Document · July 1999
COMETA report: UFOs and Defense: What Should We Prepare For? (1999)
Also known as COMETA report, Les OVNI et la Défense, UFOs and Defense
Les OVNI et la Défense : à quoi doit-on se préparer ? is a report by COMETA, a private association of former auditors of France's Institute for Advanced National Defence Studies (IHEDN) and outside experts, chaired by the retired Air Force General Denis Letty, with a preface by General Bernard Norlain, a former director of IHEDN. It was not commissioned by the French government. It first appeared in a special issue of the magazine VSD in July 1999; the archive's copy is the English translation found in NASA's files and released in PURSUE release 01.
The report reviews French cases (Air France AF 3532, Trans-en-Provence) and foreign ones (Lakenheath–Bentwaters, the RB-47, Tehran, San Carlos de Bariloche), the work of GEPAN/SEPRA at CNES, and the defence questions it thinks the phenomenon raises. It concludes that unknown flying objects almost certainly exist physically and that the extraterrestrial hypothesis is the best one, though not proven, and recommends informing officials and pilots and pursuing study.
These are the conclusions of a private group of retired officers and engineers, not an official finding. On AF 3532 its account differs from the official one: GEIPAN's case file judges the radar track inconsistent with the object the crew described.
Sources: COMETA, UFOs and Defense: What Should We Prepare For? (VSD, July 1999), English translation released as PURSUE record 255_413270 · GEIPAN case file on AF 3532
Facts and claims
- documented COMETA was not a government body. Its chairman, Air Force General Denis Letty (2nd Section), writes that former auditors of the Institut des Hautes Etudes de Défense Nationale (IHEDN), with outside experts, formed a “private in-depth fact-finding committee”, later turned into a COMETA association that he chairs. Source: 255_413270_UFO's_and_Defense_What_Should_we_Prepare_For — 255_413270_UFO's_and_Defense_What_Should_we_Prepare_For
- documented In the preface, General Bernard Norlain, former director of IHEDN, writes that Letty came to him in March 1995 with the project of a new committee, and that he referred him to the IHEDN Auditors Association, which gave it its support. The report first appeared in a special issue of the French magazine VSD in July 1999. Source: 255_413270_UFO's_and_Defense_What_Should_we_Prepare_For — 255_413270_UFO's_and_Defense_What_Should_we_Prepare_For
- documented The members Letty lists include Air Force General Bruno Le Moine, the engineer-generals of armament Pierre Bescond and Alain Orszag, Admiral Marc Merlo (all 2nd Section), a chief of the Police Nationale (Denis Blancher), and Christian Marchal, research director at ONERA; among those who gave testimony he names Jean-Jacques Velasco, head of SEPRA at CNES, and the pilot Jean-Charles Duboc. He also thanks André Lebeau, former chairman of CNES. Source: 255_413270_UFO's_and_Defense_What_Should_we_Prepare_For — 255_413270_UFO's_and_Defense_What_Should_we_Prepare_For
- claimed On Air France flight AF 3532 (28 January 1994), the report says the Taverny air defence operations centre (CODA) recorded a radar track for 50 seconds that crossed the flight's trajectory and matched no flight plan, that the object vanished from the crew's view and the radar at the same instant, and that CODA's investigation ruled out a weather balloon and put the craft's length at about 250 m. Source: 255_413270_UFO's_and_Defense_What_Should_we_Prepare_For — 255_413270_UFO's_and_Defense_What_Should_we_Prepare_For
- claimed Its conclusion is that the studies show the “almost certain physical reality” of unknown flying objects, that secret craft of earthly origin explain only a minority of cases, and that the extraterrestrial hypothesis is “the best scientific hypothesis”, adding that “It certainly has not been categorically proven”. It recommends informing decision-makers and pilots and strengthening national and international study. Source: 255_413270_UFO's_and_Defense_What_Should_we_Prepare_For — 255_413270_UFO's_and_Defense_What_Should_we_Prepare_For
- documented Letty's own introduction says that “no characterized threat has been perceived to date in France”, and that the study was the work of a private committee: its conclusions are its authors', not an official French finding. Source: 255_413270_UFO's_and_Defense_What_Should_we_Prepare_For — 255_413270_UFO's_and_Defense_What_Should_we_Prepare_For
- documented GEIPAN, France's official UAP office at CNES, does not share the report's reading of AF 3532: it classifies the case D1 but judges the radar track inconsistent with the object the crew described, and notes that the testimony came three years late. Source: GEIPAN case file: « AF3532 » Coulommiers, 28 January 1994
Connected files
Official records (PURSUE)
- 255_413270_UFO's_and_Defense_What_Should_we_Prepare_For — 255_413270_UFO's_and_Defense_What_Should_we_Prepare_For (copy held as) — The English translation in NASA's files, released in PURSUE release 01
Incidents
- Air France flight 3532 sighting (discusses) — Its first chapter of cases puts the radar track at 50 seconds and the object at about 250 m
- Lakenheath–Bentwaters radar-visual incident (discusses)
- RB-47 shadowed by a light and a radar source over the southern U.S. (17 July 1957) (discusses)
- Tehran UFO incident (discusses)
- Bariloche airport incident (Aerolíneas Argentinas flight 674) (discusses)
- Trans-en-Provence landing trace (France, 1981) (discusses)
Organizations
- GEIPAN (CNES, France) (discusses) — It credits the 1976 IHEDN auditors' report with the creation of GEPAN, the precursor of SEPRA
Mentioned in this file
- PURSUE Release 01 (Event)
- PURSUE — Presidential Unsealing and Reporting System for UAP Encounters (Program)
- NASA (Organization)
More documents
- GEIPAN case file: « AF3532 » Coulommiers, 28 January 1994
- CEFAE annual report 2018 (Argentine Air Force), including the resolution of the Bariloche case
- French Air Ministry file on the Orange-Caritat sighting, 15 June 1951 (GEIPAN case 1951-06-00002)
- Press conference transcript: Japanese Defense Minister Taro Kono (September 15, 2020)
- Japanese Cabinet written answer on unidentified flying objects (House of Councillors, 18 December 2007)
- Platov & Sokolov, "Study of unidentified flying objects in the USSR", Vestnik of the Russian Academy of Sciences, 2000