"They should focus on national security": Avi Loeb critiques the government’s approach to UAPs and 3I/ATLAS data

Harvard physicist Avi Loeb has once again called out the government’s approach to UAPs (unidentified aerial phenomena or unidentified anomalous phenomena) and the interstellar object 3I/ATLAS.

In the December 9, 2025, episode of The Chris Cuomo Project podcast, Loeb critiqued how the government handled space information, especially that related to UAPs and, more recently, the interstellar object 3I/ATLAS. 

While Loeb did not “hold the government responsible” for knowing everything that happens in interstellar space and informing the public about it, he believed they should allow the scientists and the experts in the field to help them when they encounter anomalous objects.

“They should focus on national security,” he added. 

Loeb firmly believed that instead of concealing information and trying to conclude theories on their own, they should focus on protecting the country and let the experts study the anomalous objects in interstellar space.

He stated that space exploration and the study of interstellar space did not fall under their “jurisdiction.”

Consequently, he hoped they would stop meddling in those matters and share the information with him. 

However, looking back on how they, primarily through NASA, handled the dissemination of information on 3I/ATLAS, Loeb remained displeased so far.

Physicist Avi Loeb says he started his own project, displeased with the government’s handling of UAPs and 3I/ATLAS

Displeased with how the government tries to step outside its jurisdiction and handle information related to interstellar space, Loeb shared that he started his own project.

“I’m leading the Galileo Project. We built three observatories. The latest one … is in Las Vegas on top of The Sphere, the entertainment center there,” he said.

He continued that, with the help of this project, he is “monitoring the entire sky” and over the next year will have observed and analyzed “millions of objects” using machine learning software. 

Loeb stated that his main objective for observing the sky was to spot “outliers.”

“Because if there are [outliers], we can analyze them in a scientific way, inform everyone, it will not be a secret, it will not be classified,” he added. 

Loeb then went on to criticize the government’s tendency to keep information on interstellar objects and UAPs under wraps. 

According to him, the reason why important information was “classified” was not because the intelligence agencies wanted to “protect,” but to hide that they were “not fulfilling their job.”

The Harvard physicist went so far as to say that it was “embarrassing” how the government invested trillions of dollars in the military budget but could not figure out what objects flew in the sky.

Although he branded their practice as “inappropriate,” he knew that one can not change the ways of the government. 

Consequently, Loeb said he tried to figure things out on his own and scientifically. But even then, he criticized the government’s “secrecy,” saying they would “never find anything” if they continued to refuse proper resources for the search.

Loeb also predicted that the state of things would change only when they encountered undisputed “alien technology.”

“All humans on this planet will say, ‘Well, we need to allocate a fraction of the military budgets worldwide to this problem, to this potential threat to Earth,’ and that would mean a trillion dollars a year going into space exploration,” he said. 

With that budget, Loeb said scientists could build an “alert system” that would “alert earthlings” for a potential alien threat. 

3I/ATLAS is said to come closest to Earth on December 19, 2025, but even then, it will be 168 million miles away.

According to Loeb, the interstellar object is mostly natural in origin, but the anomalies should not be ignored, as they could hint at a technological presence. 

Stay tuned for more updates.