Pentagon watchdog says "uncoordinated" approach to UAPs, or UFOs, could endanger national security

The Pentagon's lack of a coordinated approach to track and report unidentified anomalous phenomena, or UAPs, poses potential risks to U.S. national security, according to an unclassified summary of a report prepared by the Defense Department's inspector general. 

The summary released Thursday said the department has "no overarching UAP policy" and thus cannot assure "that national security and flight safety threats to the United States from UAP have been identified and mitigated." The full classified report was first issued last August.

UAPs, formerly known as UFOs, have bewildered pilots and military officials for years, and lawmakers have been increasingly vocal about the government's failure to identify the mysterious objects. The term encompasses a broad range of encounters and data anomalies, many of which end up having innocuous origins. But a small subset have defied easy explanation, prompting national security concerns about the implications of strange objects flying through or near U.S. airspace.