Pentagon Announces New Task Force For Hunting UFOs

The Pentagon has set up a new task force to investigate the sightings of unidentified flying objects. The new division will be headed by the US Navy and will look into the ¡°nature and origins of UAPs" or Unidentified Aerial Phenomena.

On Friday, the US Department of Defense announced the Unidentified Aerial Phenomena Task Force (UAPTF). Establishment of the new task force was approved by Deputy Defense Secretary David Norquist.

As per spokeswoman Susan Gough, the mission of the task force is ¡°to detect, analyse and catalogue UAPs that could potentially pose a threat to US national security."

The new announcement comes within a month of reports highlighting the secret military program still being run, despite the Pentagon claiming to have shut it down. The program had instead been ¡°renamed and tucked inside the Office of Naval Intelligence.¡±

Guarding territories

(Representative Image: Reuters)

The hunt for the UFOs, or the UAPs in this case, is not meant to identify extraterrestrial beings. With the new task force, the US military will monitor any threat to its territory from its adversaries.

This would include monitoring its designated airspace for incursions by any unauthorised aircraft. "This includes examinations of incursions that are initially reported as UAP when the observer cannot immediately identify what he or she is observing,¡± Gough said

Several US Navy pilots have had mid-flight encounters with such flying objects as mentioned above. Back in April, the Pentagon officially released three videos taken by US Navy pilots showing such unidentified objects in the air.

While investigation is further on to identify the flying objects encountered in the US airspace, the Pentagon identifies its targeted risks. A report by AFP mentions that the US is particularly concerned about China's spying capabilities, using drones or such means.

A history of hunting for UFOs

US Navy's encounter with the UFO

The Pentagon had previously studied recordings of these encounters with unknown aerial objects. Launched in 2007, the program was classified at the time.

It was later ended in 2012 as the Pentagon redirected its funding towards other programs which were higher priorities.