Truth is out there on closure of UFO desk

The latest tranche of declassified MoD UFO files showed the decision was taken to shut the desk and its UFO “hotline” in a year when reported sightings had trebled, but that, in more than 50 years, none had indicated the existence of “any military threat to the UK”.

The 25 files, released today by the National Archives, include 4,400 pages and cover the work carried out in the final two years of the MoD’s UFO desk.

They include accounts of alleged abductions and contact with aliens and UFO sightings over the Houses of Parliament, Stonehenge and Blackpool Pier.

In a briefing for then defence minister Bob Ainsworth in November 2009, Carl Mantell, of the RAF’s Air Command, suggested the MoD should try to significantly reduce the UFO task, “which is consuming increasing resource, but produces no valuable defence output”.

The memo added: “The level of resources diverted to this task is increasing in response to a recent upsurge in reported sightings, diverting staff from more valuable defence-related activities.”

Officials predicted a backlash from “ufologists” to the decision to close the UFO desk.

After the closure, air traffic control centres and local police forces were advised to no longer refer UFO sightings to the MoD.