The former head of the Pentagon's UFO investigation says video released this week of a fighter jet following some kind of unknown aircraft is "compelling evidence that we may not be alone".
Luis Elizondo was the head of the Advanced Aviation Threat Identification Program, which the New York Times revealed to have operated with US Government funding between 2007 and 2012.
However, aspects of the programme reportedly continued after 2012, with members investigating accounts brought to them by service members while also carrying out other Department of Defence duties.
Mr Elizondo resigned from the DOD in October this year, which he told the Times was due to excessive secrecy and internal resistance to the program.
Speaking to CNN, Mr Elizondo has now said he believes there is "compelling evidence" that aircraft studied during his tenure are not being operated by any nation on Earth, and that many seem to defy laws of physics as we currently understand them.
"These aircraft - we'll call them aircraft - are displaying characteristics that are not currently within the US inventory nor in any foreign inventory that we are aware of," he said.
"My personal belief is that there is very compelling evidence that we may not be alone."
Mr Elizondo steered away from speculating who or what was operating the aircraft, saying his department had always preferred to look at the scientific data of the sightings.
"When I ran this programme I was fundamentally looking at two things ... what is it and how does it work," he said.
"We have deliberately stayed away from going down the rabbit hole of who's behind the wheel and what are their intentions, because a lot of people have a lot of feelings towards that and are very emotional towards that.
"What I wanted to do was to let the data speak for itself and then use that data to inform leadership - senior DOD leadership - about the potential threat these types of technology pose to national security, especially over any type of controlled airspace."
The Washington Post reported that Mr Elizondo was responsible for the public release of a Department of Defence video of an unknown craft which appears to have been filmed by a fighter jet.
UFO VIDEO ANALYSIS REVEALS NEW DETAILS
An organisation which worked with the AATIP - the Stars Academy for Arts and Sciences - has performed its own analysis on the video from a technological standpoint which it says reveals a wealth of information.
The video was captured by a US Navy F/A-18 Super Hornet's tracking system, which has been identified as a Raytheon AN/ASQ-228 forward-facing infrared unit.
The tracking unit is operated by a weapons sensor operator also aboard the jet, and this second serviceman can be heard in the video conversing withe the pilot.
The data overlaid on the footage shows the jet was conducting a 20-degree left-hand turn at an altitude of about 25,000 feet at a speed of about 238 knots (440km/h) during the encounter.
The camera was aimed two degrees below the axis of the jet, and 54 degrees to the left and the targetting reticle of the system had locked on to the unidentified craft.
During the the clip, the weapons operator switches between a "white hot" mode - where hotter objects are white and colder items black - to "black hot" mode, which displays the inverse.
When the "black hot" mode of the camera is activated, a more clear image of the aircraft can be seen - this mode would indicate the craft itself is very hot, but is radiating a field of slightly cooler air.
Neither camera mode shows any sign of a hot exhaust trail or propulsion system, nor any flight surfaces such as wings or rotors.
The pilot and weapons operator's conversation also reveals the craft was travelling "against the wind", which they reported to be is 120 knots (222 km/h) from the west.
SHARE ME