Who will be first? A new superpower race will engage young minds when the US and China get serious about UAP
When Avi Loeb of Harvard University announced the Galileo Project last July - with the aim of acquiring irrefutable evidence of UAP in the form of a clear photographic image - he was inundated with emails from young scientists eager to be involved. During recent years, SpaceX - initially through their pioneering reusable Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy rockets, followed by their even more ambitious Starship program - has been attracting the best of young talent, aware there’s exciting history in the making.
Usually, going to work on a Monday morning is seen as a chore - a mundane necessity to earn money. This isn’t how life should be. Many young adults rightly expect more than just getting sucked into the mediocrity of the rat race, dumbing down. There should be a choice of genuinely worthy goals, each with deep meaning and purpose, to inspire them to be the best they can be. They want to wake up excited about the day ahead - to be challenged and stretched.
Harry Reid Credit: Official US government photo
Harry Reid died of pancreatic cancer on 28th December 2021, aged 82. He was a Senator for Nevada from 1987 to 2017 and the Senate Majority Leader from 2007 to 2015. He courageously helped initiate the funding of US$22 million for a Special Access Program to investigate UFOs and related phenomena via the Advanced Aerospace Weapon System Application Program (AAWSAP) - often confused with the related but separate Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program (AATIP). This covert two-year program ran between 2008 and 2010, before it was derailed from doing more work by factions within the US Department of Defense who believed UFOs were real but demonic.
AAWSAP resulted in two important developments. One of their project staff had previously been involved in the Tic Tac encounter of 2004, which led AAWSAP to conduct an in-depth investigation of this pivotal event. Senior US politicians were subsequently briefed of this and other instances too real to ignore, followed up by face-to-face sessions with US Navy pilots including Commander David Fravor and Lieutenant Commander Alex Dietrich. The UAP Task Force came into being as a consequence. After important legislation was passed by Congress in mid-December 2021 - mere days before Harry Reid’s death - there is now proper authorisation and funding for the investigation of UAP for the next few years.
We’ve previously reported that top US government officials have spoken out, stating that UAP should be taken seriously. We added Senator Martin Heinrich’s view that some UAP demonstrate technology too advanced for it to have been made by humans - a position that we’ve likewise arrived at ourselves. We’ve since had two former Presidents, Bill Clinton and Barack Obama, contributing their opinions that something real is going on. Bill Nelson, current Administrator of NASA, has positively commented on UAP during several interviews.
Avoidance is a sad fact of current human psychology. Take your pick: making silly excuses, erroneously blaming something or someone else, minimisation, trivialisation, intellectualisation, distraction, and outright denial are just some of the more obvious forms of this unfortunate deflection behaviour. Plus there’s cognitive bias. So facing reality is usually hijacked, resulting in a lesser or distorted view of what is actually happening. This is further complicated by ulterior motives, strongly influencing how someone chooses to act. So this current upswing in interest must be seen cautiously. It could again turn, in the near future, as a result of continuing stigma and taboo - unless additional data is forthcoming to encourage open-mindedness.
Meanwhile, in China, their government authorities are also taking UAP seriously - although they prefer the terminology of Unidentified Air Conditions (UAC). Unfortunately, detail is lacking (so, if you’re someone knowledgeable on this subject within China, please get in touch with us).
The space race between the two superpowers of the Soviet Union and the US caught the public’s imagination when Sputnik was launched on 4th October 1957. When Yuri Gagarin became the first human in space on 12th April 1961, the US was shocked. After the Soviets took this early lead, President John F Kennedy famously announced, shortly afterwards, the US goal of “landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to the Earth”. The rest, as they say, is history. NASA therefore became the undisputed world leader in space, if somewhat overcautious since then and bureaucratic. China has recently become a major player in space exploration. And all three superpowers have started to weaponise space.
There have been various forms of an arms race between dominant countries or superpowers. The aim is simple: to gain dominance over a perceived enemy. A naval arms race took place between the UK and Germany between 1897 and 1914, after which the First World War began. Better known is the nuclear arms race between the US and the Soviet Union (now Russia) following the end of the Second World War. Huge amounts of money continue to be spent by the superpowers of the US, Russia, and China today - each looking for ways to become the world’s mightiest military force.
This brief overview of the recent past is fully relevant to the topic of UAP. The US authorities are rightly concerned that UAP might be some advanced technology developed by Russia or China. And it’s possible or probable that some of these unknowns being seen in the skies do originate from our planet. But some, at least, are almost certainly not from here. Either way, it makes complete sense for any country to rigorously investigate all unidentified craft. At very least, they might be aircraft illegally involved in drug or people smuggling. If they are uninvited military craft from another country, they could be spying or otherwise testing defence capabilities. If so, this potential threat must be stopped or countered. Avoidance of what’s going on is silly and possibly dangerous. And if some UAP are visitors from beyond our planet, shouldn’t we be curious to find out who they are and what they want?
Everyone knows that technological advances are happening at a quicker pace than ever before. Humans have come a long way since the days of fighting with swords, daggers, spears, bows and arrows, etc. Japan only surrendered at the end of the Second World War after two nuclear bombs - very small compared with today’s missiles - were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The step-up in destructive power was simply too much to fight against. The US, Russia, and China - each with immense nuclear capabilities that threaten mutually assured destruction if used - are currently seeking new ways to gain a similar outright military advantage. To think otherwise would be ludicrously naive.
Going back to the recent UAP legislation passed by Congress in the US. Part of the wording was as follows:
“The Director of National Intelligence and the Secretary of Defense shall jointly require that each element of the intelligence community and component of the Department of Defense with data relating to unidentified aerial phenomena makes such data available to the Unidentified Aerial Phenomena Task Force, or successor entity, and to the National Air and Space Intelligence Center.”
The National Air and Space Intelligence Center (NASIC) was known for many years as the Foreign Technology Division, with responsibility for gathering information about foreign adversary aircraft. Soviet military aircraft, flown by defecting pilots, for example, have been stripped down and examined by this specialist section of the US Air Force.
The involvement of NASIC should be expected, of course, especially if the working assumption of those in authority is that some UAP might be foreign craft from Russia or China. If minds are open to even one or more UAP being extraterrestrial craft, then the potential scope for learning about advanced technology becomes even greater - and this possibility cannot have been overlooked. It merely takes the interpretation of “foreign” a little wider than previously.
Understanding a completely new technology might prove extremely difficult, if not impossible in the near term, if it originates from a civilisation thousands or millions of years ahead of us. And that’s assuming a superpower could get its hands on such a visiting craft or probe. But potentially valuable clues could still likely be gained just by observing UAP as they go about doing what they do.
Paul Richard Hill (1909-1990) was a professor of aeronautics, who then worked for NASA and its predecessor NACA from 1939 until his retirement. He worked at the Langley Research Center as one of their key staff, receiving NASA’s Exceptional Service Medal in 1969 amongst other awards. Paul Hill developed a strong interest in UFOs after having a sighting of his own in 1952, although his work at NACA/NASA made it untenable for him to publicly acknowledge this. He studied reported sightings of UFOs, working out how these craft might move, using his understanding of conventional physics and aeronautics. He wrote a book, Unconventional Flying Objects: A Former NASA Scientist Explains How UFOs Really Work, published posthumously.
If one expert can get his brain around some of the advanced technology behind UFOs/UAP - and his findings do appear to match the observables - what could a team of such individuals glean, especially if today’s sensors were put to good use to maximise gathering data?
Destruction of people’s homes in Kharkiv, Ukraine Credit: With thanks to DepositPhotos.com
War is obscene. Innocent people - including women, children, and the elderly - are needlessly traumatised and killed. Lives are ruined. It is a shame on all of us as human beings that the war in Ukraine is currently raging while we write this article. Yes, it’s Russia that’s the aggressor on this occasion - Vladimir Putin in particular. But we all influence each other, normalising the unacceptable until it “suddenly” becomes “an outrage”, thereafter quickly forgetting. Russia’s war effort has been funded by what everyone consumes. Psychological avoidance has much to answer for. Anyway, the horrific pictures we’re seeing from Ukraine must be the latest reminder that we are still an emerging semi-civilised intelligent species with aggression as part of our behaviour. Military might cannot - should not - be ignored. Pacifism does not stop aggressors, even if brave civilians stepping in front of advancing tanks make them swerve or temporarily stop.
Realistically, we have to accept the need for military force as the only means for defence until humanity one day grows out of such immaturity. On 3rd January 2022, just weeks before they invaded Ukraine, Russia signed a declaration along with the US, China, the UK, and France, stating:
“We affirm that a nuclear war cannot be won and must never be fought. As nuclear use would have far-reaching consequences, we also affirm that nuclear weapons - for as long as they continue to exist - should serve defensive purposes, deter aggression, and prevent war.”
Despite this declaration, as he ordered his military forces to begin attacking, Putin effectively threatened any country with a nuclear response if they directly intervened in his invasion of Ukraine, warning of “consequences greater than any of you have faced in history”. As we have clearly stated elsewhere on our website, the problem holding back our evolution is the ubiquitous me-first psychology that blinds everyone to a bigger perception and better way of being. Contradictions, hypocrisy, avoidance, and much more are crazily accepted as part of normality - apart from moments when they become inconveniently blatant.
Russia’s military capability cannot be dismissed, but it is China and the US who are the two biggest superpowers. It’s unlikely either country would make the blunders that Russia is presently demonstrating in Ukraine (without wishing in any way to underplay the suffering that’s nevertheless still being caused). China is matching the US in many ways and may, in fact, be close to becoming the dominant superpower. It was once known as a “copy-cat nation”, but it’s now showing innovation. The Chinese government embraces a strategy of Military-Civil Fusion. This is similar to how the US defence industry operates, but it goes further. Then you have to factor in China as the new kid on the block, eager to do well. The US, in contrast, is perhaps past its peak as a nation - likely degenerating, clearly decadent in various ways - at least, that’s how China and others see things. And it’s not difficult to understand such a perspective if you stand back. Complacency is never a good quality, and being rich can easily lead to laziness as you let others do the hard graft. China will reach the same point, but for now it’s still on the ascendency.
Chinese tanks as part of the People’s Liberation Army Credit: China Military
If you compare President Xi Jinping to President Joe Biden, it’s surely a worrying “no contest”. The latter individual clearly shows repeated signs of approaching or early dementia and he should never have stood nor been selected as a nominee, let alone subsequently elected as President. It’s unprofessional and verging on being cruel to think otherwise. Joe Biden should be spending his remaining time doing something else other than being the US President - and those around him, including all the journalists who keep quiet about this, should be ashamed for being complicit in the cover-up of trying to minimise the fallout. We’re British, very fond of America and especially its great natural landscapes of outstanding beauty, but the current Leader of the Free World is not what you’d in any way call a good advert for democracy. And we’re not being blind hypocrites here. After the biggest vote in our country’s history - Brexit, to get us out of the EU, a grossly wasteful and self-serving organisation which likes to talk the talk, similar to the UN - many of our elected politicians in Parliament did everything they could to subvert the result, going against the will of the people. (Thankfully, quite a few of the worst offenders failed to be re-elected in the December 2019 general election, yet again showing that the people aren’t always fooled or totally stupid.) Much of the elite, media, and commentariat - despite considerable and growing evidence to the contrary - still think that we were wrong. Democracy, anywhere, needs to seriously get its act together if the world is to eventually adopt it as the best way forward.
So there’s also a global competition or race for which type of governance is best. Democracy is a great idea that hasn’t really been properly tried yet. Psychology, at its present evolutionary level, is the sticking point. Avoidance, in particular, holds back human potential. The Chinese model might not be an outright bad dictatorship, but neither is it a good one. Everything considered, it’s still a contender as an alternative to democracy.
Human curiosity is an admirable quality. We’re discovering more and more about the world and the universe - about how things work. Although human psychology is badly stunted and dysfunctional, an ability to push forward technology is nevertheless happening at pace. Even without UAP, things will continue to rapidly change and escalate. But taking UAP seriously could be an additional and pivotal opportunity - both in terms of advanced technology and a more mature psychology. The latter point (psychology) is especially meant in reference to the urgent need for us to grow up.
Before finishing, let’s let our imagination wander a bit. The US and Chinese governments start diligently investigating UAP sightings. They employ the best minds in their various industrial aerospace, military support, technologies, security, and defence contractors - so think Lockheed Martin in the US, for example - all working hard to suss out what’s what. Young scientists, engineers, and more would be suddenly invigorated, eager to be involved and help figure out how extraterrestrial technology might work.
Military considerations will undoubtedly come first when any government seriously analyses UAP. This is the reality. And it will involve a high degree of secrecy, with much more information remaining classified than is perhaps necessary or fair. The public’s right to know will unfortunately be a lesser consideration - and that’s talking about the US, an “open” country with freedom of information rights, not China. This is where non-government initiatives such as the Galileo Project are important, because any data will be freely available. Knowing we are not alone - and that human beings are not as advanced as many like to believe - might not shake most people up, but a minority will reflect and think more. Anything that prompts the shifting to a better way of being will be a push in the right direction. At the moment, let’s be honest, it’s somewhat embarrassing being a human on planet Earth.
Written by Iain Scott, 18th March 2022