Diversity

Once upon a time, the only people talking about the subject of UAP were those individuals engaged in "UFO research." In recent times this has broadened to include academics, politicians, defence personnel, members of the intelligence community, private corporations, and learned professional associations. This trend continues with two more items of interest. Special issues of two learned Journals are shortly to be published, on the topic of UAP.

Progress in Aerospace Sciences

The Journal "Progress in Aerospace Sciences" website advises that there are a number of papers on UAP, scheduled for publication in a special issue of this Journal. The expected date of publication of this special issue has yet to be advised. As to contents, so far, I am aware of:

"Estimates of radiative energy values in ground-level observations of an unidentified aerial phenomena," by Jacques, F. Vallee, Luc Dini and Geoffrey Mestchersky. The abstract reads:

"An exceptional observation of an anomalous object, recorded as ‘unidentified’ by the US Air Force and in the1969 final report of the University of Colorado (“Condon”) study of UAPs, has been re-examined by a Franco-American scientific team.

The observation took place on the evening of December 30, 1966, on an isolated highway traversing a forest near Haynesville, Louisiana. Early in 1967 the main witness, a professor of atomic physics named Louie A. Galloway, reported the case to Project Blue Book of the USAF. Pro-active investigation by one of the authors (JV) brought it to the attention of Professor Edward Condon, himself a noted atomist who had worked under Project Manhattan. Dr. Condon and his team had just begun an official re-examination of UFO (UAP) phenomena under funding of the US Air Force.

The case, which centered on a well-defined luminous object at ground level, led to energy estimates from 500 to 1400 MW, in the range of a small modern nuclear power plant. Significantly, it was one of a number of cases carried as ‘Unidentified’ in Dr. Condon's final report to the National Academy of Sciences in 1969.

Subsequent to that Academy report, significant work was continued at the site by civilian investigators who confirmed the data, augmented by night photography flights. The team returned to the area with the primary witness, located the exact place of observation and gathered new data, notably about the nature of burns evidenced on the trees, which had not been available to Dr. Condon and his assistants.

Samples of the burned and intact bark were obtained by our own team, and they were preserved until it became possible to properly analyze the material.

The burn analysis data presented here was obtained at the laboratories of the French Atomic Energy Commission in Saclay, France. We present our results with the understanding that the study will benefit from further discussion within the larger scientific community."

"Initial results from the first field expedition of UAPx to study unidentified anomalous phenomena," by Matthew Szydagis, Kevin H. Knuth, Benjamin Kuglelsky and Cecilia Levy. The abstract is as follows:

"In July 2021, faculty from the UAlbany Department of Physics participated in a week-long field expedition with the organization UAPx to collect data on UAPs in Avalon, California, located on Catalina Island, and nearby. This paper reviews both the hardware and software techniques which this collaboration employed, and contains a frank discussion of the successes and failures, with a section about how to apply lessons learned to future expeditions. Both observable-light and infrared cameras were deployed, as well as sensors for other (non-EM) emissions. A pixel-subtraction method was augmented with other similarly simple methods to provide initial identification of objects in the sky and/or the sea crossing the cameras’ fields of view. The first results will be presented based upon approximately one hour in total of triggered visible/night-vision-mode video and over 600 h of untriggered (far) IR video recorded, as well as 55 h of (background) radiation measurements. Following multiple explanatory resolutions of several ambiguities that were potentially anomalous at first, we focus on the primary remaining ambiguity captured at approximately 4am Pacific Time on Friday, July 16: a dark spot in the visible/near-IR camera possibly coincident with ionizing radiation that has so far resisted prosaic explanation. We conclude with quantitative suggestions (3–5

 rules) for serious researchers in the still-maligned field of hard-science-based UAP studies, with an ultimate goal of identifying UAPs without confirmation bias toward mundane/speculative conclusions."

"Unidentified aerospace-undersea phenomena (UAP) status and outlook," by Max F. Platzer.

"On the need for rigorous scientific research on unidentified aerial phenomena," by Max F. Platzer.

Combatting Threats Exchange

The Journal "Combating Threats Exchange" is published by the U.S. Naval Postgraduate School's Global Education Community Collaboration Online Program. The expected publication date of the Journal's special issue on UAP, is sometime post September 2025. Interestingly, the website states that:

"The Combating Threats Exchange (CTX) is a biannual peer-reviewed online journal whose contributors are the men and women at the frontiers of counterterrorism. We publish firsthand accounts and analysis written by special operations personnel, as well as discussions of policy, trends, and operations, written by government officials, researchers, CT professionals, and investigative journalists on five continents."

So, one wonders, why such a Journal would be publishing a special issue on UAP? The answer lies in a recent call for papers for this special issue, which in the section labelled "Background."

"Our upcoming publication is dedicated to the efforts led by the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO) to improve data collection, standardize reporting requirements, and mitigate the potential threats to safety and security posed by unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAP).

The Department of Defense considers UAP as sources of anomalous detections in one or more domain (i.e. airborne, seaborne, spaceborne, and/or transmedium) that are not yet attributable to known actors and that demonstrate behaviors that are not readily understood by sensors or observers.

"Anomalous detections" include but are not limited to phenomena that demonstrate apparent capabilities or material that exceed known performance envelopes. A UAP may consist of one or more unidentified anomalous objects and may persist over an extended period of time.

This call for papers is your opportunity to contribute to the growing body of knowledge surrounding UAP, advance the science of UAP, and to engage in interdisciplinary discussions that explore their scientific and technological implications." 

Update: 3 June 2025

Details of a fifth paper in Progress in Aerospace Sciences has emerged. "The new science of Unidentified Aerospace-Undersea Phenomena (UAP)," by Knuth, Ailleris et al.