The US Navy has said it will not release more unseen, classified videos of unidentified flying objects (UFOs) publicly, adding that doing so would “harm national security”.
A US Navy spokesperson said so last week in response to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request filed by the Black Vault, a US government transparency site.
“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 Navy spokesperson wrote.
The Black Vault website had previously published a downloadable archive of every publicly available instance of Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (UAP), the US government classification for UFOs.
Just a day after the Pentagon declassified three UFO videos taken by US Navy pilots, the Black Vault filed an FOIA request asking the armed forces branch to turn over other videos related to UAP.
While confirming that more such videos exist, the Navy spokesperson said: “No portions of the videos can be segregated for release.”
While the US Navy had declassified three UAP videos in the past, it said the facts specific to these videos were unique, adding that the videos were released via unofficial channels before official release.
“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,” the spokesperson said.
The US Pentagon had said the three videos were released to clear up misconceptions by the public on whether or not the footage was real, “or whether or not there is more to the videos”.
In 2021, CBS News also aired a programme on UFOs in its 60 minutes show that included an interview with two former Navy pilots who were dispatched to investigate a UAP sighting off the coast of San Diego in 2004.
In response to the Navy’s latest admission, the Black Vault has reportedly filed an appeal seeking the release of the denied videos.
