Unidentified Flying Objects

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MEMORANDUM FOR: The Director of Central Intelligence

THROUGH: Deputy Director (Intelligence)

SUBJECT: Unidentified Flying Objects

REFERENCE: (a) Request of the Director of 10 December 1952 (b) Memo from AD/SI to Director dated 10 December 1952

1. Pursuant to the request of the Director, the following amplification of Reference (b) and review of the current situation is submitted. A preliminary review of the USAF investigation of this subject has been completed. With respect to the recent incidents enumerated in Reference (b), additional information has been obtained which is appended as Tab A.

2. A trip to Air Technical Intelligence Center was made on Friday, 12 December by AD/SI, (consultant), and (Operations Staff/SI). During this visit the O/SI group was briefed on the current status of the investigation, and copies of selected case studies and progress reports were obtained. This material has been subsequently studied in detail.

3. There still exists no reasonable evidence that the objects sighted are of foreign origin. While there is no indication that these objects represent a direct threat to the national defense, there are certain potential dangers which are related to these sightings. As a result of the trip and these conclusions, 0/8I is proceeding with plans to convene a group (probably not more than three), of top level consultants in the fields of physics (radar and upper atmosphere), astrophysics and astronomy, to review the evidence and recommend with respect to:

a. Methodology of investigation of unidentified flying objects.

b. Instrumentation to obtain data in future sightings.

c. Methods of rapid identification of unidentified flying objects.

d. Desirability for convening of a larger panel.

We are deferring for the present the convening of a large panel of diverse scientific interests for a detailed review of the substantive aspects of the problem because of insufficient and incomplete data.