Pentagon announces new UFO task force to "assess and mitigate threats"

Washington DC - The Department of Defense has a new UFO task force in charge of keeping eyes and ears open for potential unidentified flying objects – whether man-made or not.

It's a bird, it's a plane, it's...a deflating balloon?
It's a bird, it's a plane, it's...a deflating balloon?  © Youtube/Screenshot

The Pentagon gave the new task force a name that just rolls off the tongue: the Airborne Object Identification and Management Synchronization Group, or the mercifully shorter AOIMSG.

In its statement on the UFO task force, the Pentagon said the main goal of the AOIMSG isn't specifically to go hunting for alien craft in US airspace, but to be able to identify any and all airborne vehicles that enter what is known as Special Use Airspace, or SUA.

Military training, special missions, operations, and many other types of military activity take place within SUAs, so it's necessary to keep track of what objects are in those zones, in addition to bolstering national security and civilian flight safety.

Mystery drones over New Jersey have locals alarmed and officials stumped
Mystery Mystery drones over New Jersey have locals alarmed and officials stumped

The new program, which will replace the US Navy’s Unidentified Aerial Phenomena Task Force, is meant to better analyze incidents of unidentified objects in US airspace, since most UFOs stay unidentified.

According to a US Government report from June 2021, 144 UFOs were sighted by the US military, but only a single one was identified, and it turned out to be a "large, deflating balloon." That definitely tracks.

Cover photo: Collage: 123RF/koya79, IMAGO / ZUMA Wire

More on Mystery: