Major General Patrick Ryder has reiterated the findings of an earlier Department of Defense study on reported sightings of UFOs
There has been no evidence of an extraterrestrial presence on Earth, Pentagon spokesperson Major General Patrick Ryder has said.
He was responding to a question from a journalist who suggested that, “given the news cycle,” any announcement about aliens or extraterrestrial life would likely go unnoticed.
“The truth is out there… we have no evidence to indicate extraterrestrial life has visited the planet,” the Pentagon press secretary replied.
Ryder’s message was consistent with an earlier Pentagon report, which dispelled claims that there were signs of extraterrestrial life or that the US government had conspired to hide them from the public.
In March, an unclassified document from the Pentagon’s All-Domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO) said it had found no evidence of unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAP) – the military’s term for UFOs. The AARO was established in 2022 to identify and resolve reports of UAPs.
Covering the period from 1945 to October 2023, it was the most comprehensive report the Pentagon had ever released on the subject, and yet another instance in which it denied claims relating to extraterrestrial spacecraft.
The investigators found no proof that any US government probe or “academic-sponsored research, or official review panel has confirmed that any sighting of a UAP represented extraterrestrial technology.”
The report said claims about secret government programs reverse-engineering extraterrestrial technology were based on false information. Reports of flying objects or alien craft are the result of misidentifying ordinary objects, it stated.
Claims by the Pentagon that aliens have never been to Earth have been questioned by independent investigators and conspiracy theorists, who appear convinced that the government is hiding evidence of alien life.
Last July, three military veterans testified at a Congress hearing on UFOs, including a former Air Force intelligence officer David Grusch. He claimed that the US government had operated a secret “multi-decade” reverse-engineering program using recovered vessels. He also said the US had recovered non-human “biologics” from alleged crash sites.
Asked about Grusch’s claims around a month later, a Pentagon spokesperson said the Department of Defense “has not discovered any verifiable information to substantiate claims that any programs regarding the possession or reverse-engineering of extraterrestrial materials have existed in the past or exist currently.”
Last September, the department launched a website for declassified information about flying objects. The website also allows current and former US government employees, service members, and contractors to “provide reports via a private and secure means.”