Document · 12 August 1954
Air Force Regulation 200-2, Unidentified Flying Objects Reporting (12 August 1954)
Also known as AFR 200-2, AFR 200-2 (1954), UFOB regulation
The 1954 revision of the U.S. Air Force regulation on reporting unidentified flying objects, issued under Chief of Staff Nathan F. Twining. It replaced the first AFR 200-2 of 26 August 1953, issued in the months after the CIA-convened Robertson Panel recommended that the government reduce public interest in UFOs.
It put field investigations in the hands of the Air Defense Command's 4602d Air Intelligence Service Squadron, and allowed the press to be told about a sighting only once it had been identified as a familiar object; for unexplained cases, only the fact that the Air Technical Intelligence Center would analyse the data could be released. Our copy is the scan published on Wikimedia Commons, OCR'd for search.
Sources: Department of the Air Force, AFR 200-2 (1954)
Facts and claims
- documented The regulation, signed by Air Force Chief of Staff N. F. Twining, “supersedes AFR 200-2, 26 August 1953, including Change 200-2A, 2 November 1953”. Source: doc-afr-200-2-1954.pdf
- documented It gives field investigation of UFO reports in the United States to the Air Defense Command, which “has, in the 4602d Air Intelligence Service Squadron (AISS), the capability to investigate these reports”, a highly mobile squadron of specialists in collecting intelligence. Source: doc-afr-200-2-1954.pdf
- documented On release of facts (paragraph 9), it allows local news media to be told about a UFO only “when the object is positively identified as a familiar object”; for “those objects which are not explainable, only the fact that ATIC will analyze the data” may be released, “due to the many unknowns involved.” Source: doc-afr-200-2-1954.pdf
Connected files
Programs
- Project Blue Book (governed) — It set how UFO reports were collected, investigated and released while Blue Book ran
Documents
- Robertson Panel report (Durant Report): Report of Meetings of Scientific Advisory Panel on Unidentified Flying Objects (follows) — It was issued in the months after the panel's January 1953 recommendations
Mentioned in this file
- Nathan F. Twining (Person)
- National Air and Space Intelligence Center (Organization)
- Central Intelligence Agency (Organization)
More documents
- Bolender memo
- CIA's Role in the Study of UFOs, 1947–90 (Gerald K. Haines, Studies in Intelligence, 1997)
- Project Blue Book case file: Socorro, New Mexico, April 1964 (Lonnie Zamora)
- Transcript of a presentation by Captain Edward J. Ruppelt, March 1952 (DOW-UAP-D154)
- Project Blue Book case file: KOREA, January 1952
- Project Blue Book case file: Minot AFB, North Dakota, October 1968
Links
- Wikisource — Air Force Regulation 200-2 (transcription)
- Wikimedia Commons — scan of the regulation (PDF)