The Pentagon has been launching a secret multi-million dollar program to investigate Unidentified Flying Objects (UFOs).
According to reports in the US media, only a small number of officials were aware of the program that began in 2007 and was reportedly closed in 2012. The New York Times reports how documents from the operation describe strange speeding aircraft and hovering objects.
However, scientists were skeptical and opine that unexplained happenings are not necessarily evidence of alien life.
The Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program was the brainchild of Harry Reid, a retired Democratic senator who was the Senate majority leader at the time.
Reid - former senator for Nevada, home to the mythologized "Area 51" classified US Air Force base - later tweeted that the program was a serious effort to get to truth amid "plenty of evidence to support asking the questions".
The program is reported to have cost the Department of Defense more than $20 million before it was shut down in order to save costs.
Although its funding ended in 2012, officials have reportedly continued to investigate sightings of unusual aerial phenomena and suspicious objects alongside their daily duties.
One former congressional staffer told Politico the program may have been set up to monitor the technological progress of rival foreign powers.
"Was this China or Russia trying to do something or has some propulsion system we are not familiar with?" BBC reported quoting the officials.
Earlier this year, the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) released millions of pages of declassified documents online. The records included UFO sightings and a collection of reports on flying saucers.
