The Statement by the Department of Defense on the Release of Historical Navy Videos is an official public statement issued on 2020-04-27 by the Department of Defense (DoD), authorising the formal release of three unclassified US Navy UAP videos (2004, 2015) depicting Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (UAP).1 The statement accompanied the DoD authorised release of three Navy UAP videos (2020) and constitutes the primary official record explaining the reasoning and context for that action.
The three videos covered by the statement were recorded by the United States Navy on two separate occasions: one video was taken in November 20042 and two videos were taken in January 2015.3 Prior to the 2020 authorised release, all three videos had already been circulating in the public domain following unauthorised releases in 2007 and 2017.4 The Navy had previously acknowledged that the footage circulating publicly was genuine Navy footage.5
The DoD stated that it had conducted a thorough review before proceeding with the authorised release, and determined that publishing the videos would not reveal any sensitive capabilities or systems.6 The statement also noted that the release would not impinge on any subsequent investigations into military airspace incursions by UAP, including those overseen by Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR).7
The stated purpose of the release was to address public misconceptions: specifically, to confirm that the footage was authentic and to clarify that no additional content beyond the three videos was being withheld from the public record.8 Notwithstanding the official release and the authentication of the footage, the DoD’s statement concluded that the aerial phenomena observed in the videos remained characterised as unidentified.9