Nick Pope

Nick Pope worked for the United Kingdom's Ministry of Defence from 1985 to 2006. From 1991 to 1994, he staffed the MOD's UFO desk (Secretariat(Air Staff)2a), responsible for investigating UFO reports received by the British government and assessing whether they posed a defence threat.

Pope has stated that he entered the role as a sceptic and that case investigation changed his assessment. He subsequently published Open Skies, Closed Minds (1996), describing his work on the MOD desk, and The Uninvited (1997), examining abduction reports. He later co-authored Encounter in Rendlesham Forest (2014) with John Burroughs and Jim Penniston, two of the primary military witnesses to the 1980 incident.

After leaving the MOD, Pope became one of the most visible commentators on UAP in British media, providing analysis for television, print, and online outlets. He has briefed journalists and parliamentarians on the subject and advocates for greater government transparency.

Critics within the UK research community have questioned the scope of the MOD desk role, noting that it was primarily administrative rather than investigative, and that Pope's public profile exceeds his operational involvement. Pope has acknowledged the desk's limitations while maintaining that the cases he reviewed included material that warranted further investigation.