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Iran UFO reports revealed December 18th, 2017

Photo: via Babau Taghvaee

AFM has obtained copies of an Iranian report into alleged UFO overflights that occurred some ten years ago. During 2004 and 2005 the pilots of four Islamic Republic of Iran Air Force (IRIAF) F-4E Phantom

IIs and a single F-14A Tomcat reportedly confronted ‘luminescent UFOs’ over strategic facilities in Khondab and Bushehr. In the process, at least two ‘dogfights’ occurred, albeit without any success for the

fighter pilots.

Original scans of the pages as well as their English transcript were first published on Twitter by Iranian

aviation reporter Babak Taghvaee on December 17.

The incident involving the F-14A occurred on October 28, 2004, when the interceptor was on a combat air

patrol (CAP) over the Arank heavy water reactor near Khondab. The glowing UFO was seen at night and

was judged to be ‘collecting data from the reactor’, according to the report. Details of the encounter

including a dogfight as well as an interview with the Tomcat pilot and RIO are mentioned on four pages of

the IRIAF report into UFO overflights:

UFO background

UFOs are an inseparable part of Iranian Air Force history. Since the late 1960s, when the air force began

to rapidly expand its combat aircraft fleet, luminous unidentified flying objects began to appear over

strategic locations across the country. These sightings increased with the expansion of the air force and

reached a peak on September 18-19, 1976 when examples were reportedly intercepted by Imperial Iranian

Air Force (IIAF) F-4Es over the capital, Tehran.

UFO overflights resumed after the Islamic Revolution of 1979 and there were alleged sightings over the

US Embassy during its occupation by pro-Khomeini students. Mass UFO sightings occurred two weeks

prior to the official outbreak of the Iran-Iraq War in 1980. During the Tanker War later in the decade,

UFOs apparently appeared over Iranian oil rigs a few hours before US Navy strikes.

Covert agents from the Iranian Army Command of Intelligence and Reconnaissance reported UFO

sightings over strategic locations in Iraq prior to coalition air strikes during Operation Desert Storm in

1991. Similar reports of UFO sightings over Afghanistan and Iraq came just days prior to the launch of

Operation Enduring Freedom in 2002 and Iraqi Freedom in 2003.

Nuclear programme

UFO sightings in Iranian airspace resumed after the Tehran government covertly launched its nuclear

programme in the early 2000s. UFOs were began to be reported over nuclear sites, and the IRIAF blamed

US intelligence-gathering operations. Other UFOs started to appear over the Semnan ballistic missile test

range. Beginning in 2009 the IRIAF employed special air defense measures during ballistic missile tests

at Semnan.

In 2009 the Iranian Air Force Strategic Research and Studies launched a research project to study the

nature of the UFOs spotted over Iran in the past five decades. The IRIAF researchers working on the

project included F-4E instructor pilots and aerospace engineers assisted by scientists.

The study concludes that the UFOs in question were manmade and that, in the past two decades, the

objects primarily appeared in proximity to sites related to Iran’s ballistic missile and nuclear programmes.

Coincidentally, the Iranian dislocures come at a time of increased interest in UFOs in the United States,

too. Luis Elizondo, an intelligence officer at the US Defense Department, recently secured the release of

three videos showing encounters between fighters and “anomalous aerial vehicles”, the military term for

UFOs. One of these videos, from a US Navy F/A-18F, is posted below. Babak Taghvaee

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