A former top US intelligence official has said an upcoming report on UFOs will reveal there have been "a lot more sightings than have been made public", including some with no "plausible explanation".
In December, bizarrely as part of a coronavirus relief package, then-US President Donald Trump ordered federal agencies such as the Pentagon to write up everything they know about UFOs, including whether they're a potential threat.
It comes in the wake of renewed interest in UFOS. Last year it was revealed the US Navy has been investigating what it calls "unidentified aerial phenomena", and videos shot by experienced pilots showing mysterious objects pulling off seemingly impossible manoeuvres have also made headlines.
And in January, the CIA declassified a trove of documents about UFOs and the paranormal, including reports looking into Nazi flying saucers, captured aliens and mysterious unexplained explosions.
In a stunning interview on Saturday (NZ time), former US Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe - who served from May last year until the end of Trump's presidency in January - claimed there's more to come.
He told Fox News he tried to get some of it declassified, but failed to "get it down into an unclassified format that we could talk about quickly enough".
"But frankly, there are a lot more sightings that have been made public," he said. "We're talking about objects that have been seen by Navy or Air Force pilots or have been picked up by satellite imagery, that frankly engage in actions that are difficult to explain - movements that are hard to replicate that we don't have the technology for, or travelling at speeds that exceed the sound barrier without a sonic boom.
"In short, things we are observing that are difficult to explain... there's actually quite a few of those."
He said authorities always look for a "plausible explanation", but many sightings have none.
The stunned host, Maria Bartiromo, asked him where the UFOs had been seen.
"All over the world," Ratcliffe replied. "When we talk about sightings... it's not just a pilot or a satellite... Usually we have multiple sensors that are picking up these things. Some of these are unexplained... there's quite a few more than have been public. I think it will be healthy for as much of this information to get out there as possible."
One explanation he suggested was that another country has technology "a little bit further down the road than we thought or that we realise".
"When that information becomes declassified, I'll be able to talk a little bit more about that."
The aforementioned report is due on June 1, and is expected to be unclassified - though it can contain a "classified annex", CNN reported in January.
"Assuming the report is properly prepared and delivered, there is no telling what the impacts could be," former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Intelligence Christopher Mellon told Politico last year. "That could range from revealing an unknown threat or military vulnerability to there having been probes visiting our planet, or anything in between."
