A Personal Perspective on the UAP Phenomenon
The following post is made with trepidation and much thought, but I have felt compelled to write it despite my misgivings about doing so since I am surely to be criticised. Recently there has been a lot of press coverage over ‘drone’ activity. This has included bases in the UK like at RAF Lakenheath, and government facilities in the US such as Langley Air Force Base, Wright Patterson Air Force Base and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. This has also included much activity around the area of New Jersey and surrounding states like Virginia. Whilst 95% of this activity is likely to be terrestrial drones, sent up by government agencies, hobbyists, or mistaken identity for what is conventional aircraft and helicopters, it is my contention that there is a small fraction of these for which none of the above is their nature.
In the US, the government has appeared confused over the drone activity and from an outsider’s perspective appears discombobulated and uncoordinated in the management of the phenomenon. There are statements from different federal agencies but also state authorities, many of which contradict each other, demonstrating the inadequacy for which they have a handle on the problem. It will be clear to everyone that they do not. In fact, they are as confused as everyone else.
Instead, a story has been put out that they are perhaps looking for radioactive material, perhaps because a warhead had been smuggled from Ukraine into the US, as a relic of the former Soviet Union, and was now lost and this explains why they are looking. I’m going to call this out as disinformation but also inappropriate given the fear it may cause in the citizens surrounding the area. Instead, I believe it is a story created so that the public may be settled for now with a reason for the drone activity. I am going to state why I think the drones are there, although I may appear as a fool for sticking my neck out but that is the risk I take.
For decades, many people have been claiming to have seen things in the skies, what are now termed Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAP). These people have been dismissed, ridiculed, made fun of, called crazy, even ostracised. I feel this widespread dismissal of a phenomenon that has both an objective and a subjective component is unreasonable. Especially since space pioneers like the astronaut Gordon Cooper have openly spoken of the things they have seen, such as in his book Leap of Faith. The astronaut Leroy Chiao also recently saw “two big metallic spherical orbs” whilst flying from Colorado to Texas whilst at 9,000 ft in August 2024. See the graphic below from the All-Domain Anomaly Resolution Office for how widespread the phenomenon is in our world.
The things people see have a wide range of nature and experience and each case should be examined on its own merits, since many will be false or mistaken identification of the known. Yet that is not the case for all of them. One of these types of objects is orbs, typically orange but also sometimes white or other colours. These are small spherical yet amorphous forms which appear like a plasma. Such objects have also recently been seen on the US East Coast.
It takes courage to come out and make a statement that you have been a witness to a phenomenon that is as controversial as this, and more so when you are a professional scientist, where objective scepticism on all observations is a requirement of our trade. As the astronomer Carl Sagan said, “extraordinary claims, requires extraordinary evidence”. Indeed, it does, but with our eyes we can see, even if our minds cannot compute the process in any rational way or account for it using prosaic explanations. So, I post this article fearing the implications to myself but doing what I think is proper in the expression of my view and as a personal right of free speech within a democracy.
I am an Aerospace Engineer and Astrophysicist. My main research is advanced spacecraft propulsion and spacecraft concept design for deep space missions. Through hard work and persistence over many years, I have earned multiple degrees in this subject to include a Doctorate. I have also published dozens of peer reviewed papers in the academic literature, and I have had the honour of visiting and presenting at every NASA laboratory in the US. In addition, I have published over 50 papers in the classified literature (none of which I can cite) when I worked for over a dozen years as a thermonuclear physicist; to include working extensively with the US laboratories. I know very well the consequences of nuclear war and the significant risks this brings to humanity should a ‘Hot War’ ever achieve realisation.
What you should take from this is that I know my air and space vehicles. I have studied aeronautics, astronautics and astrophysics. If I see something in the sky, I am appropriately qualified to make an objective assessment of its nature. I know a bird from a plane, an Aurora from a Zodiacal light, a Mars from a Venus. I know a lens flare on a phone camera from an orb. I know what the ISS looks like, individual satellites and I have seen on several occasions a string of Starlinks. I know a shooting star from a comet.
It is for the first time I make a public statement, that for several years I have personally been seeing objects in the sky and I have reported this to some of my close colleagues. This includes bright orange and white orbs at night, but also white metallic looking spheres in the daytime, usually going from/to the Ocean and on occasions appearing only hundreds of feet from me. I am not going to elaborate on the details here now, but I will merely state that I have seen them on multiple occasions (see photo above). Although some might claim it is a result of psychological exteriorisation, it was as clear as if I could reach out and touch them. When I ponder why I have been seeing these objects, I think it was because I was for many years ignoring the phenomenon in my efforts to be a good scientist and stay away from the highly speculative fringe - especially fearing the implications to my career and professional reputation. Yet, it appears to have got my attention by coming to me, as it has done so to many others, and I have seen with my own eyes things I have not understood or fit within my normal notions of the conventional. This is therefore my word.
Influenced by this, and over grave concerns for global geopolitical events, I was moved into action. I saw what appeared to be an incendiary push by certain nations to promote war between the West and Russia. The significant escalation of tensions was clearly building to a point where the media were openly discussing the prospect of World War 3 and it particularly concerned me that they appeared to do so in a state of excitement, rather than horror, and were not holding our governments to account but more like singing their song. I believe this was a real concern, especially since from an outside perspective it appeared that elements within the United States (a country that I love) and its allies seemed to desire that outcome.
In October I took the unprecedented step of writing a letter to the leaders of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council urging a more peaceful path. The only country that responded to me was the Elysée Palace in France under President Macron, who does appear to have attempted peaceful settlements for which I will at least acknowledge. <Read Letter Here>. The remainder ignored my letter, illustrating how the leaders of our different nations are so removed from the people they claim to serve. I even took the extraordinary step of sending my letter to the King of Great Britain and directly to the UN. Perhaps I was being naïve, to think that I could influence their actions, but if we are to create a world where all nations co-exist in peace then each person must at least try. Whilst as a Scholar my trade is the use of the intellect, I am also moved by the heart and extremely concerned for the future of the children of this world.
It is my opinion that the public are in no danger with these drones in New Jersey and beyond. The majority of them are human made drones, and many launched by the US Federal agencies and the remainder is people seeing aircraft and mistaking them for drones. But the reason the government drones are there in the first place is to understand and intercept what is the presence of a phenomenon for which they do not comprehend, and neither do they control. It is my humble opinion that those objects are there to prevent humankind from a self-destruction of its own making and maintain the pristine planetary environment of Earth that we all so adore. By their existence, they force our leaders to pause and make themselves visible to us so that ‘we’ the wider public may be aware they exist, which puts more pressure on our leaders who then have to answer questions about them; since they may already be aware of their existence but may not want that knowledge to be public to others. By the intervention, they have stagnated the rush towards war, and I believe that is the efficacious intention, especially during a Presidential transition and where the world stability hangs by a piece of string due to nefarious intentions. A Third World War that goes nuclear you will not be permitted to begin and all those that rush towards such a destination should take note.
To those in power, you cannot stop them, and neither should you try, for although they may appear diminutive, we are impotent in their presence. I do not feel they have any malicious intentions towards us, but your pernicious actions and decisions have caused grave concerns that go beyond the interests of this world. To others I say do not be alarmed. Be excited and filled with joy, that the hazardous actions of our global leadership class have been paused so that we may be safe and can continue towards a future trajectory that is filled with optimism. For as a human species we were at a crossroads, and had they not intervened, I believe we may have been living in a rubble of ash, dirt and the cries of the fallen children, where beauty is but a memory once told and the light of incandescent hope decays to a darkness where even shadows don’t form. Such a future must be rejected at all costs if the light of human consciousness is to continue to shine out to an extraordinary cosmos.
I will finish by stating that I do not know the true origin of these objects and it would represent mere speculation by me. Based on what I have personally seen I believe we are likely in the presence of something that has an intelligent nature and through that also arrives the dissolution of the Fermi Paradox. Perhaps they are something way beyond our level of technological maturity. Perhaps they are visitors, or perhaps they have always been with us. We can only speculate. Yet having seen them for myself on numerous occasions, I am not alarmed but filled with joy at the broader implications for what may come as the nations of the world strive towards a more peaceful and prosperous union since we are one humanity after all. Wishing everyone a Happy Christmas, everyone on the good Earth.
Kelvin F Long BEng MSc PhD FBIS CPhys
Aerospace Engineer, Astrophysicist, Author
