The Unidentified Aerial Phenomena Task Force (UAPTF) is a program within the United States Office of Naval
Intelligence used to "standardize collection and
reporting" of sightings of unidentified
aerial phenomena (UAP), sometimes termed UFOs. The program was detailed
in a June 2020 hearing of the United States
Senate Select Committee on Intelligence.[2][3][4]
History
In December 2017, the United States
Department of Defense confirmed the
existence of a defense program used to collect data on military UFO sightings, despite the disbandment
of the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program in 2012. Like its predecessor program, the UAP Task Force is
managed by the Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence in collaboration with the Office of
Naval Intelligence.
After the June 2020 Senate hearing,
Senator Marco Rubio requested
the release of video footage of unexplained
aerial vehicles collected by the United States Navy, including the Pentagon UFO videos.[5][6]
On June 24, 2020, the Intelligence Committee voted
to require United
States Intelligence Community and
the United States
Department of Defense to publicly
track and analyze data collected on unexplained aerial vehicles.[7] A
report from the task force will be issued to the Intelligence Committee 180
days after the passage of the intelligence authorization act.[8][9]
Writing for Politico, Bryan Bender quoted Christopher Mellon, the advisor to the company To the Stars, as saying "It further legitimizes the issue", adding
"That in itself is extremely important. People can talk about it without
fear of embarrassment." Mellon also said "We are talking dozens of
incidents in restricted military airspace over years."[10]
In July 2020, Rubio stated that he was
worried that an adversary country had achieved "some technological
leap" that "allows them to conduct this sort of activity", while
also saying that there might be a conventional explanation that was
"boring".[9]
On April 12, 2021, the Pentagon
confirmed the authenticity of pictures and videos gathered by the Task Force,
purportedly showing "what appears to be pyramid shaped objects"
hovering above USS Russell in 2019, off the coast of California,
with spokeswoman Susan Gough saying "I can confirm that the referenced
photos and videos were taken by Navy personnel. The UAPTF has included these
incidents in their ongoing examinations."[11][12][13] Science
writer Mick West has
argued that the pyramid images in the video were most likely an airplane, Jupiter, or stars that were distorted when the
lens was out of focus.[14] West
said the Navy video is an example of a photographic effect called bokeh, and demonstrated the effect by
recreating similar pyramid images on video.[15]
The following month, Gough further
confirmed a second video had been recorded by Navy personnel and is under
review by the Task Force. The video, recorded on July 15, 2019, in the combat
information center of USS Omaha, purportedly shows a spherical object flying over the ocean as seen
through an infrared (IR) camera at night, moving across the screen before
stopping and easing down into the water.[16][17][18][19]
Preliminary assessment[edit]
On June 25, 2021,
the Office of the Director of
National Intelligence released a report on UAPs,
commonly known as the Pentagon UFO Report.[20] The report found
that the UAPTF was unable to identify 143 objects spotted between 2004 and
2021. The report said that 18 of these featured unusual movement patterns or
flight characteristics, and that more analysis was needed to determine if those
sightings represented breakthrough technology. The report said that some of
these steps are resource-intensive and would require additional investment.[21] The report did
not link the sightings to extraterrestrial life, with officials saying "We
have no clear indications that there is any nonterrestrial explanation for them
— but we will go wherever the data takes us".[22][23]
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unidentified_Aerial_Phenomena_Task_Force
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