Documents / Report

Robertson Panel Report

The Black Vault · 1953 · 29 pages · text from the file's own layer

This declassified CIA document, released through The Black Vault, reports on the meetings of the Scientific Advisory Panel on Unidentified Flying Objects, which the Office of Scientific Intelligence convened on January 14 to 18, 1953. It includes a history of the sessions and the panel's informal comments, and it appends the formal report signed by H. P. Robertson and others. The panel found no evidence of a direct threat to national security. It recommended stripping UFOs of their special status and starting a public education program.

  • p. 3 …Origin Tremonton, Utah, Sighting Potential Related Dangers Geographic Locations of Unexplained Sightings Instrumentation to Obtain Data…
  • p. 5 …In cooperation 1vi th the Air Technical Intelligence Center, case histories of reported sightings and related…
  • p. 6 …For example, case histories involving radar or radar and visual 25X1A sightings were selected for while…
  • p. 7 …instrumentation watches of patrol cameras searching for sightings of U.F.O.'s. At 1615 Brig…
  • p. 10 …Among the case histories of significant sightings discussed in detail "ivere the follmving: Bellefontaine, Ohio (1…
  • p. 11 …objects sighted• Instances of nFoo Fighters 11 were cited• These were unexplained phenomena sighted by aircraft…
  • p. 12 …It was interesting that in at least two cases reviewed that the object sighted was categorized…
  • p. 13 …Hhat they did not find vras any evidence that related the objects sighted to space travelers…
  • p. 14 …However, the Panel could not accept any of the cases sighted by him because they were…
  • p. 15 …representatives that the objects sighted were not birds, balloons or aircraft, were nnot reflections because there…
  • p. 16 …There was no valid reason for the attempt to relate theobjects in the Tremonton sighting to…
  • p. 17 …The Panel believed strongly that the data available on this sighting was sufficient for positive identification…
  • p. 18 …Page noted that more competent screening or filtering of reported sightings at or near the source…
  • p. 19 …On the other hand, there had been no sightings in the vicinity of sensitive related AE…
  • p. 20 …exposure in order to photograph an alleged sighting in a different part of the sky; This…
  • p. 27 …mc;~EfkSE IN NU1".il3F.R OF SIGHTINGS The consensus of the Panel Has, based upon…
Approved For a:se 2001/08/07: CIA-RDP81R00560.100030027-0
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It was agreed by the Panel that no government-sponsored program
of optical nation-wide sky patrol is worthwhile at the present time,
and that the encouragement of amateur astronomers to undertake such
a program might have the adverse effect of' over-emphasizing rrflying
sauceru stories in the public mind. However, the issue of radar'scope
cameras for recording peculiar radar echoes would serve peveral pur-
poses, including the better understanding of' radar interference as
well ac ±dentif'ication of U.F.O.'s.
RADAR PROBLm·1 OF .MUTUAL INTERFERENCE
This characteristic problem of radar operation wherein the pulse
signal (of approximately the same frequency) from station A may be
picked up on the screen of station B and show as a high-speed track
or series of dots was recognized to have probably caused a number of
U.F.o. reports. This problem was underlined by inf'orw~tion received
indicating ADC concern in solving this problem of signal identif'ication
before service use of very high-speed aircraft or guided missiles
25X1A (1955-1956). believed that one answer to this problem 25X1A
~ra.s the uoe of a rrdoppler f'ilter't in the receiving circuit•
suggested that the problem might be better solved by the use of a
ttcontrolled jitter" wherein the operator receiving rrvery fast tracl{S 11
(on the order of 1000 - 10,000 m.p.h.) ~rould operate a circuit iihich
would alter slightly his station's pulse frequency rate. If the signal
received on the screen had been caused by mutual interference vdth
another station, the track would now whow itself at a different distance
Approved For Release 2001/08/07 ~.t:aA-RDP81R00560R000100030027-0

Cases discussed

About this file

Report, cited by the archive. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is under it. 29 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.