CIA Memorandum: Current Status of the Unidentified Flying Objects (UFOB) Project, December 1953

Source file: CIA-UAP-007_Current_Status_of_Unidentified_Flying_Objects_UFO_Project.pdf Originating agency: Central Intelligence Agency, Physics and Electronics Division, Scientific Intelligence Document type: Internal memorandum (SECRET) Classification: SECRET (Approved for Release 2026) Date: 17 December 1953 Page count: 3 (all read) VIRIN: 260508-O-D0360-1084 PURSUE Release: 3

Summary

This three-page SECRET memorandum, dated 17 December 1953, was written by the Chief of the CIA's Physics and Electronics (P&E) Division and addressed to the Assistant Director for Scientific Intelligence. It was prepared in response to a verbal request from Mr. Brent (Exec/SI) on 30 November 1953 for a status resume of U.S. government UFOB (Unidentified Flying Objects) activities. The memo surveys the posture of the Air Force (Project Bluebook/ATIC), the Navy, and the Army; describes foreign government interest from Canada, Great Britain, and Sweden; and summarizes the outcome of the January 1953 OSI Panel recommendations. A more redacted version of this memorandum had previously been available on the CIA's public website.

Research Article

The document and its context

By late 1953, U.S. government interest in unidentified flying objects had been shaped significantly by the Robertson Panel (January 1953) — an OSI-convened scientific review body that recommended stripping UFO reports of their "special status and aura of mystery." This memorandum from the CIA's P&E Division, written just eleven months after the Panel's work, provides a candid snapshot of how those recommendations were being implemented across federal agencies, and how foreign governments were engaging with the same phenomenon.

The P&E Division had inherited responsibility for the OSI's UFOB project following a memorandum dated 27 May 1953. The division's mandate was deliberately limited: maintain awareness of other agencies' activities (notably the USAF) and keep files current. The memo makes clear that the CIA itself was not conducting active investigation; it was monitoring.

Air Force: Project Bluebook at ATIC

The bulk of the memo concerns the Air Force's project, which at the time of writing was operated at the Air Technical Intelligence Center (ATIC) under the name Project Bluebook (Guebook No. 10073). The Directorate of Intelligence at Headquarters, USAF, was described as confining its interest to "a cursory cognizance" of the ATIC project.

The Aerial Phenomena Section of ATIC's Electronics Branch, Technical Analysis Division, was staffed by one officer — Captain Charles A. Hardin — one airman (A/1C Max G. Futch), and a secretary. Despite this minimal staff and several changes of project officer, the memo notes that "the project records appear to be up-to-date." ATIC personnel had stopped conducting field investigations directly; those were requested from USAF intelligence officers (primarily Air Defense Command and Airways and Air Communications Service) located nearer to reported sightings. ATIC's role had been reduced to receiving reports, requesting additional field investigation where necessary, cross-referencing findings by date, location, source, type of observation, and conclusion, and liaising with the USAF Public Information Office.

Notably, the memo records that "for about the past year, approximately ten percent of the reported sightings have been tagged as unsolved."

The memo also reports that ATIC was in the process of transferring Project Bluebook to Headquarters, Air Defense Command. According to Lt. Col. Harry Johnston, Chief of the Electronics Branch, the reason for the transfer was that ADC "had been doing most of the investigative work of the project and 'if it turns out that these things (UFOB's) are space ships or long range aircraft from another country, ADC is the (Air Force) Command that would have to take action.'" Johnston simultaneously claimed the transfer did not reflect any change in Air Force policy, a somewhat contradictory position noted by the memo's author.

Separately, ATIC had previously initiated a program to purchase cameras for selected ADC radar sites and AACS control towers at locations with consistent UFOB reports, in hopes of photographing UFOs. One lens of each camera (a stereoscopic type) was to be covered with a simple grating to record the spectrographic nature of any UFOB photographed. One hundred "Videon" 35mm cameras with "stereon" anastigmat f 3.5 lenses were purchased along with 100 gratings (15,000 line) from CENCO, Chicago. Seventy-four cameras had been distributed, but ninety percent of the gratings had "gone bad" due to the actual grating separating from the plastic mounting plates; ATIC expected new gratings shortly and planned to recall all 74 cameras for re-equipping.

A planned concentrated instrumentation observational effort in the Albuquerque area had been abandoned ("this has now been dropped"). Project STORK (SECRET), prepared at ATIC request by an outside contractor, was described as preparing a comprehensive statistical report on UFOB sightings during 1947 through 1952, expected to be completed by 1 December 1953. ATIC issued status reports on Project Bluebook on a tri-monthly basis, the most recent being Report No. 12, dated 30 September 1953.

Navy and Army

The Navy, despite press reports to the contrary, was described as "presently devoting only part of one ONI analyst's time to maintaining cognizance of UFOB's." The Army had "evidenced little or no interest in UFOB's other than cooperating with the Air Force in reporting sightings and pertinent data using the Air Force format."

Foreign governments: Canada, Great Britain, and Sweden

The memo devotes attention to foreign interest in UFOs. Canada received "considerable attention in the U.S. press" because the Canadian Defence Research Board and Department of Transport had jointly and officially established a "laboratory" for recording observable phenomena connected with UFOs. The memo notes that Wilbur B. Smith of the Canadian Department of Transport had reportedly been conducting "saucer" investigations for three years before 1952 or beginning in 1949 — and that experiments on a flying saucer were reportedly actually being conducted at A. V. Roe, Ltd., Toronto. Several reports had been received on this topic.

For Great Britain, a redacted official (identity withheld) briefly discussed the subject during a recent visit. He stated that since the UK had initiated investigation of UFOs one and a half years earlier, the only British activity had been the filing of reports received by the RAF.

For Sweden, the relevant section is substantially redacted: "No further information is available."

OSI Panel results and the de-mystification policy

The January 1953 consultants (Robertson Panel) had recommended that "UFOB's be stripped of special status and aura of mystery and that policies on intelligence, training, and public education pertinent to true indications of hostile intent or action be prepared." The memo attributes a "definite drop in the number of 'sightings' reported during 1953 over 1952" to actions following these recommendations.

The memo also takes note of two popular books — "Flying Saucers From Outer Space" by Keyhoe and "Flying Saucers Have Landed" by Leslie and Adamski — which were described as exploiting official UFOB reports released by the Air Force to develop a central theme that UFOs are extraterrestrial in origin. The memo states the latter book "is so nonsensical and obviously fraudulent that it may actually help calm down public reaction," while adding that both books "illustrate the risk taken by the present policy." This reflects the tension within the U.S. government in 1953 between disclosure for public confidence management and security concerns about adversary exploitation of known UFOB reporting activity.

The memorandum is signed by Todos M. Odarenko.

Key People

Locations

Incidents

Notable Quotes

"For about the past year, approximately ten percent of the reported sightings have been tagged as unsolved." — page 1

"if it turns out that these things (UFOB's) are space ships or long range aircraft from another country, ADC is the (Air Force) Command that would have to take action." — Lt. Col. Harry Johnston, page 2

"Ninety percent of the gratings have 'gone bad' -- the actual grating separating from the plastic mounting plates." — page 2

"The consultants who considered this problem in January 1953 recommended that UFOB's be stripped of special status and aura of mystery and that policies on intelligence, training, and public education pertinent to true indications of hostile intent or action be prepared." — page 3

"These books do, however, illustrate the risk taken by the present policy." — page 3