An amendment added to the National Defense Authorization Act in late December would require the Department of Defense to review historical documents related to an alleged 1945 unidentified flying object (UFO) sighting in New Mexico. 

The All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO), created in July 2022, will lead the effort to identify any "unidentified anomalous phenomena that may pose a threat to national security."

Former UK Ministry of Defense official Nick Pope spoke out about the alleged mysterious "avocado-shaped" object that crashed almost 80 years ago on "Tucker Carlson Tonight" Monday.

"This has been called the ‘Roswell before Roswell,’" Pope said, referring to the first reported UFO sighting in Roswell, New Mexico, in 1947. 

PENTAGON HAS RECEIVED ‘SEVERAL HUNDREDS' OF UFO REPORTS, NONE OF EXTRATERRESTRIAL ORIGIN SO FAR

Alien ufo space

Artist's impression of a UFO (PhonlamaiPhoto/iStock)

"It's one of many UFO provisions in the new defense bill. The DOD must provide Congress with a list of everything they found out about this specific incident, but all other incidents and programs from January 1, 1945, onwards. And anyone involved in these programs or with information about it will be released from their secrecy oaths and nondisclosure agreements, and they'll be able to testify to Congress about this."

Host Tucker Carlson stated the alleged 1945 sighting was around the same time the United States detonated its first atomic bomb, suggesting there was some type of nuclear connection between the sighting and the detonation. 

"That seems to be the case. And again, Congress is demanding answers on this," Pope responded. 

"We had the latest report from the office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) last week that highlighted the fact that there were several hundred more sightings being investigated- military sightings - than we'd heard of before. [It] talked about unusual flight characteristics and performance parameters of this. And yeah, we must get to the bottom of this UFO and nuclear connection." 

A new report from the ODNI stated the AARO received more than 500 reports of UFOs as of Aug. 31, 2022. 

A photo of a UFO image

The House Intelligence committee will hold a public hearing on UFOs Tuesday, May 17, 2022. (Fox News)

Of the newly identified reports, about half were characterized as "unremarkable" and attributed to unmanned aircraft systems, "balloon-like entities," or clutter.

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The report also found some of the "uncharacterized" UFOs "appear to have demonstrated unusual flight characteristics or performance capabilities, and require further analysis."