Brenna Cooper
Declassified CIA documents reveal the US government was assessing the possibility of an alien invasion during the 1950s and 60s.
The first well-known sighting of an unidentified flying object (UFO) can be traced back to 1947, when businessman Kenneth Arnold claimed to see a number of 'flying saucers' in Washington State.
While UFO obsessions persists to this very day, sightings have spiked at different points in history.
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According to various declassified documents shared via UFO advocacy group Disclosure Party, abnormal numbers of reports during the 50s and 60s prompted a joint venture from the US and Australian governments to assess extraterrestrial reports.
The 58-page document, shared by the National Archives of Australia, states the project ran from 1957 until 1971, and evaluated the likelihood of an alien invasion.
This research ran alongside a similar time to 'Project Blue Book', a study of UFOs by the US Air Force that began in 1952, following a bunch of sightings in the skies above Washington D.C.
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"To prepare the public for [the possibility of contact], 41 previously classified reports were released for publication between August 1952 and February 1953," the document stated.
Physicist Howard P Robertson would chair a scientific panel on the reports, concluding there was 'no evidence of a direct threat to national security in the objects sighted'.
Project Blue Book would later be cancelled in 1969, with the focus shifting towards public education around UFOs. However, it would now appear intelligence officers were continuing the investigate the matter further.
The document goes on to state that former CIA director Admiral Hillenkoetter, Major D Fournet and others all 'publicly stated that the US government knew UFOs were extraterrestrial but was withholding the fact from the public'.
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Restrictions on how individuals were able to discuss UFOs was subsequently tightened, with active personnel threatened with 'up to 10 years jail and up to a $10,000 fine' should they speak out.
The reports also revealed how the CIA shifted their tactic towards explaining UFO phenomena publicly, instead focusing on methods of debunking sightings.
According to a statement from Harry Turner, who was head of the Australian Department of Defence's Joint Intelligence Organisation, he said: "By erecting a facade of ridicule, the US hoped to allay public alarm."
The memo continued: "[To] reduce the possibility of the Soviet taking advantage of the UFO mass sightings for either psychological warfare or actual warfare purposes."
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It's also believed this 'facade' allowed security forces to look at developing aircraft which 'emulated UFO performances'.
This included the failed Canadian Avro saucer, an aircraft developed at the turn of the decade that reflected popular ideas of what a UFO spacecraft would look like.