Bob R. Inman

Admiral Bobby Ray Inman was born on April 4, 1931, in Rhonesboro, Texas. He graduated from the University of Texas at Austin in 1950 with a Bachelor of Business Administration degree and was commissioned in the Naval Reserve in 1952. He rose through naval intelligence roles over the following decades to become Director of Naval Intelligence, Vice Director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, Director of the National Security Agency from 1977 to 1981, and Deputy Director of Central Intelligence from 1981 to 1982. He received the National Security Medal from President Reagan in 1981 and retired from government service in 1982.

After retiring from government, Inman became president of Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC) in San Diego, a major defense and technology contractor. He later served on the boards of companies including Lockheed Martin and Dell and is a longtime member of the Council on Foreign Relations.

In July 1989, UFO researcher Bob Oechsler, a former NASA contractor and mission specialist who worked on projects including the Apollo-Soyuz docking collar, secretly recorded a telephone conversation with Inman. Oechsler asked if any recovered vehicles would ever become available for technological research outside of military circles. Inman replied that ten years earlier the answer would have been no, but as time has evolved there is a possibility that attitudes were becoming more open.

After the call became public, Inman’s executive assistant Tom King contacted Oechsler to warn that further discussion could breach confidence and/or violate secrecy rules. Inman has since described the exchange as ambiguous, possibly referring to advanced human or foreign technology rather than non-human craft, and has consistently denied personal knowledge of extraterrestrial vehicles.

Inman has occasionally addressed unidentified aerial phenomena in later years. In 2020 he acknowledged there is something out there beyond current science and called for greater transparency. However, in a detailed 2022 interview he stated categorically that he assigns zero percent probability to the idea that UFOs represent alien technology or that the U.S. possesses recovered non-human craft. He emphasized that he had been out of the classified intelligence loop since his 1982 retirement and viewed reported cases as plausibly explainable by human technology, misidentifications, or classified programs.

In his November 13, 2024 testimony before the House Oversight Committee, journalist Michael Shellenberger mentioned SAIC in connection with alleged antigravity research, Bobby Ray Inman, and crossover with MAJIC-style programs. This is presented as part of broader UAP cover-up allegations.