A British military intelligence unit attempted to acquire UFO technology in the 1990s, according to declassified files at the National Archives, British media reported earlier this month.
A 1997 Defense Intelligence Staff memo shows that the British intelligence community believed in the possibility of UFOs, stating that “Logic would indicate that if significant numbers are reporting seeing strange objects in the sky then there may be a basis in fact.”
Previous sightings led to UFO speculation
Due to the previous decades' numerous alleged UFO sightings, including incidents in Belgium as well as near Rendlesham in the UK, British authorities were on high alert. The reason for the interest in the alleged UFO’s didn’t seem to be rooted in fear, but rather interest in acquiring the technology.
Another unsealed document reviewed by The Times states that “In both [Belgian and Rendlesham Forest] cases the UAP apparently did not use any conventional propulsion system and could hover as well as move at considerable speed. The French have always had an interest in this topic… and I am aware that there is an informal intelligence grouping in the US.”
Another letter referred the topic of UFOs to Defense Intelligence Staff, and indicated possible interest in “possible acquisition.” While the authors of these reports seemed to have understood how people would have reacted to being told about UFOs, with one letter stating that “mention of UAPs is guaranteed to generate mirth and a range of Little Green Men jokes,” they didn’t rule out their existence.
In another document, intelligence staff wrote that “Continuing discoveries of planets and emerging knowledge of circumstances needed for, at least, non-intelligent life will lead to speculation that planets and life may commonly occur.”
“With that change of perception, arguing that our rock alone is a teeming and verdant speck in a vast and sterile nothingness may soon be as unrewarding as the church once found in continuing to insist that the world was flat; more so with the knowledge that many suns are older than our own and perhaps provide conditions for advanced evolution.
“Even though some experts argue very low probabilities for intelligent life, and allowing for barely imagined transit distances requiring unknown uses of physics, we cannot rule out entirely the idea of extra-terrestrial observation/visitation, either covert or overt. Our current policy to retain an open mind on these matters is, therefore, probably correct.”