# Why is UFO related stuff classified? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 17, 2017, 1:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-ufo-related-stuff-classified/804704 "2017-12-17T13:10:47Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![adaher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@adaher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adaher)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2017, 1:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-ufo-related-stuff-classified/804704/1 "2017-12-17T13:10:47Z")
Given how many scientific achievements have serious national security implications and are publicized, what’s the point of keeping classified the fact that our government is even studying this? I could understand if they had some alien technology or were confident they could get their hands on some, but why would they make study of the mere existence of UFOs visiting us top secret? Sure, if they studied all these reports and found that one or two were probably actual aliens in flying saucers or whatever, that would be the scientific story of well, ever, but I’m not sure how having knowledge of that affects national security and why it would need to be kept from citizens and other nations. Seems to me that UFO enthusiasts aren’t being totally wacky when they assume the government knows a lot more than they are saying. Treating aliens as a top secret thing implies that they have something worth keeping secret. If all they have is bupkis, there’s no rationale that I can think of for secrecy. So assuming they have nada, which I think is a pretty safe assumption, what IS the point of it being classified? ---
**Author:** ![Francis\_Vaughan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/francis_vaughan/32/3093_2.png) [@Francis\_Vaughan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Francis_Vaughan)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2017, 1:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-ufo-related-stuff-classified/804704/2 "2017-12-17T13:19:29Z")
UFO’s aren’t necessarily of extra-terrestrial origin. Whilst the latest revelations of a UFO research project seem to be due to the direct order of the politician in charge, and not based upon an internally generated perception of need, there seems to have been a clear reasoning that some UFO’s might be of Russian/Chinese/etc origin. As such you would not be advertising that you were launching a specific task to track the down. Secondly, secrecy of the techniques and capabilities of your tracking and surveillance assets might be compromised even if the notion of what is being tracked is stupid. In general, unless there is an explicit reason not to, any project is going to be classified by default. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2017, 1:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-ufo-related-stuff-classified/804704/3 "2017-12-17T13:22:15Z")
The military’s UFO-related stuff is classified because it’s the military. NASA’s UFO-related stuff is not classified, because it’s NASA. ---
**Author:** ![adaher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@adaher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adaher)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2017, 1:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-ufo-related-stuff-classified/804704/4 "2017-12-17T13:23:01Z")
That isn’t really a satisfying answer though. What are the odds that “flashing lights” or saucer shaped craft flying impossibly fast has an origin in a country far less advanced than us? There’s only two broad explanations for such things: natural phenomena, or aliens. “Russian” is not a possible explanation. ---
**Author:** ![adaher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@adaher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adaher)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2017, 1:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-ufo-related-stuff-classified/804704/5 "2017-12-17T13:24:25Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > The military’s UFO-related stuff is classified because it’s the military. NASA’s UFO-related stuff is not classified, because it’s NASA. That makes more sense. ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2017, 1:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-ufo-related-stuff-classified/804704/6 "2017-12-17T13:33:06Z")
And sometimes, the UFOs are _our_ secret projects that got away from us and crashed in some field out in the ass-end of nowhere. [For example, the Roswell UFO Incident was related to Project Mogul, a classified project to try and detect Soviet nuclear weapons tests by listening for them in a “channel” hypothesized to exist due to an analogous channel existing in the ocean.](https://www.csicop.org/si/show/roswell_incident_and_project_mogul) ([More info on Project Mogul](http://muller.lbl.gov/teaching/physics10/Roswell/USMogulReport.html)) The details of Mogul don’t matter so much right now; the point is, keeping UFO sightings under wraps is just good operational security for existing classified projects involving stuff going into the air: Even if _this_ UFO sighting was just Venus or some kid with a drone with lights on it or an odd atmospheric phenomenon, it _could_ be a legitimately secret project, and even if there are no legitimately secret projects in that region, _that_ much information (where secret projects are and aren’t) is, itself, interesting to spies. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2017, 1:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-ufo-related-stuff-classified/804704/7 "2017-12-17T13:39:04Z")
And in fact, with the Roswell incident, the DOD deliberately encouraged the UFO rumors to distract people away from the real project. ---
**Author:** ![Francis\_Vaughan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/francis_vaughan/32/3093_2.png) [@Francis\_Vaughan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Francis_Vaughan)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2017, 1:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-ufo-related-stuff-classified/804704/8 "2017-12-17T13:50:36Z")
> [@adaher](#): > > That isn’t really a satisfying answer though. What are the odds that “flashing lights” or saucer shaped craft flying impossibly fast has an origin in a country far less advanced than us? There’s only two broad explanations for such things: natural phenomena, or aliens. “Russian” is not a possible explanation. Don’t kid yourself that Russia is “far less advanced” than the US. Not when it comes to aviation. They lack the economic and industrial might to match the US, especially now the Soviet Union is gone, which will always hamper their ability, but they have always had some of the best and brightest aviation guys on the planet. They had their own Kelly Johnsons, and they still make and design planes of remarkable ability. ---
**Author:** ![AK84](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85e7bf/32.png) [@AK84](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AK84)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2017, 2:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-ufo-related-stuff-classified/804704/9 "2017-12-17T14:02:54Z")
T\*hat UFO seen over the Washington State coast was not Aliens, but actually a Russian Spy drone \*… So you have just told the Russkies that i) You can track their drone and ii) what the capabilities of your sensor are. Can’t you imagine the US Military won’t be too keen to reveal that? ---
**Author:** ![WotNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e19b73/32.png) [@WotNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WotNot)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2017, 2:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-ufo-related-stuff-classified/804704/10 "2017-12-17T14:33:22Z")
> [@adaher](#): > > That isn’t really a satisfying answer though. What are the odds that “flashing lights” or saucer shaped craft flying impossibly fast has an origin in a country far less advanced than us? There’s only two broad explanations for such things: natural phenomena, or aliens. “Russian” is not a possible explanation. Take a look at [this blog](https://drdavidclarke.co.uk/secret-files/) based on declassified UK files for some details of what UK and US intelligence agencies were looking at during the Cold War. ---
**Author:** ![Flyer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/flyer/32/7298_2.png) [@Flyer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flyer)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2017, 2:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-ufo-related-stuff-classified/804704/11 "2017-12-17T14:56:11Z")
> [@adaher](#): > > That isn’t really a satisfying answer though. What are the odds that “flashing lights” or saucer shaped craft flying impossibly fast has an origin in a country far less advanced than us? There’s only two broad explanations for such things: natural phenomena, or aliens. “Russian” is not a possible explanation. The earliest “modern” UFOs were the foo fighters in WW2. We **knew** that the Nazis were working on nuclear weapons. We **knew** that they had a successful rocket program. Is it really such a stretch to think that they might have some other successful program that we didn’t know much about? ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2017, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-ufo-related-stuff-classified/804704/12 "2017-12-17T15:21:52Z")
> [@Derleth](#): > > And sometimes, the UFOs are _our_ secret projects that got away from us and crashed in some field out in the ass-end of nowhere… 99.9% of them are nothing of the sort. But there’s a good reason for concealing those too. If they publicised 999 cases, and then classified the thousandth, it would show people that there is something very important about that one. Better to classify all of them. ---
**Author:** ![Wesley\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wesley_clark/32/20581_2.png) [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2017, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-ufo-related-stuff-classified/804704/13 "2017-12-17T15:41:31Z")
I don’t know if this is true or not, but I once heard the claim that many (perhaps most) UFO sightings occur near military bases, or on lines connecting US military bases. if so, that’d imply the UFOs are test craft flying between military bases. I seriously doubt true aliens would care about our military hardware, anymore than a 21st century civilization visiting an indigenous tribe would care about the hut where a tribe in the amazon keeps their spears. Again, i don’t have a cite and don’t even know if that is true, but it was a claim I’d heard before. If true, then I guess UFO issues would be classified because many are military secret technologies. Also if alien technology is real, then any nation that obtains it would have massive advantages in not only war but possibly economics and other areas. So if alien craft is real, there would be a huge incentive to keep it secret to make sure no other nation gets a hold of it. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2017, 4:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-ufo-related-stuff-classified/804704/14 "2017-12-17T16:19:58Z")
> [@adaher](#): > > That isn’t really a satisfying answer though. What are the odds that “flashing lights” or saucer shaped craft flying impossibly fast has an origin in a country far less advanced than us? There’s only two broad explanations for such things: natural phenomena, or aliens. “Russian” is not a possible explanation. This is [flat wrong](https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/16/us/politics/pentagon-program-ufo-harry-reid.html). > [@](#): > > James E. Oberg, a former NASA space shuttle engineer and the author of 10 books on spaceflight who often debunks U.F.O. sightings, was also doubtful. “There are plenty of prosaic events and human perceptual traits that can account for these stories,” Mr. Oberg said. “Lots of people are active in the air and don’t want others to know about it. They are happy to lurk unrecognized in the noise, or even to stir it up as camouflage.” ---
**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:** [December 17, 2017, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-ufo-related-stuff-classified/804704/15 "2017-12-17T16:30:50Z")
> [@adaher](#): > > That isn’t really a satisfying answer though. What are the odds that “flashing lights” or saucer shaped craft flying impossibly fast has an origin in a country far less advanced than us? There’s only two broad explanations for such things: natural phenomena, or aliens. “Russian” is not a possible explanation. Answers aren’t supposed to “satisfying”-They are supposed to be factual. What answer would you find “satisfying”? ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/46a35a/32.png) [@Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_T-Bonham.net)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2017, 1:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-ufo-related-stuff-classified/804704/16 "2017-12-18T01:21:46Z")
> [@adaher](#): > > That isn’t really a satisfying answer though. What are the odds that “flashing lights” or saucer shaped craft flying impossibly fast has an origin in a country far less advanced than us? There’s only two broad explanations for such things: natural phenomena, or aliens. “Russian” is not a possible explanation. But it’s probably accurate, even if it isn’t satisfying to you. When we first deployed the U-2 airplane, Russian radar operators said “nobody can build an airplane that flys that high”. With the first SR-71, Russians said “nobody can build a airplane that goes that fast”. But with repeated sightings, they saw that it was “those Americans”. So Khrushchev started a crash program to build an anti-aircraft missile that could go as high as the U-2. And succeeded, as Gary Powers learned. ---
**Author:** ![PastTense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pasttense/32/14550_2.png) [@PastTense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PastTense)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2024, 4:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-ufo-related-stuff-classified/804704/17 "2024-11-15T04:00:51Z")
Now 7 years later startling new information is coming out: > **[Startling claims made at UFO hearing in Congress, but lack direct evidence](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/nov/13/house-ufo-hearing)** > > Ex-defense department official said government employees had been injured and US conducted secret UFO retrievals ---
**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:** [November 15, 2024, 4:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-ufo-related-stuff-classified/804704/18 "2024-11-15T04:12:47Z")
“Claims” do not always equal “New Information”. ---
**Author:** ![md-2000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9d8465/32.png) [@md-2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/md-2000)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2024, 1:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-ufo-related-stuff-classified/804704/19 "2024-11-15T13:32:55Z")
From what I heard about those hearings, discounting the bit about “underwater space aliens”, I think previous posts have hit on a more prosaic truth - that we don’t want “the other guys” to know what we know or know we know it about what they may be doing, if there’s a possibility that some encounters may be Russian, or Chinese. And… what we don’t know or haven’t figured out. The people at the hearings were simply people who had theories themselves but no direct inside knowledge. ---
**Author:** ![Babale](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/babale/32/15666_2.png) [@Babale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Babale)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2024, 1:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-ufo-related-stuff-classified/804704/20 "2024-11-15T13:52:53Z")
UFOs recorded by military hardware can provide tons of information about the capabilities of the hardware in question. For example, there was a UFO in a prior round of declassifications that was a balloon floating over the ocean. Obviously the existence of an escaped helium balloon is not a matter of national security, but by analyzing the footage one could get a lot of information about how fast the plane was flying and how good its optics are of automatically tracking a flying low speed target while buzzing by at jet fighter speeds. If UFO footage is created by artifacts in the recording, perhaps an enemy could use those artifacts to figure out info about the optical system and then find ways to trick it. Etc… [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-ufo-related-stuff-classified/804704.md?page=2)