What Does Downing of UAP Imply About Their Nature?

(Image credit: PURSUE/DoW)Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAP) are a mixed bag, with most of them being natural phenomena (meteors or atmospheric effects) or human-made objects (satellite fragments, drones, balloons, or black projects of new military technologies). So far, the publicly available data on UAP is not good enough to unambiguously associate UAP with alien (non-human made) technologies. The only way to resolve their nature is by allocating resources to the collection of new data or materials from them.Yesterday, I wrote here about an unconfirmed news report which suggested that the Department of War was authorized by President Trump to engage with UAP over the White Sands Missile Range. If — as reported — UAP were or will ever be downed, then scientific analysis of their motion in response to human engagement, as well their material structure, chemical and isotopic composition, could test unambiguously whether the orbs represent alien technologies. The related research could be facilitated by the UAP Science Advisory Council (https://uapsac.com/) under my leadership.If UAP respond to human engagement and can potentially be downed by directed energy weapons, what does this tell us about their nature?A response to human engagement implies a form of sensing but does not require a high level of intelligence. A heat-seeking missile reacts to an infrared source. A modern drone swarm reacts to threat detection through onboard sensors and either pre-programmed rules or a remote human operator. Physical vulnerability to directed energy rules out pure atmospheric phenomena such as ball-lightning. Downing implies entities with a mass, structural integrity, and a trajectory that can get interrupted, namely entities that fall when their function is lost. It implies a control system which is vulnerable to conventional physics, the same physics that would down any human-built vehicle: disruption of electronics, structural or thermal damage or destruction of a propulsi