UFO's - NO DEFENCE SIGNIFICANCE?

by Brian P James

[This has appeared in various magazines since 1996]

After a few years of a positive response from the MOD on the question of UFOs, largely from Nick Pope, we have now gone back to getting rather bland statements along the lines of "we are only interested in objects that pose a defence threat.."  What does this rather flat statement actually mean?

As anyone who has heard Bob Dean's accounts of events of the late 1950s and early 1960s will know, there was great concern between NATO and WarPac countries over UFO activity all over Europe, which came close to triggering nuclear war on many occasions.  Both sides realised that World War 3 could have been started by an incursion of UFOs into either side's  airspace.  In February 1961, the Supreme Allied Command in Europe (SACEUR), at the suggestion of Air Chief Marshall Sir Thomas Pike, initiated the Evaluation of Possible Military Threat to Allied Forces in Europe, to be carried out under the auspices of the Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe (SHAPE).  The conclusion of the three year evaluation was that while it was clear that unidentified craft of a vastly superior technology were in our skies, they had shown no sign of posing a military threat.  We can only presume that this conclusion was reached without direct input from the superior races acknowledged to be here, or was it?

A number of researchers have produced a wealth of evidence that various US agencies are in liaison with a number of alien races.  Many researchers claim that contact was made between aliens and many allied countries where craft have crashed.  It is clear from Bob Dean's work that SHAPE were aware of the purpose behind the alien visitations.  It also seems clear that while SHAPE knew of this, and presumably had policies based on this knowledge, SHAPE and NATO were not necessarily synonymous, and security information was not necessarily divulged throughout the NATO command.  This lack of information sharing may well still continue, just think of the Belgian events of the late 1980s.  Colonel De Brouwer made his well known statement, but as part of NATO, were the Belgian Air Force fully aware of what was in their skies?  I have always had a doubt on the lack of response by NATO over what could have potentially been a Soviet weapons system over Belgium.  Who decided that the black triangles did not pose a threat?  Derek Sheffield  made efforts to get the truth out of the MOD, among others, on who knew what was going on.  The RAF, through NATO, or more likely SHAPE, were aware of the UFO activity, but did not consider that a threat was posed to UK airspace.  Again, who decided that no threat existed?  An analogy might be the scenario of a stranger entering one's house, how many of us would just let this stranger have free run of our home?  I think most of us would first like to know who they were, and what they were doing, and then if necessary take strong steps to remove them from our property.

During the Cold War, the RAF and USAFE units in this country regularly were called upon to intercept 'unknown targets' coming in from the Soviet countries, and they usually knew they would find that the unidentified target was a Soviet reconnaissance aircraft.  The Soviet aircraft then left the fringes of our airspace without causing any incident.  However, be in no doubt, the allied aircraft were empowered to shoot down any aircraft that did not heed the warning to leave.  This situation still exists today, the RAF's Tornado F3 interceptors are empowered to shoot down any unidentified aircraft that enters our airspace - they remain vigilant.  The air arms of any nation will be equally empowered.  It is well documented that UFOs may not be picked up by radar, yet qualified military personnel have visual contact.  Again, do our military powers really just ignore this incursion by a possible enemy stealth aircraft?  Do they really take the chance that it may or may not be hostile?  I firmly believe that our military forces are fully aware of the true nature of these strange craft in our skies, and at least part of a country's government must also be aware of the non-threat scenario.  If the SHAPE report of the early 1960s had a positive conclusion on the nature and purpose for the presence of alien craft, then surely in over thirty years since this knowledge will have been expanded greatly?

When we ask the MOD about UFO events, and whether they can confirm UFOs exist, the statement of "there is no evidence of a defence threat..." does not answer the question.  Perhaps the question should not be about UFOs, since we are really asking about alien craft, which many of us strongly suspect do exist.  When a metallic disk, or black triangle appears in our skies, I am sure that the MOD, RAF, NATO, SHAPE, or whatever is left of the old WarPac need to know how to react.  Do these 'UFOs' pose no defence threat because they are here in the same way as other allied aircraft?