ARLINGTON, Va. — The U.S. Navy has been selected to lead the Defense Department’s new Unidentified Aerial Phenomena Task Force (UAPTF), the Pentagon said in an Aug. 14 release.
“On Aug. 4, 2020, Deputy Secretary of Defense David L. Norquist approved the establishment of an Unidentified Aerial Phenomena Task Force,” the release said. “The Department of the Navy, under the cognizance of the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence and Security, will lead the UAPTF.”
DoD “established the UAPTF to improve its understanding of, and gain insight into, the nature and origins of UAPs,” the release 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.
“As DoD has stated previously, the safety of our personnel and the security of our operations are of paramount concern,” the release said. “The Department of Defense and the military departments take any incursions by unauthorized aircraft into our training ranges or designated airspace very seriously and examine each report. This includes examinations of incursions that are initially reported as UAP when the observer cannot immediately identify what he or she is observing.”
Earlier this year DoD released infrared imagery of a UAP taken by Navy F/A-18 strike fighters over the western United States.
