DoD renews UFO identification effort

Deputy Secretary of Defense, Kathleen Hicks, announced plans to establish the Airborne Object Identification and Management Synchronization Group (AOIMSG) as the successor to the USN’s Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (UAP) Task Force.

The AOIMSG will synchronise efforts across the department and the broader US government to detect, identify and attribute objects of interest in special use airspace.

It will also assess and mitigate any associated threats to the safety of flight and national security.

To provide oversight of the AOIMSG, an Airborne Object Identification and Management Executive Council, to be comprised of DoD and Intelligence Community membership, will offer a venue for interagency representation.

Incursions by any unidentified airborne object into special use airspace poses safety of flight concerns, operations security concerns and national security challenges.

This decision is the result of planning efforts to address the challenges associated with assessing UAP occurring on or near DoD training ranges and installations.

This announcement is particularly topical in 2021, as the DNI released a preliminary assessment report on unidentified aerial phenomena in June

The report also identified the need to make improvements in processes, policies, technologies and training to improve our ability to understand UAP.