Franc Milburn's directed-energy claim
From the UAP Encyclopedia, the open encyclopedia of UFO and UAP history · 🗓️ Event
Contents 9
| Person | Franc Milburn, former British Army paratrooper and intelligence officer; author of two UAP studies for the Begin-Sadat Center |
|---|---|
| Claims | Directed-energy weapons used against UAP researchers (2022); a UK special forces crash retrieval in the late 1980s (published March 2023); RAF jets firing on UAP |
| Crash source | A single friend, "John", said to be from the MI6-linked "E Squadron" |
| Published by | Daily Mail (Christopher Sharp and Josh Boswell); Sentinel News; BroBible |
| UK response | No comment on the claims; earlier MoD statements deny any UAP threat or recovered artefacts |
| Evidence | None |
| Date | 7 October 2022 |
| Topics | Crashes & retrievals (topic), Government programs (topic) |
| People | Franc Milburn |
| Testimony | Shellenberger testimony, p. 210 |
| Year | 2022 in UFO history |
| Timeline | 2022 on the UAP Timeline |
| Sources | 4 |
Franc Milburn is a former British Army paratrooper and intelligence officer who has written about the Pentagon's UAP Task Force and related subjects.[1][2] In 2022 he claimed that directed-energy weapons had been used against UAP researchers.[3] In March 2023 he said that a British special forces unit had carried out a UFO crash retrieval in the north of England in the late 1980s.[1][2] Milburn said the crash-retrieval claim came from a single source. The UK Ministry of Defence has not commented on the claims, and no evidence supports them.[1]
Milburn
Sentinel News described Milburn as a UK veteran with more than 22 years of experience producing threat and risk assessments.[1] He wrote two UAP studies for the Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies at Bar-Ilan University: "The Pentagon's UAP Task Force" and "American Development of UAP Technology: A Fait Accompli?"[1] BroBible described him as a former member of the British Army's Parachute Regiment and a military intelligence officer.[2] He has also written for the website Liberation Times and others.
The directed-energy claim
Milburn's 2022 claim that directed-energy weapons were used against UAP researchers is attributed to a podcast episode. That episode is no longer available, so his exact words could not be checked.[3] The idea also appears, as speculation, in Sentinel News's write-up of his crash story. The site suggested that because the craft's occupants escaped and no debris field was described, the craft may have been downed by "non-destructive weaponry and directed energy weapons".[1]
Directed-energy attacks have been alleged in other contexts, notably "Havana syndrome". In March 2023 a U.S. Intelligence Community Assessment by seven agencies found "no credible evidence that a foreign adversary has a weapon or collection device that is causing" the incidents. Five of the agencies judged foreign involvement "very unlikely".[4]
The crash-retrieval story
On 19 March 2023 the Daily Mail published Milburn's account, written by Christopher Sharp and Josh Boswell.[1] Milburn said the source was a friend, "John", a member of the MI6-run unit now known as "E Squadron", formerly "The Increment", which draws on the SAS, SBS and Special Reconnaissance Regiment.[2] What Milburn said John told him:[1][2]
- The tasking. The RAF told them that "a craft which wasn't Russian, British, or American had been downed" in the north of England. A team of 20 to 30 special forces was flown in by helicopter and set up a cordon.
- The craft. John "didn't describe the craft". He said only "it was obvious it was non-human, and it was obvious that there were occupants who had fled the scene on foot".
- The hunt. Six to eight men guarded the craft while others, on foot, quad bikes and 4x4s with helicopter support, tried "to track down these entities".
- The handover. "Scientists and technicians came in and it was completely out of our hands."
Milburn said he met John after both had left the military, in the late 1990s, and heard the story from him then. John had "fought bravely in the Falklands", and Milburn had verified his other claims through people he had served with. John gave few details and never spoke of it again.[1][2] Milburn said he came forward because of American whistleblowers' recent claims about crash-retrieval programs.[2]
The RAF engagement claim
Milburn also said he learned from four RAF aircrew that they had pursued two disc-shaped UFOs travelling at hypersonic speed.[2] In their account:[2]
- The missiles. They fired infrared-homing missiles from within 10 nautical miles, which "failed to impact the craft".
- The cannon. Within one nautical mile they fired their 27 mm cannon. "The rounds hit, but had no effect."
- The escape. The objects then "skipped off at hypersonic velocity".
He had described a similar case at a 2022 conference organised by A News Security.[1]
The official position
Milburn himself noted the UK government's denials.[1] The Defence Intelligence Staff's Project Condign report of December 2000 found no UAP incursion or threat and said no RAF aircraft had intercepted a UAP. The government said it had never received any artefacts. In 2021 a defence minister told the House of Lords that over 50 years of reporting had shown no indication of a threat.[1] He argued that compartmentalisation explained how such an operation could stay secret.[1]
Assessment
Both main claims rest on unnamed sources: the crash retrieval on one friend's late-1990s recollection of an event a decade earlier, and the directed-energy claim on a podcast remark that can no longer be heard.[1][3] No document, named witness or official acknowledgement supports them, and the UK's published position is the opposite.[1] The best-known directed-energy allegation, Havana syndrome, was itself largely discounted by U.S. intelligence in 2023.[4]
People and topics
- Unidentified anomalous phenomena — The U.S. government's current term for unidentified objects in the air, in space and underwater.
- Franc Milburn — Former British Army officer who writes about UAP.
- UAP Task Force — The Navy-led Pentagon task force on UAP set up in 2020.
- UK Ministry of Defence — The British defence department, which ran a UFO desk until 2009.
- Havana Syndrome — Health incidents reported by U.S. diplomats from 2016.
On the Timeline
- ATP meeting notes release (26 September 2022) — The former Los Alamos manager publishes notes from a 1985 advanced physics meeting.
- Elizondo and the Mansfield Amendment (13 October 2022) — Elizondo highlights the Mansfield Amendment, which limited military research funding.
See every 2022 event on the UAP Timeline →
References
- The U.K. has a UAP crash retrieval program, says a former intelligence officer — Sentinel News · sentinelnews.substack.com · archived copy
- Ex-British paratrooper claims UK military captured a crashed UFO — BroBible · brobible.com · archived copy
- open.spotify.com · open.spotify.com · archived copy
- Havana syndrome · en.wikipedia.org
Facts in this article are drawn in part from the Wikipedia articles “Havana syndrome”, “Havana syndrome”, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.
This page was last edited on 29 October 2026. Articles are written in our own words from the sources listed under References; disputed claims are attributed to the people who made them.
No discussion yet.