I&#x27;m surprised they&#x27;re continuing the misdirection so many years later. &quot;Unidentified flying object&quot; means an aircraft, usually a military one (because civilian aircraft are easier to identify). A UFO over US soil would usually be a USAF plane, but the CIA ran (runs?) a reporting hotline because they might occasionally be foreign spy planes instead.<p>But of course, the Soviets were very interested (or the US believed they were very interested) in knowing about US military planes and their capabilities. There&#x27;s an anecdote I recall reading - I apologize for not having the link handy - about how, at Area 51 (their airfield for testing experimental aircraft), they would leave big airplane-shaped objects on the tarmac to create cold spots for Soviets&#x27; spy satellites to photograph in infrared, corresponding to planes that didn&#x27;t exist.<p>The reason I&#x27;m unable to find that anecdote is because the search term &quot;Area 51&quot;, combined with any other search terms, brings up an enormous a flood of incoherent crackpot ramblings. I&#x27;m pretty sure this is the result of a deliberate strategy: create a bunch of fake information, so that real information about US military capabilities will be harder to find. A few hints and a few taunts, and voila, every discussion about unidentified aircraft is guaranteed to have a schizophrenic walk in and start rambling about aliens!