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UFO agency for more than twenty years. Although he began his investigations after the close of Project Blue Book, he worked for the French government consistently for about the same length of time as J. Allen Hynek worked for ours. He remained focused and dedicated, as did Hynek, becoming one of the more knowledgeable figures about UFOs in the world. Velasco was an engineer working on the development of French satellites at CNES when he became involved with the new agency studying unidentified aerospace phenomena the year it was founded, 1977, by Yves Sillard. Six years later, he was placed in charge of that agency. Throughout his tenure, Velasco worked openly within the French national space agency on UFO investigations and was not burdened by a complex, restrictive military framework. He remains actively involved with UFO case studies today and is the author of several books on the subject. For twenty-one years, [1] from 1983 to 2004, I was the director of the French program to investigate and analyze unidentified aerospace phenomena. Working within the framework of an official mission with specific responsibilities, I had imposed on myself, as was my duty, great reserve in expressing any interpretations or conclusions on the UFO question. Now, all of that has changed. After these many decades of acquired knowledge and experience, I am no longer restricted and can express my personal conclusions with complete freedom of conscience. Therefore, I have chosen to speak here more freely and with more openness than in my previous publications. First, it is possible to show, using data from established cases officially listed throughout the world, that UFOs— material objects—exist and are distinct from any ordinary phenomena. These cases are few, but their extraordinary characteristics and physical effects demonstrate this fact without ambiguity. On the basis of well-established cases, the existence of UFOs is without question. wn wee a French and unidentified to UFOs seem to be "artificial and controlled objects," and their physical characteristics can be measured by our detection systems— particularly radar. They display a physics seemingly far different from that which we employ in our most technologically advanced countries. Ground and on-board radar show that their performances greatly exceed our best aeronautical and space capabilities. These capabilities include stationary and silent flights, accelerations and speeds defying the laws of inertia, effects on electronic navigation or transmission systems, and the apparent ability to induce electrical blackouts. When encountered bv military aircraft, these objects seem able to anticipate and neutralize pilots' defensive maneuvers, as in such remarkable cases as that of General Parviz Jafari over Tehran and the incidents at Malmstrom Air Force Base. [2] In such encounters, the UFO phenomenon appears to behave as if it is under some kind of intelligent control. My relationship to this subject matter began in 1977, when I was working as an engineer at CNES, the French space agency. That year,