Seeking to bring the government’s work on identifying UFOs out of the shadows, a congressional panel on Tuesday held the first public hearing on the mysterious occurrences in more than a half-century.

Two military officials testified before the House Intelligence Subcommittee on Counterterrorism, Counterintelligence and  Counterproliferation about UFOs, or what the federal government officially refers to as “unidentified aerial phenomena,” or UAP.

The officials and lawmakers made it clear that there has been a culture change when it comes to UFOs, saying they could pose a potential national security risk and, by ending the stigma associated with reporting sightings, the government might eventually find the answers eluding it. 

“For too long, the stigma associated with UAPs has gotten in the way of good intelligence analysis,” said subcommittee Chairman André Carson, D-Ind. “Pilots avoided reporting or were laughed at when they did. DOD officials relegated the issue to the back room or swept it under the rug entirely, fearful of a skeptical national security community.”

The government has been stepping up its efforts on UAP in recent months.

In November, the Defense Department created the Airborne Object Identification and Management Synchronization Group (AOIMSG) as a successor to the U.S. Navy’s Unidentified Aerial Phenomena Task Force in an effort to streamline the government’s efforts to identify, classify and understand sightings of unexplained objects in the air.

The creation of the new working group followed a June report, released by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, that examined more than 100 cases of unidentified aerial phenomena reported by naval officers. 

Officials said they failed to explain or identify 143 of the 144 cases of unidentified aerial objects captured on video since 2004. Eighty percent of those sightings were recorded on multiple instruments, proving they were not imagined by pilots. 

Eighteen of the UAP cases involved unusual movement patterns or flight characteristics, including moving at considerable speeds and traveling without discernible methods of propulsion.

Reported sightings are on the rise, Scott Bray, the Navy’s director of naval intelligence activity, testified. He said officials are now aware of about 400 sightings, a lot of them historic cases just now being reported.

Bray attributes the increase in reporting cases to the topic’s  destigmatization, the growing number of new systems — including drones — in the air and technological improvements in sensors. 

“This is a popular topic in our nation, with various theories as to what these objects may be and where they originate,” Bray said. “By nature, we are all curious, and we seek to understand the unknown. And as a lifelong intelligence professional, I'm impatient. I want immediate explanations for this as much as anyone else. However, understanding can take significant time and effort. It's why we've endeavored to concentrate on this data-driven process to drive fact-based results.”

Bray showed two videos and a still image to illustrate either how challenging it can be for investigators to identify objects or the explanations behind some of them. 

One 10-second video shot from a Navy plane shows a spherical object quickly passing by. Using the sighting as an example, Bray said: “That’s all that a report may include. And in many other cases, we have far less than this.”

The other video, taken from a Navy ship, showed a blinking triangle. Several years later, Navy personnel again captured a similar image. Both were taken using night vision goggles and an single-lens reflex camera. The second time, eyewitnesses independently saw an unmanned drone in the area.

“We're now reasonably confident that these triangles correlate to the unmanned aerial systems in the area,” Bray said. “The triangular appearance is a result of light passing through the night vision goggles and then being recorded by an SLR camera.”

Ronald Moultrie, the Defense Department’s under secretary for intelligence and security, said investigators are keeping an open mind about all possible explanations, including whether it can pinned on U.S. adversaries, the federal government’s or its allies own projects, commercial objects, or “other natural phenomenon.”

Bray said, “We have detected no emanations within the UAP task force that that is that would suggest it's anything non terrestrial in origin.”

The Navy official said there were 11 near misses between UAP and U.S. aircraft. 

Many of the reported sightings have come from military personnel, including pilots during training exercises. A couple of lawmakers pressed the officials on whether they are doing enough to seek information from outside the military. 

“Apart from FAA, we don't have partnerships with other agencies or other entities that might be tracking,” Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi, D-Ill., said. “ … I think that we might have a bias right now going on with regard to just reporting on UAPs being in training areas when we don't really track what's happening elsewhere.”

Moultrie said AOIMSG will soon work to expand its relationship with the rest of the U.S. government. 

While the committee and officials testifying said they are committed to transparency about UAPs, Tuesday’s hearing was followed by another session that was closed to the public.

“The department is fully committed to the principle of openness and accountability to the American people,” Moultrie said. “However, we are also mindful of our obligation to protect sensitive sources and methods. Our goal is to strike that delicate balance.”

Reports about UAP undoubtedly stir images of flying saucers or little green men. Moultrie said he grew up in the ’60s enthralled by space travel and admitted to being a science fiction fan, too.

“I have gone to conventions even, I'll say it on the record,” he said. “ … There's nothing wrong with that. Don't necessarily dress up, but I do believe that it's important to show that the Department of Defense has character, and we’re people, just like you, just like the American people. We have our inquisitiveness. We have our questions. We want to know what's out there as much as you want to know what's out there.”

Spectrum News' Rachel Tillman contributed to this report.