We can confidently guess what's on at least some of the Navy's top-secret UFO briefing slides.

What slides, you ask?

Well, those the Office of Naval Intelligence referenced in a December 2019 response to researcher Christian Lambright. Lambright made an October 2019 Freedom of Information Act request for ONI records held in relation to the so-called 2004 Nimitz encounter. That incident, one of numerous similar occurrences since 2004, involved U.S. Navy flight crews interacting with UFOs.

Rejecting Lambright's request, the ONI explained, "We have discovered certain briefing slides that are classified Top Secret." The ONI said these slides are "appropriately marked" in that "the release of these materials would cause exceptionally grave damage to the national security of the United States." Releasing the slides would threaten "intelligence activities of the United States, as well as the sources and methods that are being used to gather information in support of the national security of the United States. In addition, the materials would trigger protections under ... scientific and technological matters related to [U.S. national security]."

That's a lot of government bureaucratic talk, but I have a good idea of what the government is trying to hide here. It's worth noting that the slides are likely those that have been used to brief President Trump and senior congressional leaders on certain truly remarkable UFOs.

Now, let's take the ONI's excuses in turn.

First, the ONI's claim that publication would undermine U.S. "intelligence activities ... as well as the sources and methods that are being used to gather information in support of the national security of the United States."

Here, the ONI is almost certainly referring to active UFO research and analysis programs undertaken by the Navy and other government agencies. Former U.S. government officials involved in those programs have asserted that the UFO research effort is active and growing. I have spoken to other well-informed individuals who assert the same. And, considering that these programs are attempting to ascertain how some UFOs use anti-gravity-enabled means of propulsion to accelerate instantaneously to hypersonic speeds, with little, and sometimes zero, optical/sensor visibility, it's understandable that the ONI would want to keep their research hidden.

That's because the "sources and methods" involved here include extremely high-capability ground-, air-, and sea-based sensor systems, including platforms used for countering ballistic missile strikes. And, if the slides include sensor data analysis of UFO tracks, then China and Russia could use those slides to better mitigate the risk of their own forces (which are not these UFOs) being detected and defeated in a future conflict. Obviously, that's not something ONI wants.

How about the next ONI concern? Protecting "scientific and technological matters related to [U.S. national security]."

Well, I would confidently venture that this is the nuclear-related UFO concern. Specifically, the proven and sustaining interest in and the ability of some UFOs to detect and interdict nuclear-powered and/or armed U.S. military platforms. The government assesses that this nuclear factor is primarily why the Navy's nuclear-powered aircraft carriers and nuclear-powered/nuclear-armed ballistic missile submarines interact with UFOs at a far greater rate than other military platforms.

This greatly concerns the government.

After all, aircraft carriers are the linchpin of the Navy's war-fighting doctrine, and nuclear weapons are the last, final line of defense against existential attack. And if, as with some UFOs, something with far more advanced technology than anything in the U.S. inventory can intercept our nuclear forces with impunity, that something can credibly impose existential defeat on America on day one of a fight. As the government attempts to figure out how these UFOs detect our nuclear platforms, it obviously doesn't want China or Russia to share in that knowledge.

In short, the government is very likely protecting these slides not because they say, "Aliens are here," but because publishing the slides would help our two foremost geopolitical adversaries defeat us in war. The $1 million question: What do the slides say the UFOs in the Nimitz encounter and other incidents are?

I'd venture a conclusion along the lines of "non-U.S., intelligently operated vehicles of unidentified origin, which are judged with high confidence not to be under control of a foreign state or nonstate actor."