Australia's Quiet UAP Exit: RAAF Brief, Cancelled Policy, Mi

Australia's Quiet UAP Exit: RAAF Brief, Cancelled Policy, Missing File

A 1993 RAAF brief recommended the Air Force stop investigating unusual aerial sightings; by 2013 the policy was cancelled, and in 2021 Defence told the Senate it had never formally reviewed the US ODNI's UAP assessment.

Published

October 8, 2026

Declassified

Date not listed

Source agency

The Black Vault (FOIA archive)

uapfoiaaustraliaquietexitraafbriefcancelled

Australia's Quiet Exit From Official UAP Investigation

Australia's official relationship Vault allows that sequence to be traced with unusual precision. The pivotal internal document is a 1993 brief prepared for the Chief of Air Staff by WGCDR B. Biddington under reference AF 84 3508 Pt1(14).

Its recommendation was unambiguous: the RAAF should stop accepting reports on unusual aerial sightings, stop attempting to assign cause or reliability, and refer members of the public to civil UFO research organisations instead. The brief acknowledged that the RAAF's stated commitment to investigation had already collapsed in practice, with resources dwindling to the point that policy was not being followed. It also proposed centralising all sighting records and placing them in the Australian Archives, while flagging that privacy implications would need to be understood first.

That recommendation set the direction. The Air Force formally ceased handling UAP and UFO reports in 1996. The governing instruction was cancelled in November 2000 and not…

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Based on the official release at https://www.theblackvault.com/documentarchive/australian-ufo-documents/

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