress. The story also referenced two videos recorded by the U.S. Navy of what officials referred to as "unidentified aerial phenomena", or UAP. In 2020, the Pentagon later released three videos from Navy jets that showed unusual observations and confirmed the provenance of some leaked 2019 videos in two statements made during 2021.

From 2017 to 2020, the Unidentified Aerial Phenomena Task Force (UAPTF) was set up as a program within the Office of Naval Intelligence to "standardize collection and reporting" of sightings of UFOs. On May 17, 2022, members of the U.S. House Intelligence Subcommittee held congressional hearings with top military officials to discuss military reports of UAPs. This was the first public congressional hearing into UFO sightings in the U.S. in over 50 years. In June 2022, plans were announced by NASA to assemble an independent study team. In July 2022, UAPTF was succeeded by the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO). The participants of NASA's study team were announced in October 2022. The first public meeting of the NASA team was held on May 31, 2023.