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On Aug. 14, the Pentagon announced a new task force dedicated to investigating reports of unidentified flying objects (UFO), now being called Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (UAP). A spokesman in April said UAP is the new term for UFO. He added that using the word “UFO” discourages pilots from reporting incidents for fear of being ridiculed. The task force will be managed by the Department of the Navy, under the leadership of the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence and Security. It will be referred to as the Unidentified Aerial Phenomena Task Force or UAPTF, according to the Department of Defense (DOD) press release. “The Department of Defense established the UAPTF to improve its understanding of, and gain insight into, the nature and origins of UAPs," the Pentagon said. "The mission of the task force is to detect, analyze, and catalog UAPs that could potentially pose a threat to U.S. national security."

UFO videos released by Navy

On its Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) website, the Navy released videos of three UAP’s in April. The videos are titled “FLIR.mp4,” “GOFAST.wmv,” and “GIMBAL.wmv.” “DOD is releasing the videos to clear up any misconceptions by the public on whether or not the footage that has been circulating was real, or whether or not there is more to the videos,” an April DOD statement said. “The aerial phenomena observed in the videos remain characterized as ‘unidentified.'”  The clips were originally made public in 2018 by a UFO research group, To The Stars Academy of Arts & Science. This group was founded by ex-Blink-182 band member Tom DeLonge.

Bi-partisan approval to create the UAPTF

In the June Senate Committee Report, 2021 appropriations were authorized for the new UAPTF. The Senate urged a more concerted effort to reveal any links that unidentified aerial phenomena “have to adversarial foreign governments and the threat they pose to U.S. military assets and installations.” Far from being attributed to little green men, congress is more concerned that UAP's may be connected to foreign governments on our own planet. The report also requested that the information collected by the new task force should be shared and coordinated across the Intelligence communities.  Senator Marco Rubio, R-Fla., Chairman of the Select Committee on Intelligence has expressed support for increased efforts to identify UAP’s, particularly those seen near military bases. Lawmakers are concerned about national security.  On a bipartisan basis lawmakers have pushed for the creation of a body to study UFOs, former Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., tweeted in April after the FOIA release of the UFO videos that “The U.S. needs to take a serious, scientific look at this and any potential national security implications. The American people deserve to be informed.”