The "Five Eyes" is the name given to an intelligence sharing alliance, consisting of five countries; namely Australia; Canada; New Zealand; the United Kingdom and the United States of America.

During his presentation to the NASA public meeting on 31 May 2023, Dr. Sean Kirkpatrick, the Director of the All-Domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO) stated that he had recently held a forum on UAP, for the Five Eyes partners. Specifically, he said:

"I have just held our first Five Eyes forum on this subject, last week I think it was, or earlier this week. Dan was there. And, we have, we've entered into discussions with our partners on data sharing; how they do reporting; what kind of analysis can they help us with; what kind of calibration can they help us with; what can we help them with? We are establishing all of that right now and they're going to end up sending their information and data to us to feed into the process that we've laid out for how we are going to do all this."

Asked what the "Five Eyes" was, Kirkpatrick responded that it was the United Kingdom, Canada, New Zealand, Australia and the United States. 

Who attended?

A number of individuals set out to seek comment from these five countries concerning Kirkpatrick's  statement about the holding of a Five Eyes forum on UAP. Here's what we know so far.

New Zealand

(a) In a tweet dated 16 June 2023, the UK's Christopher Sharp, senior contributing journalist for the Daily Mail newspaper reported that a spokesperson advised:

"An NZDF representative based in Washington DC attended the meeting. For more information you will need to contact US authorities."

(b) In a 15 June 2023 article, Defense Scoop writer Brandi Vincent wrote  that a spokesperson advised:

"A NZDF representative based in Washington DC attended the briefing. For more information you will need to contact US authorities."

Canada

(a) In the same 15 June 2023 article, Vincent noted that a Canadian spokesperson said:

"Our nations' militaries routinely exchange information on a number of subjects as part of our long-standing cooperation as partners in defence. While the details of the meeting remain classified it can be characterized as the sharing of information on the subject of UAP and no further details can be shared at this time. This sharing of information is an example of the ongoing important relationship between our militaries."

(b) Alexander Panetta in a Canadian Broadcasting Corporation news item dated 7 June 2023 reported that:

"The Canadian Department of National Defence told CBC News in an email that Canada had attended the meeting, led by a Royal Canadian Air Force representative. 'The details of the meeting remain classified' DND said in an email. 'It can be charactized as the sharing of information on the subject of UAP and no further details can be shared at this time.'"

For a previous post on Canada and UAP, click here.

In a recent development a letter from Canadian politician Larry Maguire, dated 22 March 2023, to the Canadian Minister of National Defence has been posted on the internet, which specifically mentioned the Five Eyes. The letter was titled Re: Defence Research and Development Canada in possession of recovered UAP material, Maguire points out that DRDC "...has participated in efforts to analyse UAP, which is publicly traceable to circa 1950. This recovered foreign material is studied through the Five Eyes Foreign Material Program (FMP) which, in Canada, is sponsored by the Canadian Forces Intelligence Command..."

Australia

(a) Australian researcher Grant Lavac submitted a request to the Australian Department of Defence media section and the media section of the Department of the Prime Minister, on 2 June 2023 seeking comment about Kirkpatrick's Five Eyes statement. Plus also, he has submitted an FOIA request on the same topic to the DOD. As at the date of this article, Lavac has not received any response.

Lavac reminded us, that in a letter to him, dated 26 July 2022, R. J. Denney, Air Vice-Marshal, Head of Air Force Capability had stated in part:

"The Five Eyes is an intelligence alliance comprising of Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States of America. Air Force does not lead on these forums. Air Force does not consider this the appropriate platform to discuss the topic of UAP or UFOs."

(b) On 19 June 2023 MUFON's Australian Director, Roger Stankovic also advised me that he had submitted a similar request to the Australian Minister of Defence. As at the date of this article no response had been received.

(c) The 15 June 2023 Defense Scoop article contained the following regarding their inquiry to the Australian Department of Defence:

"Meanwhile, a spokesperson from Australia did not confirm whether a representative from their nation attended the UAP meeting - and their response took a different direction  entirely.

'The [Australian] Department of Defence does not have a protocol for reporting or recording of Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (UAP) or Unidentified Flying Objects (UFOs.)'

 As far back as June 2019, I asked the media section of the Australian DOD if it had any current guidelines on the reporting of UAP? It responded:

"Defence does not have a protocol that covers recording or reporting of UFO sightings."

Defence has used the same statement multiple times between 2019 and 2023 in responding to questions about UAP. 

United Kingdom

In a tweet dated 2 June 2023 Christopher Sharp wrote:

"NEW: UK MOD is not prepared to comment on the Five Eyes UAP meeting mentioned by AARO's Sean Kirkpatrick at yesterday's NASA event. This isn't even a 'no comment' - I am told that the UK simply doesn't comment on intelligence topics such as this, which is a matter of policy."

Comments: 

1. The lack of a definitive response by the Australian Department of Defence to the simple question of whether or not a DOD representative attended Kirkpatrick's Five Eyes UAP forum, is notable. It confirms a clear trend by them to seek no involvement in the topic of UAP. It remains to be seen whether or not the Department will see a need to decide to have some future involvement. Political pressure might be applied from above, if the Australian government is sufficiently lobbyied by the US government. Political pressure might also be generated by Australian citizens demanding from their elected representatives that they take a serious interest in the subject. So far, we have seen only Senator Whish-Wilson  taking a serious interest. 

2. On the Maguire letter. On the recent episode (#22) of the "Weaponized" podcast, when discussing the contents of the Maguire letter, hosts Jeremy Corbell and George Knapp both said that they hadn't previously heard of a Five Eyes Foreign Material Program. An Internet search, by me, failed to find anything on such a program. Naturally, at this point, caution should be exercised as a "Foreign Material Program" might simple refer to the recovery and analysis of mundane objects such as satellites, aircraft, drones etc. and not UAP. 

3. No doubt we will hear more in the near future about all of the above.