Officials were told to hunt down ‘extraterrestrial’ tech so they could copy it on the battlefield, according to secret declassified files
UFO technology could be used(Image: Getty Images/iStockphoto)
Defence chiefs hoped to re-build Britain’s military might using alien technology.
Top brass were instructed to hunt down ‘extraterrestrial’ tech after receiving credible intelligence UFOs appeared to be real and could outmanoeuvre any known human craft, according to declassified files. The Defence Intelligence Staff, a unit within the Ministry of Defence, was ordered to examine the issue of ‘unidentified aerial phenomena’ – aka UAPs – in the ‘90s. Officials hoped to reverse-engineer the tech to give Britain a battlefield advantage.
US whistleblowers have claimed American defence chiefs have retrieved around 10 crashed UFOs – including alien remains – to reverse-engineer tech. Documents placed in the National Archives reveal Brit intelligence chiefs also took UFOs seriously and planned to do the same.
The Defence Intelligence Staff was reportedly tasked with investigating “unidentified aerial phenomena” or UAP
(Image: Getty Images)
An internal memo, dated March 4, 1997, stated: “Logic would indicate that if significant numbers are reporting seeing strange objects in the sky then there may be a basis in fact.
“It could be argued that UAPs pose a potential threat to the defence of the realm since we have no idea what they are!”
Intelligence officers highlighted reports from Belgium where thousands reported seeing giant silent low-flying black triangles between November 1989 and April 1990.
They suggested Britain could benefit from securing and harnessing technology that appeared to be beyond anything the nation possessed.
“A supplementary issue is the possibility of technology acquisition,” a report noted.
“UAPs do not appear to use conventional reaction propulsion. “The Belgian deltas (confirmed by the country’s MoD) hovered for long periods and accelerated quickly to supersonic speeds, outrunning F-16s.
“If this represents real technology perhaps it should be acquired.”
One report described the UFO sighting in Rendlesham Forest near RAF Woodbridge in Suffolk in December 1980 as a ‘landing’ which had been ‘confirmed by the US unit commander and others’.
Mention was also made of the Rendlesham Forest incident
(Image: Universal Images Group via Getty Images)
It said the ‘UAP apparently did not use any conventional propulsion system and could hover as well as move at considerable speed’.
The report went on: “The French have always had an interest in this topic. And I am aware that there is an informal intelligence grouping in the US.”
Another briefing letter – marked ‘Secret UK Eyes B’ – said: “The reported technology, if true, would represent technology we do not have.
“No matter the origin, the determination of the technology, and possible acquisition, is a matter for Defence Intelligence Staff.”
One document said most UFO reports were tenuous but a small number could not be explained immediately.
“Some reports described objects in terms of manoeuvre, speed and shape which lie beyond our engineering knowledge and that which could be reasonably expected from hostile powers,” it said.
A military intelligence unit in the 1990s reportedly took the often stigmatised topic seriously
(Image: DoD/AFP via Getty Images)
“There is considerable difficulty, therefore, in assessing and prioritising these reports sufficiently quickly to provide, where warranted, an active response.
“Any future concerns, terrestrial or extraterrestrial, are likely to require national or international coordination, responsive only within security alliances.”
A report advocated keeping an open mind and seeking further information while acknowledging the research by the Defence Intelligence Staff would be met with derision.
“Mention of UAPs is guaranteed to generate mirth and a range of Little Green Men jokes, possibly because of the fringe element of ‘crazies’ and the lack of conventional intelligence information,” it said.
But it warned it would be foolish to rule out the possibility aliens exist.
A report said: “Continuing discoveries of planets and emerging knowledge of circumstances needed for, at least, non-intelligent life will lead to speculation that planets and life may commonly occur.
“With that change of perception, arguing that our rock alone is a teeming and verdant speck in a vast and sterile nothingness may soon be as unrewarding as the church once found in continuing to insist that the world was flat; more so with the knowledge that many suns are older than our own and perhaps provide conditions for advanced evolution.
Reports did not rule out aliens were real(Image: Getty Images/iStockphoto)
“Even though some experts argue very low probabilities for intelligent life, and allowing for barely imagined transit distances requiring unknown uses of physics, we cannot rule out entirely the idea of extra-terrestrial observation/visitation, either covert or overt.
“Our current policy to retain an open mind on these matters is, therefore, probably correct.”
The Defence Intelligence Staff was renamed Defence Intelligence in 2009.
In 2024 the minister for defence readiness Luke Pollard told MPs similar analysis was no longer taking place.
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