The US Navy's office of the chief of naval operations has rejected a FOI request filed by the transparency organization The Black Vault seeking to unseal any further videos of reported UFO sightings that the military has in its possession.
While the navy's office did confirm that it possesses additional videos – breaking with the Pentagon's usual "don't confirm or deny anything" approach – the office of the chief of naval operations said it could not make those footages public due to their sensitive nature.
"The release of this information will harm national security as it may provide adversaries valuable information regarding Department of Defense/Navy operations, vulnerabilities, and/or capabilities," the office's response to the request argued.
The FOI request was filed after the Pentagon broke with the tradition of publically denying UFO existence and released three videos of reported sightings of what the US military called "Unidentified Aerial Phenomena" (UAP). It turned out that the Department of Defense even had a special task force dedicated to gathering reports and materials submitted by US service personnel pertaining a UAP.
However, as the US Navy explained, previous video publication does not mean that the Pentagon is ready to release the rest or even more videos. In fact, the previous and only three videos revealed by the Department of Defense were declassified only because they had been previously leaked to the press and extensively discussed by the public.
"Those events were discussed extensively in the public domain; in fact, major news outlets conducted specials on these events. Given the amount of information in the public domain regarding these encounters, it was possible to release the files without further damage to national security."
One of those videos, black and white footage leaked in 2017 and officially published by the Pentagon in 2020, showed a jet pilot spotting a UAP (or UFO) with his targeting array. The tic-tac-shaped UAP hovered above water for several seconds before rapidly accelerating and disappearing into the distance.
The Pentagon said that it currently has no explanation as to how that object managed to move in such a manner – impossible for modern aerial and other vehicles. The Department of Defense did not rule out any option in explaining the phenomenon, including a foreign state possessing a highly advanced and classified piece of technology.