Motives matter on research into UFOs, says former State Dept. analyst

By Steve Hammons 

Amid recent news reports and TV shows about UFOs whizzing around U.S. Navy jets and aircraft carrier battle groups off the U.S. west and east coasts, a former national security analyst warns us to be cautious and thoughtful.

Acquiring highly-advanced UFO knowledge and technology could be very helpful for humanity – or dangerous, he wrote.

In an article published on The Hill website Oct. 13, opinion contributor Marik von Rennenkampff explored the U.S. government’s interests in “unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP).” Under the headline “3 reasons to investigate the US Navy UFO incidents,” von Rennenkampff suggests we look within.

If humans were to acquire such knowledge, “Given the anti-democratic and authoritarian inclinations of some major world powers, it is imperative that such capabilities fall into the ‘right’ (i.e., democratic) hands,” von Rennenkampff wrote.

Certain advanced knowledge and technology should also affect our perspectives, he says. “In the event that such capability exists, mere knowledge thereof should prompt a fundamental shift away from humanity’s baser priorities in favor of loftier, nobler objectives.”

URGENT DEVELOPMENTS

The article notes that von Rennenkampff was formerly an analyst with the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of International Security and Nonproliferation, and with the U.S. Department of Defense.

The Navy cases von Rennenkampff references have been in the news and on TV over the past couple of years. One was a 2004 series of incidents off the San Diego and Mexican coast involving an aircraft carrier battle group. The other also involved a carrier battle group off the U.S. east coast in 2014 and 2015.

Multiple unusual objects were observed by Navy pilots, sometimes in close proximity, recorded by multiple sensors on Navy jets and tracked by shipboard radar. The UAP appeared to pose potential dangers to Navy pilots from collision and demonstrated very unusual aerospace performance, according to Navy witnesses.

What are these UAP? What does it mean? This seems unclear to many people.

There are plenty of experts as well as Hollywood movies warning us about the dangers of potential adversaries from “somewhere else.” Yet, von Rennenkampff also suggests we take a look at human nature too – not always a pretty picture.

Can government officials and other leaders in the U.S. and around the world handle the potential power of advanced knowledge and technology? Can average Americans and people internationally adjust in healthy ways to significant and surprising discoveries?

How much do we need to be concerned about the situation at hand regarding UAP? And how does that phenomena relate to our already-problematic international relations, including urgent military and humanitarian developments in multiple places on Earth.

HIGH-PRIORITY INVESTIGATION WARRANTED

To help readers get up to speed on these Navy reports, von Rennenkampff addresses some of the immediate and obvious issues involved. He writes, “This raises the possibility that these pilots witnessed technology well beyond the grasp or bounds of science.”

And von Rennenkampff noted, “If these accounts are accurate – and sophisticated sensor data indicate that they may be – the capabilities exhibited by these objects represent an astonishing leap forward from the technological status quo. As such, a compelling case can be made to invest in fully investigating these phenomena.”

“First, the national security implications of getting to the bottom of these incidents are beyond obvious,” he wrote.

“In addition to posing a serious collision risk, determining the nature of the objects – whether benign, easily-explainable phenomena or potentially threatening – is of critical importance. Indeed, by some accounts, such incidents are occurring with increased frequency.”

In some of his closing comments, von Rennenkampff again looks at human motivations and human behavior. “Perhaps most importantly, as one of the Navy fighter pilots who reported a close encounter notes, mankind is driven by curiosity. Throughout history the human inclination to explore the unknown has precipitated monumental advances in a short span of time.”

Yes, humankind has been driven by curiosity – as well as by a number of less-admirable motives such as greed, power and conquest, to name a few.

But von Rennenkampff seems to feel we are up to the challenge, or at least to giving it our best efforts. On this UAP or UFO phenomena, he advises that, “a well-funded and efficiently managed public investigation is not only warranted, it should be prioritized.”


(Related articles “Storytelling affects human biology, beliefs, behavior” and “Reagan’s 1987 UN speech on ‘alien threat’ resonates now” are posted on the CultureReady blog, Defense Language and National Security Education Office, Office of the Undersecretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness, U.S. Department of Defense.)