Project Condign: the UK Ministry of
Defence’s secret UFO study (1996–2000)
In May 2006 a secret study of UFOs
undertaken for the UK’s Ministry of Defence (MoD) between
1996 and 2000 was publicly released. The report is titled
“Unidentified Aerial Phenomena in the UK Defence
Region” and was code named Project Condign.
The author of the report, whose identity is
not known, was an MoD contractor with high security clearance
and evident scientific training. He was given free access to
all material on UFOs retained by the MoD and was able to speak
openly about whatever he found. The report was not written for
publication and remained so secret that only a handful of
people were ever shown it when it was completed in 2000. It was
released after an application under the Freedom of Information
Act by Dr David Clarke, a lecturer in journalism at Sheffield
Hallam University, England, who discovered its existence.
Without Dr Clarke’s sleuthing this report might well not
have been released for another 25 years, if ever.
The full report covers three volumes and
totals 460 pages. Throughout it, the term UAP, meaning
Unidentified Aerial Phenomena, is used in place of UFO. The
report confirms earlier findings that the main causes of
sightings are misidentification of man-made and natural
objects. More controversially, the report’s author became
persuaded that atmospheric electrical effects such as ball
lightning and other forms of plasma might well account for many
of the otherwise unexplained sightings. Most skeptics would
accept that some small percentage of reports may be due to such
electrical effects, but they are just one among many hundreds
of possible explanations.
More significantly, the report notes:
“No artefacts of unknown or unexplained origin have been
reported or handed to the UK authorities, despite thousands of
UAP reports. There are no SIGINT, ELINT or radiation
measurements and little useful video or still IMINT.”
It further concludes: “There is no
evidence that any UAP, seen in the UKADR [UK Air Defence
Region], are incursions by air-objects of any intelligent
(extra-terrestrial or foreign) origin, or that they represent
any hostile intent.”
But perhaps the most significant deduction
to be drawn from the report is this: if the MoD really knew the
truth about UFOs, as many believers allege, then they
wouldn’t have needed to commission a three-year study to
tell them.
Page added 2006 May
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