U.S. nuclear facilities have been forced to go offline at times due to UFOs, according to the former director of a government program created to investigate unidentified aerial phenomenon.
Luis Elizondo, former head of the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program, spoke Tuesday to the Washington Post about UFOs and national security.
The Office of the Director of National Intelligence and the secretary of Defense are scheduled to release a report later this month about UFO sightings.
Jacqueline Alemany, the Post’s congressional correspondent, asked Elizondo about UFO sightings above secret nuclear weapons facilities, and whether the government had considered utilizing nuclear-powered naval fleets to lure these kinds of things for further study.
"That is one of the concerns we have from a national security perspective, that there does seem to be some sort of congruency or some sort of intersection between these UAP or UFO sightings and our nuclear technology with nuclear propulsion, nuclear power generation, or nuclear weapons systems," Elizondo said.
After saying other countries have seen similar incidents, Elizondo added, "In this country, we’ve had incidents where these UAPs have interfered and actually brought offline our nuclear capabilities."
Elizondo said some people might hear that and conclude, "whatever this is, is something that is peaceful." He added that isn’t true necessarily,
"We also have data suggesting that in other countries these things have interfered with their nuclear technology and actually turned them on, put them online," he said. "So that is equally, for me, just as concerning. I think that there is certainly at this point enough data to demonstrate there is an interest in our nuclear technology, a potential to even interfere with that nuclear technology."
Elizondo said the Navy certainly is aware that outside interests want to know more about its nuclear capabilities, and he added "these things have a tendency to be seen in and around water."
"Let’s take the Nimitz battle carrier fleet for example — in some cases you’re talking about a nuclear footprint probably bigger than most cities," he said. "You have a nuclear-powered carrier with aircraft on board that — and then you have nuclear-powered destroyers. You have nuclear-powered submarines, some of those with nuclear weapons on board, or nuclear — certainly nuclear capabilities.
"So, I think, yeah, it shouldn’t be a surprise that maybe there is an increased interest in our capabilities as it relates to our nuclear technology."
Alemany said The New York Times reported that the UFOs being investigated did not originate from American military or advanced U.S. government technology. That leaves foreign adversaries or extraterrestrial objects as potential places from which they derived.
"For 30 years there has always been this undercurrent, if you will, these conspiracies that there was some sort of TR-3B program and some sort of a super special technology that has been implemented and we’ve been — just been very careless about it," Elizondo said. "And I think that argument was finally put to bed.
"So that really only leaves two other options, and that’s — again, it’s foreign adversarial or it’s something quite different. And I think we’re now beginning to learn, as we’ve heard from the director of national intelligence — and I can certainly tell you from my experience — that we’re pretty confident that it’s not Russian or Chinese technology."
The Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program initially was funded, but not publicized, by the U.S. government in 2007, but appropriations ended in 2012, The New York Times reported.
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