255_413270_UFO's_and_Defense_What_Should_we_Prepare_For

This declassified file consists of a comprehensive independent report on unidentified flying objects (UFOs) prepared by COMETA, a French association of defense experts, based on research conducted by the Institute of Higher Studies for National Defence. The report, originally published in the French magazine VSD in July 1999, is accompanied by a personal letter from Carol Rosin, who notes that she served as a spokesperson for rocket scientist Wernher von Braun during the final years of his life. The file was cleared for public release by the U.S. Department of War PURSUE Release on May 8, 2026.

The COMETA report examines a substantial body of credible, well-documented aeronautical and ground-based sightings by trained witnesses, including military and civilian pilots, in France and internationally. The report distinguishes itself by applying rigorous scientific methodology to phenomena that remain unexplained despite the abundance and quality of available evidence. Among the notable cases documented is the January 28, 1994 encounter involving Air France flight AF 3532. The crew, flying at 11,900 meters near Coulommiers in Seine-et-Marne under excellent visibility, observed a large object estimated at approximately 250 meters in length that changed shape dramatically, appearing first as a brown bell before transforming into a chestnut brown lens shape. The phenomenon disappeared instantaneously from visual range. Significantly, a radar track recorded by the Taverny Air Defense Operations Center (CODA) initiated at the same moment corresponded precisely in location and time to the sighting, creating a 50-second radar record that crossed the aircraft's trajectory without matching any filed flight plan. Both the crew's visual contact and the radar trace vanished simultaneously.

The report documents three additional remarkable aeronautical cases from different nations. The Lakenheath incident of August 13-14, 1956, involving USAF and RAF bases in the United Kingdom, featured unidentified objects tracked by radar moving at speeds of 3,200 to 6,400 kilometers per hour with instantaneous acceleration and deceleration capabilities that produced no sonic booms. An RAF Venom night fighter pursuing the object was unable to maintain contact despite attempting sustained turns, climbs, and dives, while ground radar confirmed that the object remained at a constant distance behind the pursuing aircraft before departing at roughly 950 kilometers per hour. The RB-47 aircraft case of July 17, 1957, in the central United States involved an electronic reconnaissance bomber with specialized equipment detecting pulsed microwave emissions from an airborne supersonic source that possessed the technical characteristics of ground-based radar systems but operated at impossible speeds and performed coordinated maneuvers with the aircraft over approximately two hours and 200 kilometers. The Tehran incident of September 18-19, 1976, involved multiple F-4 Phantom fighters, Iranian air traffic controllers, and military personnel observing objects that disrupted aircraft avionics at specific distances, displayed extraordinary maneuverability, and emitted smaller objects that appeared to engage pursuing aircraft before returning to a larger parent object.

The report details ground-based sightings equally well-documented by trained observers. Military pilot Jean-Pierre Fartek and his wife observed a hovering double-saucer-shaped object near Dijon on December 9, 1979, approximately 20 meters in diameter and 7 meters thick, hovering three meters above ground with no noise, turbulence, or ground traces, before departing horizontally at extreme speed. Civilian observers in Madagascar in August 1954 witnessed an object estimated at forty meters in length moving at estimated speeds of 3,000 kilometers per hour, while a similar craft appeared simultaneously at a location 150 kilometers away. French gendarmerie investigations corroborated ground deformation and environmental effects in multiple cases. The Trans-en-Provence case of January 8, 1981, resulted in measurable changes to vegetation in the landing zone, with detailed scientific analysis documenting altered photosynthesis apparatus, variations in chlorophyll and amino acid concentrations, and effects consistent with exposure to a powerful pulsed electromagnetic field in the microwave frequency range. These phenomena persisted for two years before naturally resolving.

The report emphasizes the methodological framework developed by GEPAN (later SEPRA, the Atmospheric Reentry Phenomena Consulting Department of France's National Center for Space Studies) for investigating such phenomena. Since 1974, the Gendarmerie Nationale and civil and military aviation authorities have collaborated with CNES to collect and analyze more than 3,000 reports representing multiple independent testimonies. These cases are classified into four categories based on the extent to which they can be identified, with Category D unidentified aerospace phenomena (UAP Ds) comprising 4 to 5 percent of all cases and representing the most mysterious encounters occurring at close range. The report notes that investigations conducted over decades have yielded comparable statistical distributions across 200 French cases and approximately 1,000 international cases, suggesting consistency in the physical characteristics of unexplained phenomena including speed, acceleration, silence, shape, and environmental effects.

The COMETA committee, comprising military officers, civilian engineers, physicists, and specialists in life and social sciences, concludes that the accumulation of well-documented sightings made by credible witnesses necessitates serious consideration of all hypotheses regarding the origin of these phenomena, including the extraterrestrial hypothesis. The report recommends enhanced civilian and military pilot training regarding appropriate conduct when encountering such phenomena, expanded monitoring and research activities by SEPRA, and advance consideration of the strategic, political, and religious consequences should extraterrestrial visitation be conclusively demonstrated.