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This briefing guide, written by Dr David Clarke of Sheffield Hallam University for The National Archives in March 2008 and revised through June 2012, explains the British government's involvement with UFOs from 1909 onward. It covers phantom airships, foo fighters, ghost rockets, the 1950 Flying Saucer Working Party, Air Ministry and MoD investigations, and the 1979 House of Lords debate. It also lists key National Archives file references, including the Rendlesham Forest papers, and notes that MoD found no evidence of extraterrestrial origin.
10 A third series of files, in DEFE 24, contains the majority of the surviving reports and public correspondence from 1977 onwards. DEFE 24/1206 covers 1977 and DEFE 24/1207, 1977-78. These files contain papers from a number of MoD secretariats. S4 (Air) was replaced by DS8 (Defence Secretariat 8) in 1979. In turn DS8‟s UFO responsibility passed to Secretariat (Air Staff) 2 or Sec (AS) in 1985. DEFE 24 also contains a series of „edited copies‟ of UFO reports received by MoD, covering the years 1975-1980. These are duplicates of the main reports series, prepared at a time when the MoD first considered the release of UFO material to the public. The identities and home addresses of observers have been deleted from the edited reports. A MoD proposal to make selected reports available on request to members of the public was reversed in 1984 by defence minister John Stanley on the grounds of cost (DEFE 24/1517). A total of 17 DS8 and Sec (AS) files were opened under the Freedom of Information Act during 2008. DEFE 24/1925/1 contains public correspondence 1985-86. DEFE 24/1929/1, DEFE 24/1930/1, DEFE 24/1931/1, DEFE 24/1941/1, DEFE 24/1941/1, DEFE 24/1942/1 DEFE 24/1949/1 DEFE 24/955/1 DEFE 24/1956/1 and DEFE 24/1957/1 contain correspondence 1986-1992 and can all be accessed through nationalarchives.gov.uk/ufos. UFO reports files opened during 2008 include DEFE 24/1922/1, DEFE 24/1923/1, DEFE 24/1924/1 (1984-85), DEFE 24/1926/1-1928/1 (1986-88), (1988-89), DEFE 24/1939/1 – 40/1 (1989-1990), DEFE 24/1953/1 – 54/1 (1991-92). DEFE 24/1938/1, opened in March 2009, contains details of sightings reported between August and December 1989. Files opened in August 2009 include DEFE 24/2086/1 (UFO incidents 30/31 March 1993) and DEFE 24/1972/1 (alleged UFO involvement in the crash of a Lightning F6 aircraft in September 1970) UFO correspondence files opened in August 2009 include: DEFE 24/1962/1-1965 /1 (covering 1992-1993). Sightings reports files include DEFE 24/1959/1 (1993); DEFE 24/1960/1 (1994), DEFE 24/1961/1 (1995) and DEFE 24/1974/1-1976/1 (1996). Files opened in February 2010 include: DEFE 24/1971/1(Parliamentary Questions and Enquiries on UFOs); DEFE 24/1977/1, DEFE 24/1988/1, DEFE 24/1989/1, DEFE 24/1990/1, DEFE 24/2007/1, DEFE 24/2008/1, DEFE 24/2009/1, DEFE 24/2010/1 (UFO sighting reports). UFO correspondence files opened in February 2010 include: DEFE 24/1966-1969/1, DEFE 24/1979-81/1 and DEFE24/1994/1 and files containing persistent correspondence include, DEFE 24/2000/1, DEFE 24/2002-2003/1, DEFE 24/2016-2017/1, DEFE 24/2029/1, DEFE 24/2091/1 and DEFE 24/2030/1-2032/1 (opened in 2011). 16 files of public correspondence covering the period 1995 to 2003 were released in August 2010 including DEFE 24/1973/1, DEFE 24/1978/1, DEFE 24/1982/1, DEFE 24/1992-3/1, DEFE 24/1995-6/1, DEFE 24/1998/1, DEFE 24/2012-15/1 and three files of persistent correspondence: DEFE 24/2001/1, DEFE 24/2042/1 and DEFE 24/2045/1. Ten further files in this series were opened in March 2011 including DEFE 24/2028/1, DEFE 24/2040-41/1, DEFE 24/2044/1, DEFE 24/2062-63/1, DEFE 24/2085/1, DEFE 24/2046/1, DEFE 24/2030 and 2032/1.
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