The recent FOIA release showing FBI interest in the Galileo Project underscores the need to understand the national security implications of conducting serious research into UAP. In particular, those who are developing or implementing technical instrumentation, including through participation in cross-border project teams, for observational and data-gathering purposes should understand at a high level some of the legal and policy issues at the nexus of research and security. At a time of rapid innovation and ratcheting security in the fields of AI, semiconductors, and cyber, instrumented observational UAP science, conducted by both professional and citizen scientists, could draw increasing attention from U.S. and foreign governments – whether this be the intelligence and defense communities or other agencies having jurisdiction over sensitive technologies, including the deployment, export, and exchange of observational technologies, software, and related data generated from the scientific study of UAP.

To this end, the Society for UAP Studies is hosting a roundtable discussion (by invitation only) on this subject, to be led by a Society Advisory Board member who is a corporate attorney in the Washington, D.C. office of a leading international law firm, who will help to organize the discussion by offering some insight into this often confusing maze of federal compliance and potential national security issues.