They may not come in peace.
Over the past few decades, dozens of UFOs have been sighted around sites where nuclear weapons are located.
Earlier this year, former Pentagon investigator Luis Elizondo said the meetings could be reconnaissance missions for a possible invasion.
But researcher Robert L. Hastings, who has spent decades interviewing dozens of UFOs near nuclear sites, argues in his new book that the reality may be more complex.
Were aliens present at the Castle Bravo nuclear test?
Hastings examines dozens of cases that have occurred since the United States detonated its first atomic bomb at the Trinity Test Site in 1945.
But the connection between UFOs and nuclear sites still exists in India, Russia and elsewhere in the world.
In fact, UFO reports of the US nuclear arsenal shifted from the sites where the bombs were being manufactured to missile bases and US air bases as the arms race intensified during the Cold War.
UFO sightings over the US nuclear arsenal appeared to shift their interest from bomb production to silos and bomber bases as the Cold War arms race intensified (above)
In his book UFOs and Nukes, based on interviews with more than 150 veterans, Hastings reveals that researchers are unable to properly investigate the cases because of dubious classification layers.
One thing is for sure: it is “clear” that if there are extraterrestrial visitors, they are “very interested in our nuclear weapons.”
Hastings writes: ‘In the meantime, a public effort should be made to gain as much insight as possible, using the data thus far collected, into the nature and intentions of those who operate UFOs.’
There are several theories as to why they fly around the world’s most dangerous military sites.
Perhaps the visitors have empathy for humanity and want to warn us about the dangers of nuclear war, Hastings writes.
‘Or perhaps they have a use for our planet, such as for scientific purposes, and they know that a global nuclear war will disrupt their data collection and/or experiments.’
The more mundane explanation is that the sightings are simply technical espionage by foreign countries, targeting high-priority targets.
Los Alamos
Los Alamos was founded in 1943 as the base for the ‘Manhattan Project’ led by Robert Oppenheimer and was the birthplace of nuclear weapons.
But Hastings says even at this early stage, unusual craft were being sighted.
An FBI memorandum dated January 31, 1949, reports sightings of “flying discs, flying saucers, and fireballs.”
Hastings reveals that the observations began as early as December 1948.
The memo said: “This matter is considered top secret by both Army and Air Force intelligence officials.”
According to Hastings, there have also been multiple UFO sightings at Sandia Base in Albuquerque, where more nuclear weapons were being tested, and at Oak Ridge Laborabory, a fissile material production site.
Los Alamos was the birthplace of the American nuclear deterrent
Hastings writes: ‘For whatever reason, the pilots of the UFOs, whose origin and intentions were unknown, seemed keenly interested in facilities connected with the American atomic weapons program.
Operation Castle, 1954
The Bikini Atoll hydrogen bomb tests tested high-powered weapons. Castle Bravo was the largest nuclear weapon ever detonated by the United States.
But Hastings says documents discovered long after the tests reveal the presence of unknown vessels.
According to Hastings, the explosion at Castle Bravo was preceded by mysterious radio interference.
In 1998, Patricia Broudy, legislative director of the National Association of Atomic Veterans, found a reference to UFO sightings during the Castle tests. She reviewed 500 pages of documents related to logistics.
According to Hastings, the document was later removed from official records.
The flagship of the Atomic Energy Commission, the USS Curtis
In a transcribed ship’s log dated April 7, 1954, sailors and Marines aboard the Atomic Energy Commission’s flagship, the USS Curtis (which had transported the “special devices,” or hydrogen bombs, to the test area), saw a luminous object flying over the ship at high speed.
Marine Corporal Joe Stallings said he was approached by several sailors and Marines who had seen the UFO that was “the talk of the ship.”
The rocket ‘ready to launch’
Hastings says that of the dozens of interviews he has recorded over the years with former Intercontinental Ballistic Missile launch officers, one stands out as “perhaps the most disturbing.”
In a 2007 interview with David H Schuur, Schuur revealed that a UFO triggered the launch of his Minuteman missiles.
A Minuteman launch site in Malmstrom, Montana
Schuur, a Minuteman crew member from 1963 to 1967, said a “bright, floating object” appeared to be sending messages to six or seven missiles at the site.
Schuur said: ‘It looked like the object was scanning each missile one by one.’
Some rockets indicated that the launch was in progress, Schuur said.
“That means the rocket has received a launch signal. When that happens, we get an indication in the capsule that a launch command has been received by that rocket,” Schuur said.
‘If that happens, without proper authorization, you flip the ‘Inhibit’ switch, which delays the launch for a period of time.
‘If an Inhibit command comes in from another launch capsule, the launch will be stopped completely.
“But if that second command doesn’t come in, the missile waits for a certain amount of time and then launches automatically.”
An operational test launch of an unarmed Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile from the Air Force Global Strike Command
The crew hit the ‘inhibit’ button and the missiles were not fired. The commanders at the base told him not to mention the incident again.
The Soviet observations
In 1984, a strange craft was spotted “very close” to the Russian tactical nuclear missile base Katta-Kurgan, in present-day Uzbekistan.
It was believed that multiple mobile tactical missiles were located at the site.
Rocket engineer Shamil Yuaihmetov reported seeing a metallic, cigar-shaped object slowly descending at a 45-degree angle.
As the object descended, a hissing sound was heard.
A Soviet SS-4 medium-range missile on Red Square
Hastings writes: ‘The next day, in a nearby vineyard, three distinct landing gear tracks, in the shape of an equilateral triangle, were found in an area of damaged vines 30 by 80 metres.
‘Each depression was two feet deep and appeared to have been created by a semicircular or spherical landing platform.’
The Soviet military has conducted an investigation, but the findings are not available to researchers, Hastings says.