US intelligence authorities have not found any evidence that unidentified flying objects (UFOs) seen by navy pilots in recent years were otherworldly alien spacecraft– but apparently did not rule it out, either. Officials cannot explain the strange movements in the skies that continue to baffle the US military and scientific establishment, the New York Times has reported, based on information from senior administration officials who were briefed on the outcome of a much-awaited government assessment about these phenomena. The report finds that an overwhelming majority of more than 120 sightings in the past 20 years did not come from any US military or other government technology, officials told the newspaper. This finding appears to rule out the possibility that navy pilots who made reports about aerial phenomena had potentially come across technology from initiatives that the US government was trying to keep secret. That determination is about the “only conclusive finding” in the still-classified intelligence assessment, officials reportedly said. An unclassified version of the report, poised to be turned over to Congress by 25 June, will provide “few other firm conclusions”. As such, “senior officials briefed on the intelligence conceded that the very ambiguity of the findings meant the government could not definitively rule out theories that the phenomena observed by military pilots might be alien spacecraft”, the New York Times said. The analysis admitted that many details surrounding the reports were difficult to explain, such as how the eerie objects accelerated and switched direction. One potential theory – that these possible craft were actually weather balloons or something similar – fails in some cases due to shifts in wind speeds during these encounters, the report has pointed out. The UFO report also considered incidents involving unidentified craft and foreign military forces. Officials think that “at least some” of US pilots’ sightings might have been experimental technology from a rival state, the likelihood being China or Russia. Intelligence and military officials, recognizing these sightings did not involve American technology, worried that Russia or China might be “experimenting with hypersonic technology”.