The Pentagon’s announcement that it will set up a task force to “detect, analyze and catalog” unidentified aerial phenomena is a welcome addition to the now highly public search for UFOs, albeit one of its own controversy, according to one expert.
“I support this initiative, which is rightly framing the issue in terms of security,” Nick Pope, a former employee and UFO researcher for the UK Department of Defense, said in an email to Fox News. “While there will be discussion about what exactly this entails – mentioning unauthorized planes making raids on training grounds sounds relatively mundane – UAP [unidentified aerial phenomena] is the official term for what the media and the public refer to as UFOs, so there is no doubt in my mind about the true nature of the mission. “
Although excited about the public confirmation, Pope pointed to one major discrepancy with the Pentagon’s announcement. “The Intelligence Authorization Act for fiscal year 2021 referred the task force as already in operation,” added Pope, who worked for the MoD from 1991 to 1994.
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It is not yet clear how this new task force relates to the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program (AATIP). Pope called “former defense officials” with the group involved in work on UFOs.
The AATIP was established in 2007 at the request of previous sen. Harry Reid, Fox News reported earlier. The reported report was discontinued in 2012, but in 2017, the New York Times reported that the Department of Defense is still investigating possible episodes of unidentified flying objects.
Luis Elizondo, the former head of the AATIP, has previously said that people should pay attention to the comments the government makes about UFOs.
“What the pilots encountered that day could be accomplished in ways that challenged all logic and our current understanding of aerodynamics,” Elizondo wrote in a Fox News op-ed of the 2004 U.S. Navy pilots’ meeting. Videos of these meetings were publicly released by the U.S. Navy in April 2020, after circulating in public for years.
On Friday, the DoD said it hopes to “improve its understanding and insight into the nature and origins of UAPs. The mission of the task force is to detect, analyze and catalog UAPs that could potentially be a threat” form for American national security. “
In June, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, acting chairman of the First Committee of the House of Representatives, the director of national intelligence, the secretary of defense and other head offices instructed to collect data on “unidentified air phenomenon.”
“The commission remains concerned that there is no unanimous, comprehensive process within the federal government to gather and analyze intelligence on unidentified aerial phenomena, despite the potential threat,” lawmakers wrote in a report.
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“The Commission understands that the relevant intelligence can be sensitive; however, the commission finds that sharing and coordinating information about the Intelligence Community has been intrusive, and this issue has lacked attention from senior leaders, ”she added.
In July, the Times reported that a small group of government officials, including Reid, and scientists believe that objects of “undetermined origin” have hit Earth and been picked up. The publication quoted Eric W. Davis, an astrophysicist who worked as a subcontractor and consultant for the Pentagon’s UFO program. Davis, who now works for defense contractor Aerospace Corporation, said he provided information on repairing unexplined objects to staff members of the Senate Armed Services Committee and the Senate Intelligence Committee, on October 21 and 23, 2019, respectively.
In April, the Pentagon officially released videos of “unidentified aerial phenomena,” known as “FLIR1,” “Gimbal” and “GoFast,” previously captured by Navy aircraft. The recordings had been circulating in the public eye for years. They were originally released to the New York Times and to The Stars Academy of Arts & Science, led by former Blink-182 co-founder Tom DeLonge.
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After the videos were released publicly, DeLonge said “UFOs are real” in a since deleted tweet.
The first video of the unidentified object was made on November 14, 2004, and shot by the F-18s’ rifle camera. The second video was made on 21 Jan. 2015, and shows another aerial photo with pilots noticing how strange it is.
The third video was also taken on 21 Jan 2015, but it is unclear whether the third video was of the same object as another.
Seven months in advance, in September 2019, the US Navy first recognized the videos containing unidentified objects, specifically using “unidentified aerial phenomena” terminology.
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Fox News’ James Rogers contributed to this story.
