Close Encounters: Congress classifies 'unidentified aerospace-undersea phenomena' UFOs as not man-made

Congress claims that not all unidentified flying objects (UFOs) are man-made in a new budget for U.S. clandestine services.

In an addendum report to the Intelligence Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2023, Congress noted, "Temporary nonattributed objects, or those that are positively identified as man-made after analysis, will be passed to appropriate offices and should not be considered under the definition as unidentified aerospace-undersea phenomena."

The budget also says that "cross-domain transmedium threats to United States national security are expanding exponentially." According to the Pentagon's definition, "cross-domain transmedium threats" are able to move from water to air to space in unexplainable ways.

The Defense Department announced in July the opening of the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO) to investigate these threats.

The government's term for UFOs, Unidentified Aerial Phenomena, is being reclassified as Unidentified Aerospace-Undersea Phenomena along with the renamed office to investigate them.

Politicians and government officials have previously been hesitant to claim that there are UFOs that are not man-made.