A screenshot of sensor footage from a US Navy F/A-18 Hornet showing a UAP. The UK government has said that 50 years of investigations into UAPs have shown them not to be a military threat to the country. (US DoD)
Decades-long investigations into unidentified aerial phenomena (UAPs) have shown them to pose no military threat to the United Kingdom, a government minister said on 11 December.
Answering questions in the House of Commons, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Defence Luke Pollard said the conclusion had been arrived at after five decades of investigations into UAPs (previously known as unidentified flying objects [UFOs]) by the Ministry of Defence (MoD).
“Whilst we are aware of the differing approaches currently being undertaken by other countries and allies in the investigation of UAPs, the MoD position on UAPs remains unchanged, which is that in over 50 years, no sighting reported to the department has indicated the existence of any military threat to the United Kingdom,” Pollard said, adding, “The MoD ceased to investigate reports of UFOs or UAPs in 2009 and has not classified any new material on the subject since.”
The minister's comments came weeks after the US Air Forces in Europe – Air Forces Africa (USAFE–AFA) reported multiple UAP incursions of its bases in the UK. In late November the 48th Fighter Wing said that UAPs, believed to be small ‘drones', had been sighted over Royal Air Force (RAF) Lakenheath and nearby RAF Mildenhall and RAF Feltwell, as well as a few days later at RAF Fairford.
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