
For instance, a group or individual calling itself Extraterrestrial Mind put together a YouTube video (1) of various recent UFO sightings followed by recordings of a couple of calls to the Art Bell radio program, one from a clearly disturbed individual who claimed to have worked at Area 51 and who said he was on the run because space aliens had infiltrated the United States military for some nefarious purpose. The implication was that the craft that many people claim to have seen are experimental vehicles and weapons being developed jointly by the military and the aliens.
Are UFO Sightings Military Experiments?
Area 51(2), a military installation 100 miles north of Las Vegas, has been the stuff of legends in the UFO community for decades. The American military used not to admit that the place even existed, fueling more rumors of captured alien spacecraft and strange technology. Some of the veil was lifted, however, when documents were finally declassified about the U-2 and OXCART projects in the 1950s and 1960s that made several references to Area 51.
The Air Force, the CIA, and Lockheed Martin have used the facility to test top-secret aircraft for many years because of its remote location.
The problem with the theory that the sightings on the video were military aircraft or weapons tests is that the sightings on the video took place over heavily populated areas, such as Beijing, Jerusalem, and New York City, though one was in sight of a Norwegian military base. No military establishment on the planet is in the habit of testing top-secret vehicles and weapons in full view of millions of people.
What sort of weapons could the military be developing that could cause some of the phenomena that people have been seeing in the sky for decades?
Plasma Weapons, Missile Tests and More
A French military technology site called Ovinis: l’armee demasquee (3) discusses plasma weapons as a possibility. Such a weapon would produce an image of a UFO at a distance. The purposes of such a device would range from providing false visual and radar images to an enemy, to producing illumination. Of course night-vision equipment would make the latter idea somewhat superfluous. In any case, why test a device in such public places as depicted in the YouTube video?

Some UFO sightings are likely of military aircraft, some experimental, and some just on normal operations. The latest sorts of vehicles being developed by various militaries and even terrorist groups such as ISIS are unpiloted drones, designed to perform reconnaissance and to serve as weapons platforms. Some time ago, a rash of UFO sightings that took place in the UK was ascribed to the use of aerial drones(4).
A year ago, sonic booms that were heard over New Jersey may have been caused by tests of the F-35(5), a still-developing fighter that has been plagued with technical glitches and cost overruns. A Trident missile test caused a UFO scare in California and Arizona(6).
Some Experiments Likely Cause UFO Sightings
The military is testing a variety of aircraft, spacecraft, and advanced weapons systems in order to maintain American superiority over potential enemies. Some of them may have been taken for UFOs if they happened to have been tested where the credulous could see them. However, the military is not confirming or denying anything.
References & Image Credits:
(1) YouTube
(2) How Stuff Works
(3) Ovnis-Armee
(4) Top Secret Writers
(5) Top Secret Writers
(6) Top Secret Writers