CIA-UAP-019-Australian_Dept_of_Defense_Scientific_and_Intel_Aspects_of_the_UFO_Problem.pdf

Approved for Release 2026 Under Section 1842 of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2024

Form No. 81
Introduced May, 1966

# DEPARTMENT OF DEFENCE
## FILE CLOSED

Subsequent correspondence has been placed on File No:

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6216/60

DEPARTMENT OF DEFENCE
JOINT INTELLIGENCE ORGANIZATION
MINUTE PAPER
REFERENCE: 3092/2

SUBJECT: SCIENTIFIC AND INTELLIGENCE ASPECTS OF THE UFO PROBLEM

DIRECTOR: J4/6
DST! when you are ready. M4/6

(Through DSTI) Director After you have read the attachments, I would like to discuss this matter with you, please RMM 25/5

The two documents attached are intended to focus on aspects of the UFO problem that have tended to remain hidden. The report dealing with the US attitude has been compiled from official reports and statements made by the CIA, US Air Force, Congressional Hearings and Project Blue…

May '77
51

# SUMMARY

The early analyses of UFO reports by USAF intelligence indicated that real phenomena were being reported which had flight characteristics so far in advance of U.S. aircraft that only an extra-terrestrial origin could be envisaged. A government agency, which later events indicated to be the CIA Office of Scientific Intelligence (OSI), studied the UFO reports with the intention of determining the UFO propulsion methods. At that time, OSI was responsible for intelligence on foreign research and development in nuclear and missile matters.

2. The CIA became alarmed at the ov…

50

with the recommendations of the Condon report, Project BLUE BOOK was terminated, but presumably this would have little effect on the main programme.

5. It would appear wrong for Australia to remain ignorant of the true situation. We lack an intelligence viewpoint that can assess the nature and possible consequences of the problem, a scientific viewpoint that could derive scientifically valid data from the reports and a public relations viewpoint that can honestly satisfy public interest. To overcome these deficiencies in the Australian investigation of UFO's, it would seem that a strong c…

U.S. OFFICIAL ATTITUDE TO U.F.O.'s

In June of 1947 the Air Technical Intelligence Centre (ATIC) near Dayton, Ohio, assumed a responsibility to investigate the initial reports of 'flying saucers'. Within a month it was considered that the phenomena were real and probably of Soviet origin. By the end of the year, when ATIC was officially authorised to investigate under the project code name of SIGN and with a high priority, most of the investigators were focussing on an interplanetary rather than a Soviet origin. These opinions were crystallized into a written estimate that was sent to the Pent…

2.
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sorting machines.

4. The summer of 1952 saw a more than twenty-fold rise in the normal rate of reporting and included the two extensive July sightings involving Washington D.C. This marked increase in sightings had diverse effects. A component of USAF intelligence considered that UFO's were interplanetary spaceships which were about to make closer contact. To prepare the public for this possibility, 41 previously classified reports were released for publication between August 1952 and February 1953. These reports contradicted the earlier official USAF policy of dismissing the reports a…

3.
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Dr J. Allen Hynek, staying at about this level until it was closed down in December 1969. During this time BLUE BOOK served mainly as a means of supplying unclassified summaries of UFO identifications to the public, and did not form a vital link in collection or serious analysis.

7. Control of public awareness of the UFO situation was tightened by the issuing of JANAP 146 in 1953 which prohibited service personnel from discussing UFO's by threatening defaulters with up to 10 years gaol and up to a $10,000 fine. When service personnel resigned or retired, however, it was possible to rev…

4.
National Archives of Australia
NAA: A13693, 3092/2/000

its existence. Public distribution was made, however, of a so-called "summary" which in fact did not summarise, nor scarcely allude to the 1947-52 data, but concentrated on 1953-55 reporting which was clearly designed to reduce the residual unknowns to an insignificant number, no matter how senseless the identification became.

10. Within the body of the difficult-to-obtain report there is an interesting diagram. The product of the estimated observer reliability and the report reliability became the sighting reliability. The percentage…