Opinion: After decades of denial, the Pentagon finally admits it?s baffled by UFOs

After nearly eight decades of official denial and obfuscation of the UFO phenomenon, the new head of the Pentagon’s UFO analysis office made a remarkable admission last month.

During a briefing with reporters, Jon Kosloski, director of the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office, admitted that the U.S. government is stumped by several “true anomalies.” According to Kosloski, “There are interesting [UFO] cases that I, with my physics and engineering background and time in the [intelligence community], I do not understand. And I don’t know anybody else who understands them either.”

Critically, the Department of Defense and intelligence agencies are so perplexed by some UFO incidents that, per Kosloski, “We’re going to need the help of academia and the public to address some of these.”

These admissions are a welcome — and long-overdue — shift in the official tone on the UFO phenomenon. After decades of dismissive “nothing to see here” statements from the Pentagon, the sudden pivot to officials being so stumped by some incidents that they need the public’s help is striking.