The British military actively tried to obtain extraterrestrial technology in the 1990s as intelligence officers believed otherworldly innovations could bolster the country’s own defense capabilities, shocking once-secret files reveal.
The UK’s Defence Intelligence Staff — now called Defence Intelligence — part of the country’s defense ministry, was given orders to investigate “unidentified aerial phenomena” after thousands of reported sightings over Belgium between November 1989 and April 1990.
“Logic would indicate that if significant numbers are reporting seeing strange objects in the sky then there may be a basis in fact. It could be argued that UAPs pose a potential threat to the defence of the realm since we have no idea what they are!” an unsealed internal memo from March1997 stated.
Earlier in the decade there was a rash of people reporting “large, silent, low-flying black triangles” demonstrating propulsion capabilities far beyond any known flight technology on Earth, prompting intelligence officials to seriously consider attempting to acquire the advancements for their own ends.
“A supplementary issue is the possibility of technology acquisition,” one report said, according to the Sunday Times.
“UAPs do not appear to use conventional reaction propulsion. The Belgian deltas (confirmed by the country’s MoD) hovered for long periods and accelerated quickly to supersonic speeds, outrunning F-16s. If this represents real technology perhaps it should be acquired.”
Another report made reference to “the Rendlesham Forest ‘landing’” — a reference to a US Air Force base in Woodbridge, Suffolk — which it claims was the site of a glowing “craft of unknown origin” briefly touching down before zooming back into the heavens in 1980.
The report said the landing was “confirmed by the US unit commander and others.”
The document also referenced other countries that have taken an interest in harnessing UFO technology.
“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.”
Although the correspondence concedes most of the alleged UFO sightings were not credible, a small number of them could not be explained by conventional science.
“Some reports described objects in terms of manoeuvre, speed and shape which lie beyond our engineering knowledge and that which could be reasonably expected from hostile powers,” it stated.
“There is considerable difficulty, therefore, in assessing and prioritising these reports sufficiently quickly to provide, where warranted, an active response … Any future concerns, terrestrial or extraterrestrial, are likely to require national or international coordination, responsive only within security alliances.”
Some of the unsealed documents even acknowledge that the ordered research would raise eyebrows among some intelligence officials, encouraging keeping an open mind.
“Mention of UAPs is guaranteed to generate mirth and a range of Little Green Men jokes, possibly because of the fringe element of ‘crazies’ and the lack of conventional intelligence information.”
The formerly secret documents have been placed in the National Archives at Kew in southwest London.
The UK’s minister for defense readiness, Luke Pollard, said in December, 2024 that the Ministry of Defence had “ceased to investigate reports of UFOs or UAP in 2009,” noting the ministry had “no current plans” to commit resources to investigating alleged sightings moving forward.
