The United States Department of Defense announced that it has established a new group, Airborne Object Identification and Management Synchronization Group, to investigate reports on the presence of UFOs in restricted airspace. This comes months after the Office of the Director of National Intelligence released its report, which examined 144 cases of UAP sightings, saying there was a lack of sufficient data to determine the nature of mysterious flying objects. 

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The Airborne Object Identification and Management Synchronization Group (AOIMSG) will be successor to the US Navy’s Unidentified Aerial Phenomena Task Force. It will synchronize efforts across the Department and the broader U.S. government to detect, identify and attribute objects of interests in Special Use Airspace (SUA), and to assess and mitigate any associated threats to safety of flight and national security, the Depart of Defense said in its press release. 

The group will be overseen by the Under Secretary Of Defense for Intelligence, the director of the Joint Staff and officials from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.

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The US intelligence community released its long-awaited report in June, 2021. 

The report examined 144 reports of what the government terms “unidentified aerial phenomenon” — only one of which investigators were able to explain by the end of the study.

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“We were able to identify one reported UAP with high confidence. In that case, we identified the object as a large, deflating balloon. The others remain unexplained,” the report said. 

After the release of the report, Hicks asked the under secretary of defense for intelligence and security to develop a plan to deal more seriously and thoroughly with UAP sightings.