Although UFO enthusiasts often claim the government is hiding alien evidence, the Pentagon has actually been releasing classified UFO footage in recent years. Since 2020, the Pentagon has officially shared several videos showing what they call “Unidentified Aerial Phenomena” or UAP, not UFOs.
These released videos were captured by U.S. Navy fighter jets during training missions between 2004 and 2015. The footage came from jets based on the USS Nimitz and USS Theodore Roosevelt aircraft carriers. The grainy, monochromic images were recorded using specialized forward-looking infrared targeting cameras.
The Pentagon didn’t rush to release these videos. Officials first conducted thorough reviews to guarantee the footage wouldn’t reveal sensitive military capabilities or systems. They also made certain the videos wouldn’t interfere with ongoing investigations of strange objects entering military airspace.
National security concerns dictated careful vetting before any UAP footage could be approved for public release.
By 2023, more UAP footage surfaced during Congressional hearings. Some of this footage came from MQ-9 military drones and had never been seen by the public before. The Pentagon’s move toward greater transparency has been supported by Congressional oversight.
Despite all this footage being released, the Pentagon’s All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO) found no evidence supporting claims about alien technology. After reviewing UFO sightings and reports spanning decades, investigators concluded many claims resulted from people misinterpreting real events. Christopher Mellon, former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Intelligence, played a key role in providing some of the original UAP videos to the press in 2017. The integration of background music in presentations of these videos often enhanced the dramatic effect and public engagement with the content.
Experts have suggested several possible explanations for what appears in these videos. The objects might be drones or unknown terrestrial aircraft. Some incidents could be strange instrument readings or visual phenomena like parallax. Human error in observation and interpretation might also play a role.
The Pentagon continues to emphasize that the phenomena in these videos remain “unidentified.” While they’ve become more open about sharing such footage, officials haven’t suggested these objects are extraterrestrial. The gap between confirmed government footage and claims about alien spacecraft remains wide, with extraordinary claims still lacking extraordinary evidence.
