MOD releases another batch of UFO documents - mostly redacted, naturally

The Ministry of Defence has released another batch of UFO-related documents this week via the National Archives. I've had a look through them and, as expected, they're heavily redacted. But there's enough in there to be interesting.

One file from 1977 discusses "unidentified aerial phenomena" reported over the Scottish Highlands. The description suggests it was something unusual enough that they documented it properly, but then - conveniently - half the analysis is redacted under "national security grounds."

My question: what could possibly be a national security concern about releasing 40-year-old UFO documents? If it was a secret military aircraft, there's no way it's still classified. If it was something genuine, surely we'd want to know? The redactions suggest they either know something they're not telling us, or they're embarrassed about something.

Has anyone else had a look at the new batch? Any interesting documents that didn't get completely blacked out?

The redactions are standard practice for any government document release. Protecting sources and methods is legitimate - they don't want enemies knowing how good their detection systems are or what their radar capabilities were in the 1970s. It's not necessarily a sign of a cover-up, it's just standard operational security.

I had a look through them too. Most of it's routine stuff - sightings reported, investigated, explained as weather phenomena or misidentification. The interesting bits are the ones they've redacted, which tells you they took some of these seriously. But "took seriously" doesn't mean "paranormal."

If it was a secret military aircraft, there's no way it's still classified.

You'd think that, but some military programmes are compartmentalised so heavily that even releasing information about them would compromise other classified programmes. It's not necessarily a UFO cover-up - it's just how classification works in practice.

The fact they're releasing anything at all is progress. Five years ago we'd have gotten nothing. The shift in government transparency about UAP is relatively recent, and it's happened in the US before filtering down to UK policy. These redacted documents are still more information than we had.

I find it more interesting that the public mood has shifted enough that the MOD feels obligated to release documents at all. Twenty years ago this would've been completely suppressed. That suggests even governments are starting to accept that UFOs/UAPs aren't a taboo topic anymore. That's the real news here.