US Air Force

The United States Air Force (USAF) has been formally involved in the investigation of Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena since the earliest years of its existence as an independent service branch. In December 1947, the Air Force Chief of Staff established Project Sign, marking the DoD’s first official UAP-focused investigative activity.¹ Between 1947 and 1949, Air Force personnel investigated 243 reported UAP sightings under Project Sign and its successor, Project GRUDGE.² Project Sign’s findings were described as inconclusive but open to the possibility of extraterrestrial origins, whilst Project GRUDGE took a more dismissive stance, attributing the phenomena to natural causes.³

In 1952, the Air Force Director of Intelligence initiated Project Blue Book, which became the most extensive official UAP investigation of the Cold War era.⁴ Between 1952 and 1969, Air Force personnel investigated over 12,000 reported UAP sightings under the programme.⁵ J. Allen Hynek served as the lead scientist in charge of the Air Force’s official UAP investigation team throughout much of this period.⁶ The 1964 Socorro incident involving police officer Lonnie Zamora was investigated jointly by local law enforcement, the FBI, the US Army, the Air Force, and Hynek’s Project Blue Book.⁷ Following that investigation, Zamora was reportedly warned by the Air Force not to share details of markings observed on the object with civilians.⁸

An Air Force-funded study at the University of Colorado, chaired by physicist Edward Condon, declared UAP devoid of scientific merit and recommended that academic institutions prevent students from receiving credit for studying the subject.⁹ The resulting Condon Report provided the Air Force with justification to close Project Blue Book, which was terminated in 1969.¹⁰ By 1970, the Air Force had adopted the formal position that UAP reports were the result of mild hysteria, hoaxers, psychopathological persons, and misidentification of natural objects.¹¹ The Air Force also maintained the official stance that no UFO it had investigated had ever indicated a threat to national security or demonstrated technology beyond contemporary scientific knowledge.¹² Luis Luis Elizondo has opined that the Air Force may have subsequently distanced itself from UAP matters partly due to what he characterised as the reputational damage caused by Projects Sign, Grudge, and Blue Book.¹³

In the context of later UAP investigations, the Air Force was assessed to have been resistant to cooperation. According to former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defence Christopher Mellon, the Air Force and most components of the US intelligence community declined to support the congressionally funded Advanced Aerospace Weapon System Applications Program UAP investigation, despite it having been initiated by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.¹⁴ Mellon also noted that whilst US Navy aviators were routinely encountering UAP in designated military training areas used by both services, the Air Force appeared not to be sharing its own sensor reports from those same areas.¹⁵ Luis Elizondo further concluded that the Air Force was part of a broader cover-up of UAP information, and relayed a claim that any access to UAP material held by a defence contractor would require permission from the Secretary of the Air Force.¹⁶

The Air Force has operated a range of advanced and classified aerial platforms relevant to UAP discourse. These include the MQ-1 Predator, which transitioned from a joint Navy–Army project to Air Force control in 1996 before being retired in 2018,¹⁷ the MQ-9 Reaper,¹⁸ the RQ-4 Global Hawk built by Northrop Grumman,¹⁹ and the RQ-170 Sentinel, a low-observable platform developed by Lockheed Skunk Works.²⁰ The HAVE Blue Program led to the production of the F-117A Nighthawk and the TACIT Blue Aircraft.²¹ In 1956, the Air Force initiated the WS-117L satellite reconnaissance programme, and following President Dwight D. Eisenhower’s 1958 decision, the resulting CORONA programme was jointly managed with the CIA.²² In April 2022, the Air Force issued formal guidance designating UAP as a ‘Special Interest Item’, requiring aircrews to document and report UAP observations within 24 hours of mission completion using the Marauder reporting system.²³

David Grusch, who served 14 years in the Air Force and reached the rank of Major before becoming a senior civilian intelligence official, has made public allegations regarding Non-Human Craft Recovery Programs and UAP Legacy Programs.²⁴ Following his whistleblower disclosures, Grusch was appointed as a special advisor to Representative Burlison during the Grusch Burlison Special Advisor Appointment.²⁵