Pentagon creates task force to study UFOs after videos surface

The U.S. Department of Defense on Friday announced that Deputy Secretary of Defense David Norquist has approved establishing a task force to study what the government terms unidentified aerial phenomena, or UAP's.

"The Department of Defense established the UAPTF to improve its understanding of, and gain insight into, the nature and origins of UAPs," a Pentagon press release states. "The mission of the task force is to detect, analyze and catalog UAPs that could potentially pose a threat to U.S. national security."

Norquist made the decision on Aug. 4, the Pentagon 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," the release notes. 

The Pentagon officially released three UAP Navy videos in April. Prior to that, the footage had already come out via "unauthorized releases," and the service confirmed that the material was Navy footage.

Two of the videos were shot in 2015, and the other was filmed in 2004. The "unauthorized releases" occurred in 2007 and 2017.

"DOD is releasing the videos in order 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," the Department said when officially releasing the footage. "The aerial phenomena observed in the videos remain characterized as 'unidentified.'"