Update 7/26: We've updated this story to include official comments provided by the Pentagon to Popular Mechanics, as well as a clarification of Senator Harry Reid's original comments in the New York Times report.
For years, the U.S. government has repeatedly changed its tune regarding its official involvement with UFO research.
As recently as February, a Pentagon spokesperson told Popular Mechanics that, while a government program did investigate unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) and other unexplained aerial phenomena for some time last decade, funding dried up in 2012. But when Popular Mechanics thoroughly investigated the covert program, multiple sources said it’s still ongoing to this day.
Now, a new report in the New York Times confirms those accounts. The government’s UFO unit currently resides in the Office of Naval Intelligence, where it “deals with classified matters,” per the report, even though the unit itself isn’t classified. The Unidentified Aerial Phenomenon Task Force is meant to “standardize collection and reporting” on sightings of UAVs and publicly divulge “at least some of its findings” twice a year, according to the Times.
To read more, click here.