UFO's and Defense What Should we Prepare For

,~(/): AA or AR xx: auditor of national or regional promotion no. xx.
IINTRODUCTION
IIn 1976, a committee of the Institut des Hautes Etudes de Defense Nationale (IHEDN)
chaired by General Blanchard1 of the Gendarmerie Nationale1 opened the unidentified
flying objects file. The objective: to make proposals for organizing research and the
collection ofdata on these phenomena. The-goal was achieved, because the Irecommendations of this cornm.ittee were followed b,1 the creation of the Groupe d'Etude
des Phenomenes Aerospatiaux Non Identifies (GEPAN) [Unidentified Aerospace
Phenomena Study Group], the precursor to the current Service d'Expertise des IPhenomenes de Rentree Atmospherique (SEPRA) [Atmospheric Reentry Phenomena
Consulting Department], a division of the Centre National d ' Etudes Spatiales (CNES), 1.which is in charge of this file. Twenty years later, it seemed useful to us to take stock
once again of the knowledge regarding these sightings, which are becoming ofgreater and
greater interest to a large public that is often convinced of the extraterrestrial origin of
UFOs. Just look at the number offilms or television broadcasts on this subject. IFor the sake ofconvenience with respect to language, we will use the term UFO
(Unidentified Flying Object) generally1 instead of the more scientific term UAP I(Unidentified Aerospace Phenomenon).
Without a doubt, the phenomenon remains and the number of sightings, which are
completely unexplained despite the abundance and quality ofdata, is growing throughout Ithe world. On the ground, some sightings, like the Trans-en-Provence sighting in 1981,
have been the subject ofin-depth studies proving that something did in fact land on the
ground and parked there. Civilian and military pilots have provided gripping visual Itestimonies, often corroborated by radar recordings, as was the case recently in France. In
view of the lack of irrefutable proof regarding the origin of these phenomena, the need for
understanding persists. eWe will devote the first part of this report to several particularly remarkable French and
foreign cases.
In the second part, after having recalled the current organization of the research on Ithese phenomena in France and abroad, we will evaluate the work being done by scientists
worldwide who are interested in UFOs and are proposing, as we will see, partial
explanations that are based on known laws of physics. ISome of these (propulsion systems, non lethal weapons, etc.) could become realities in
the short, medium and long term.
We will review the principal global explanations proposed, focusing on those that are in
keeping with the current scientific data, which range from secret weapons to -extraterrestrial manifestations.
The UFO phenomenon involves defense in the broad sense and calls for a certain
number of measures, which we will examine in the last part:
- [providing] civilian and military pilots with sufficient information to teach them an
adapted conduct when faced with these phenomena and, more generally, [providing] the
public and decision-makers with information,
- developing the actions of SEPRA and promoting supplemental scientific monitoring,
or even research, actions,
- considering the strategic, political, and religious consequences of a possible
confirmation of the extraterrestrial hypothesis, the bizarre connotation of which it is