# If an extra-terrestrial ship appears in US skies what is the official USAF response protocol? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 11, 2015, 4:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-an-extra-terrestrial-ship-appears-in-us-skies-what-is-the-official-usaf-response-protocol/709548 "2015-01-11T16:53:02Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Whiskey\_Dickens](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/9fc348/32.png) [@Whiskey\_Dickens](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whiskey_Dickens)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2015, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-an-extra-terrestrial-ship-appears-in-us-skies-what-is-the-official-usaf-response-protocol/709548/41 "2015-01-13T20:24:18Z")
“Welcome to Earf!” _punch_ ---
**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2015, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-an-extra-terrestrial-ship-appears-in-us-skies-what-is-the-official-usaf-response-protocol/709548/42 "2015-01-13T20:41:40Z")
> [@coremelt](#): > > … > Sad reality is, that if any unidentified object did appear in orbit and just sat there ignoring radio signals, Russia would reach it far sooner than the US. 😕 I don’t get this. > [@Morgenstern](#): > > …the Coast Guard would turn it over to the civilian authorities claiming there had been no distress call. The civilian authorities would turn it over to INS claiming they were undocumented… You forgot about Customs, which is mandatory for all international and by [insert Latin legal phrase here] for extranational travelers. As has been done. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2015, 9:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-an-extra-terrestrial-ship-appears-in-us-skies-what-is-the-official-usaf-response-protocol/709548/43 "2015-01-13T21:01:07Z")
> [@Leo\_Bloom](#): > > 😕 I don’t get this. The USA does not have manned spacecraft since they shut down the shuttle. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2015, 9:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-an-extra-terrestrial-ship-appears-in-us-skies-what-is-the-official-usaf-response-protocol/709548/44 "2015-01-13T21:02:40Z")
Considering the OP asked for the official U.S.A.F. response, I think I nailed it post #12. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2015, 9:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-an-extra-terrestrial-ship-appears-in-us-skies-what-is-the-official-usaf-response-protocol/709548/45 "2015-01-13T21:17:16Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > Considering the OP asked for the official U.S.A.F. response, I think I nailed it post #12. You probably did. With a plan to invade rvery country in the world, and Project Bluebook, they probably have a plan and the knowledge that “No plan of battle survives contact with the enemy.” :dubious: ---
**Author:** ![eburacum45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eburacum45/32/8690_2.png) [@eburacum45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eburacum45)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2015, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-an-extra-terrestrial-ship-appears-in-us-skies-what-is-the-official-usaf-response-protocol/709548/46 "2015-01-13T21:25:14Z")
> [@kanicbird](#): > > As pointed out this just doesn’t follow. A interstellar species hopefully would have found a way to communicate FTL which would mean that radio is a obsolete technology (by evidence that we don’t pick up their signals) which they would have little use for carrying such equipment. In reality there almost certainly are no ways to communicate faster than light, because of the causality problems that would occur as a result. Even if the hypothetical extra-terrestrial ship habitually used some other undetectable method to communicate, it would surely be equipped with sensors that could detect a wide range of electromagnetic waves, including visible light and radio waves. Having said that, there is little chance that they could understand our language straight away. > [@](#): > > Could Only be 😕 Shoot first ask questions later I guess. But no, that does not follow either, especially when dealing with a alien species who may not have a concept of ownership or sovereignty. One US pilot, Milton Torres, claims to have been ordered to shoot a UFO down, which might have caused an interstellar incident had he succeeded. > **[U.S. pilot was ordered to shoot down UFO](https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna27279684)** > > An American fighter pilot flying from an English air base in 1957 was ordered to open fire on a UFO that lit up his radar, according to an account published by Britain’s National Archives. I have failed to find any other incidents where the order to shoot was apparently given, so it seems likely to have been a glitch, error or maybe just a misremembering by Torres. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2015, 9:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-an-extra-terrestrial-ship-appears-in-us-skies-what-is-the-official-usaf-response-protocol/709548/47 "2015-01-13T21:34:02Z")
> [@eburacum45](#): > > Having said that, there is little chance that they could understand our language straight away. They’ve been watching I Love Lucy, Star Trek and Jeopardy for years. :dubious: ---
**Author:** ![Finagle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/b19c9b/32.png) [@Finagle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Finagle)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2015, 10:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-an-extra-terrestrial-ship-appears-in-us-skies-what-is-the-official-usaf-response-protocol/709548/48 "2015-01-13T22:03:05Z")
> [@DocCathode](#): > > Serious Reply > > Any species capable of interstellar flight would be capable of receiving all the radio, television and other signals we send out. They would be capable of sending signals of their own, announcing their peaceful intentions. Entering our territory at a high rate of speed and without warning of any kind could only be a hostile act. Something that is presumed hostile, moves very quickly and has unknown offensive capabilities would be attacked. I’m not sure this makes any sense. How can you announce your peaceful intentions when you don’t speak the language and have no common cultural referents? The OP didn’t mention “high speed”, but suppose an alien ship had an emergency situation and had to de-orbit? Interpreting that as a hostile act could escalate the situation into something very nasty indeed. As others in this thread have pointed out, the guy on top of the gravity well has an enormous advantage, especially if you add technological superiority into the equation. Hell, practically every 1950’s SF movie acts as a cautionary tale about what happens when the army and air force unload on extraterrestrial craft. ---
**Author:** ![Kenm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/bc79bd/32.png) [@Kenm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kenm)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2015, 11:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-an-extra-terrestrial-ship-appears-in-us-skies-what-is-the-official-usaf-response-protocol/709548/49 "2015-01-13T23:45:10Z")
> [@eburacum45](#): > > Even if the hypothetical extra-terrestrial ship habitually used some other undetectable method to communicate, it would surely be equipped with sensors that could detect a wide range of electromagnetic waves, including visible light and radio waves. A spark transmitter and telegraph key would go undetected by the military. ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2015, 1:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-an-extra-terrestrial-ship-appears-in-us-skies-what-is-the-official-usaf-response-protocol/709548/50 "2015-01-14T01:02:42Z")
> [@astro](#): > > What is in the USAF manual as the government approved way to engage a (at the time non-hostile) extra-terrestrial spacecraft in the skies over US territory? I’d be called in immediately. ---
**Author:** ![Velocity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/velocity/32/18006_2.png) [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2015, 1:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-an-extra-terrestrial-ship-appears-in-us-skies-what-is-the-official-usaf-response-protocol/709548/51 "2015-01-14T01:22:48Z")
> [@Whiskey\_Dickens](#): > > “Welcome to Earf!” > > _punch_ Ahahahahaha!!! ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2015, 2:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-an-extra-terrestrial-ship-appears-in-us-skies-what-is-the-official-usaf-response-protocol/709548/52 "2015-01-14T02:01:39Z")
> [@Finagle](#): > > I’m not sure this makes any sense. How can you announce your peaceful intentions when you don’t speak the language and have no common cultural referents? I’m sure they have seen _The Day the Earth Stood Still_, and won’t have anything in their hands when they disembark. 🙂 I would think that showing that your hands are empty would be universally understood as not being threatening. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2015, 2:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-an-extra-terrestrial-ship-appears-in-us-skies-what-is-the-official-usaf-response-protocol/709548/53 "2015-01-14T02:30:43Z")
> [@carnivorousplant](#): > > … I would think that showing that your hands are empty would be universally understood as not being threatening. In the context of something that looks nothing like you, which one of its 400 spines are “hands”? Or are those actually the projectile launchers of its body armor & you can’t see the creature at all? Or are they sensors of some sort? Eyes maybe? Your ideas are conditioned by too many episodes of Star Trek where aliens always look like humans with a mild skin condition. ---
**Author:** ![Velocity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/velocity/32/18006_2.png) [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2015, 2:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-an-extra-terrestrial-ship-appears-in-us-skies-what-is-the-official-usaf-response-protocol/709548/54 "2015-01-14T02:40:22Z")
> [@carnivorousplant](#): > > I would think that showing that your hands are empty would be universally understood as not being threatening. That might not even enter into one’s thought process. A giant spider could argue, “I didn’t show my fangs, so I’m being nonthreatening, right?” yet humans would shriek in terror anyway. Fear isn’t very analytical. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2015, 3:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-an-extra-terrestrial-ship-appears-in-us-skies-what-is-the-official-usaf-response-protocol/709548/55 "2015-01-14T03:21:00Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > In the context of something that looks nothing like you, which one of its 400 spines are “hands”? Or are those actually the projectile launchers of its body armor & you can’t see the creature at all? Or are they sensors of some sort? Eyes maybe? > > Your ideas are conditioned by too many episodes of Star Trek where aliens always look like humans with a mild skin condition. I was speaking of how a human would approach the alien in question. Do try and keep up, there will be a test on Friday. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Mijin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mijin/32/9369_2.png) [@Mijin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mijin)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2015, 10:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-an-extra-terrestrial-ship-appears-in-us-skies-what-is-the-official-usaf-response-protocol/709548/56 "2015-01-14T10:12:19Z")
> [@carnivorousplant](#): > > > [@Finagle](#): > > > > I’m not sure this makes any sense. How can you announce your peaceful intentions when you don’t speak the language and have no common cultural referents? > > I would think that showing that your hands are empty would be universally understood as not being threatening. It seems to be the standard meme when discussing ETs that communication will be extremely difficult. The reasoning often put forward is that we can’t communicate with dolphins, say, how could we hope to communicate with a species from another _planet_? But sapience here makes a big difference. An interstellar species would necessarily have a general intelligence that it could apply to abstract problems unlike it had ever encountered previously, and be able to build on knowledge both individually and collectively. Working out how another intelligent species communicates and then decoding that information I would expect to belong to the comparatively easy set of problems: there’s lots of data and it follows a clear pattern / structure. I’ve no doubt at all that if they could get here then detecting and then decoding human language would be so trivial they’d be able to tell me the grammatical errors in this post. ---
**Author:** ![eburacum45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eburacum45/32/8690_2.png) [@eburacum45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eburacum45)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2015, 11:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-an-extra-terrestrial-ship-appears-in-us-skies-what-is-the-official-usaf-response-protocol/709548/57 "2015-01-14T11:29:42Z")
> [@Mijin](#): > > I’ve no doubt at all that if they could get here then detecting and then decoding human language would be so trivial they’d be able to tell me the grammatical errors in this post. This does not follow at all. An alien civilisation may have just enough technology and available energy to launch a relatively slow generation ship, or a very small vessel that can travel to a nearby star within a single lifetime but which holds only just enough supplies to support a few astronauts until their arrival. Anything larger or faster would require stupendous amounts of energy. These crews may well arrive at the limits of their endurance, and will have little energy or will to spend decades trying to work out how a completely alien species communicates. The dolphin problem remains relevant; researchers can barely recognise the signature sounds they assign to each other, and the fact that they copy each other’s songs on a regional level. If there is any other semantic content to their songs it cannot currently be detected, even after decades of work. ---
**Author:** ![vomit\_comet](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/73ab20/32.png) [@vomit\_comet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vomit_comet)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2015, 12:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-an-extra-terrestrial-ship-appears-in-us-skies-what-is-the-official-usaf-response-protocol/709548/58 "2015-01-14T12:12:14Z")
To understand a dolphin you have to think like a dolphin… I.E. “Goddammit, those goddamned humans just dumped 14 more tons of that glowing shit in our house.” or “Did You see that; that thing floating on our house just dumped a ton of vile stuff, I think it’s shit, into our house.” If the aliens were within 79 light years from us, they could have been studying our television broadcasts and learn our language from that. Not likely though, that would be one damn weak signal. ---
**Author:** ![Mijin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mijin/32/9369_2.png) [@Mijin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mijin)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2015, 1:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-an-extra-terrestrial-ship-appears-in-us-skies-what-is-the-official-usaf-response-protocol/709548/59 "2015-01-14T13:47:42Z")
> [@eburacum45](#): > > This does not follow at all. An alien civilisation may have just enough technology and available energy to launch a relatively slow generation ship, or a very small vessel that can travel to a nearby star within a single lifetime but which holds only just enough supplies to support a few astronauts until their arrival. They may do. However, as pointed out upthread, due to the age of the universe, we’re extremely unlikely to encounter an alien race that’s only a little more advanced than us. Even if you add constraints like a 3rd generation star etc, the window for sentience arriving would be hundreds of millions of years wide. That’s why it’s a good bet. And I don’t think they would need to be more advanced than us to study our languages. I’m absolutely confident that if you gave humans a sign language, that used appendages unlike human hands, and you gave them hundreds of hours of data of this language, we’d know an awful lot about it awfully fast. Like I say, deciphering structured data is an easier problem than trying to understand many natural phenomena. > [@](#): > > These crews may well arrive at the limits of their endurance, and will have little energy or will to spend decades trying to work out how a completely alien species communicates. Yeah they’ll have so much to do on their decades-long journey they’ll just not get around to studying the in-flight book on their destination. :dubious: > [@](#): > > The dolphin problem remains relevant; researchers can barely recognise the signature sounds they assign to each other, and the fact that they copy each other’s songs on a regional level. If there is any other semantic content to their songs it cannot currently be detected, even after decades of work. What is the evidence that they are more than just songs? **vomit\_comet** may be just joking in his post above, but seriously, if dolphins learned ways to avoid getting caught in fishing nets, say, and could apparently communicate that information without needing to see it first hand…then sure, we can talk about them being sapient. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2015, 2:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-an-extra-terrestrial-ship-appears-in-us-skies-what-is-the-official-usaf-response-protocol/709548/60 "2015-01-14T14:20:32Z")
> [@carnivorousplant](#): > > I was speaking of how a human would approach the alien in question. > Do try and keep up, there will be a test on Friday. 🙂 It was clear you weren’t considering your appearance from the alien’s POV; you were considering it from another human’s POV. You were skipping that nothing about your appearance or behaviors would be familiar to it. Your empty hands would be unrecognizable to it as effectors, much less harmless ones in an empty state. So I turned the experience around to how it looks from your POV, since that’s where you were stuck. If you can’t understand it, how can you expect it to understand you? 🙂 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-an-extra-terrestrial-ship-appears-in-us-skies-what-is-the-official-usaf-response-protocol/709548.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-an-extra-terrestrial-ship-appears-in-us-skies-what-is-the-official-usaf-response-protocol/709548.md?page=4)