UK Government Confirms Two Officials Attended UFO Meeting With International Allies In 2023
Above - An alleged drone engaged over Syria by the UK’s RAF in December 2021 and later classified as UAP by a Five Eyes Intelligence Report. Photographer unknown. Image courtesy of WEAPONIZED.
Written by Christopher Sharp - 4 August 2024
The United Kingdom’s Ministry of Defence (MOD) has confirmed that two of its officials attended a Five Eyes (FVEY) forum dedicated to Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAP) on 24 May 2023, despite claiming that it no longer investigates the topic.
In response to a Freedom of Information request by former senior MOD official Nick Pope, the UK’s Defence Intelligence Secretariat confirmed that ‘two members of staff from Defence Intelligence (DI) were in attendance’ at the FVEY Inaugural UAP Caucus Working Group forum, held at the Pentagon in Washington, D.C.
This event, hosted by the U.S. government’s All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office - itself dedicated to investigating UAP - included updates on UAP from all FVEY members: Canada, Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States.
The FVEY is an intelligence alliance comprising these five countries, focused on cooperation in signals intelligence. This collaboration enhances the member countries' ability to share information and conduct joint operations.
Five Eyes Nations: USA, UK, Australia, Canada, New Zealand
In June 2024, UAP researcher, Grant Lavac published official documentation detailing the inaugural May 2023 meeting through the Freedom of Information Act.
Speaking to Liberation Times, Nick Pope commented:
“I'm pleased that the UK continues to engage on UAP, as part of the Five Eyes alliance, and is actively involved in the Pentagon's UAP Caucus Working Group.
“The MoD's Defence Intelligence leads the world in many aspects of intelligence gathering and assessment, and I'm confident that the UK is making a major contribution.
“It's frustrating that the public can't be told more, but I fully understand and accept the reasons for this. That said, I hope we can continue to move things forward and - so long as it doesn't compromise national security - disclose a bit more over the next few months.”
The Defence Intelligence Secretariat did not disclose the grade or rank of the two staff members who attended the meeting, despite Pope’s request for this information.
However, Pope has a sense of the ranks of the individuals involved in the meeting:
“Given the importance that the Pentagon attaches to this topic, and given the need to best represent the UK in terms of Five Eyes engagement, I strongly suspect that the Head of Defence Intelligence Capability Assessment - an SCS [senior civil service] Pay Band 1 position - would have attended personally.
“I suspect the second attendee was at a lower rank/grade and was probably a deep specialist in adversary small UAS [unmanned aerial systems] development. I don't want to say too much more here, as I suspect this is getting close to the line in terms of classification.”
Above - Copy of the MOD’s response to Nick Pope
Following the release of the documentation by Lavac in June 2024, the UK’s MOD told Liberation Times that UAP does not indicate any military threat and that it prioritises resources for other defence activities:
“In over 50 years, no sightings of extra-terrestrial intelligence, Unidentified Flying Objects and Unidentified Aerial Phenomena reported to us indicated the existence of any military threat to the United Kingdom.
“It remains more valuable to prioritise MOD resource towards other Defence-related activities.”
Confirmation that two members from the UK’s Defence Intelligence attended is noteworthy.
Defence Intelligence is an organisation within the UK’s intelligence community. Formed in 1964 - although tracing its origins back to 1873 - it focuses on gathering and analysing military intelligence.
Under its previous name ‘Defence Intelligence Staff’(DIS), the organisation undertook a UAP study between 1997 and 2000, codenamed ‘Project Condign’.
The results of Project Condign were compiled into a 400-page document titled ‘Unidentified Aerial Phenomena in the UK Air Defence Region’ that drew on approximately 10,000 sightings and reports that had been gathered by the DI55, a section of the Directorate of Scientific and Technical Intelligence (DSTI) within the DIS.
The study aimed to make a rational scientific examination of the phenomena based on raw material and UK Air Defence Region (UKADR) incident reports and ‘to determine the potential value, if any, of UAP sightings reports to defence intelligence’.
The introduction of Project Condign’s report asserts ‘that UAP exist is indisputable’ and further elaborates:
‘Credited with the ability to hover, land, take off, accelerate to exceptional velocities, and vanish, UAP can reportedly alter flight direction suddenly and exhibit aerodynamic characteristics well beyond those of any known aircraft or missile, whether manned or unmanned.’
Although Project Condign could not offer any certainty of explanation of UAP, its key recommendation was that ‘it should no longer be a requirement for DI55 to monitor UAP reports as they do not demonstrably provide information useful to Defence Intelligence’.
Commenting on Defence Intelligence’s involvement in the May 2023 FVEY forum, Pope told Liberation Times:
“When the House of Lords held a debate about UAP on 30 June 2021, I found out that the MoD Minister's brief had been prepared by the Air Command Secretariat, in consultation with Defence Intelligence.
“Since the MoD stopped investigating UAP sightings from the public at the end of 2009, I knew that the Air Command Secretariat's role was limited, and after further probing discovered that the division involved was Defence Intelligence Capability Assessments.”
Last year, journalist Jeremy Corbell obtained a photo of UAP intercepted by the UK's Royal Air Force (RAF) over Syria in 2021.
A FVEY intelligence report generated months following the interception classified the object as 'Unidentified Aerial Phenomena', despite the RAF classifying it as a drone.
In June 2023, the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) confirmed to Liberation Times that the United States and its allies within FVEY continue to discuss “areas of mutual interest and concern related to UAP.”
However, the DoD wouldn’t confirm whether further meetings at the Pentagon have taken place with FVEY allies since May 2023.
