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tags category aliases summary start end location relations updated
Organization
UAP
NavalIntelligence
Pentagon
USGovernment
U.S. Government
UAP Task Force
UAPTF
UAP TF
Unidentified Aerial Phenomena Task Force
Unidentified Aerial Phenomenon Task Force
Interagency Task Force
ITF
The UAP Task Force was a Navy-led interagency unit approved by Deputy Secretary of Defense David L. Norquist on August 4, 2020 and succeeded by AOIMSG and AARO. 2020 2022 Washington, D.C.
type with reverse role fn
director_of Jay Stratton true first director, per Luis Elizondo and a Radiance Technologies release of May 12, 2022 21
type with reverse start end role fn
member_of David Grusch true 2019 2021 member as National Reconnaissance Office reservist, per his statement of July 26, 2023 23
2026-10-09

The UAP Task Force (UAPTF) was a Navy-led interagency unit for the collection and analysis of Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAP) reports. Its establishment was approved by David L. Norquist, Deputy Secretary of Defense, on August 4, 2020, and announced by the Department of Defense on August 14, 2020.1 Its charter, issued by the Naval Intelligence Activity on September 1, 2020, calls it a "Congressionally mandated, Deputy Secretary of Defense directed" entity.2 The unit was succeeded by the Airborne Object Identification and Management Synchronization Group (AOIMSG) in November 2021 and by the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO) under a memorandum dated July 15, 2022.34

Predecessor reporting and the 2020 direction

The report of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence accompanying the Intelligence Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2021 was submitted on June 17, 2020 by Marco Rubio. Its section on advanced aerial threats states that the committee "supports the efforts of the Unidentified Aerial Phenomenon Task Force at the Office of Naval Intelligence to standardize collection and reporting on unidentified aerial phenomenon." The committee directed the Office of the Director of National Intelligence to report on UAP within 180 days.5 On December 21, 2020 Rubio had the joint explanatory statement for the Intelligence Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2021 printed in the Congressional Record. The statement provides that it "incorporates by reference, and the Executive Branch shall comply with, all direction contained in" the Senate committee's report, S. Rept. 116-233.6

A briefing titled "Task Force Overview," dated February 27, 2020 and prepared by the Office of Naval Intelligence for its deputy director, quotes committee language that the USD(I) should "establish a joint task force under ONI leadership to work across the Department of Defense, and with the intelligence community, and with the interagency develop and execute plans to collect, exploit, and analyze operational and scientific and technical data."7 A March 2020 briefing for the House Armed Services Committee repeats the same language.8 A slide attached to a July 2020 message chain gives the origin as "2020 NDAA directed that Naval Intelligence lead an Interagency Task Force (ITF)".9

A message chain of July 22 to 24, 2020, among the office of the United States Strategic Command J2, the Defense Intelligence Agency and an official signing as Director of the "ITF" for the Naval Intelligence Activity, carries the subject line "Unidentified Aerial Phenomenon (UAP) Interagency Task Force" and plans a brief to STRATCOM senior leaders. One message of July 24, 2020 reads "The existence/ mission of UAP TF appears to be in the New York Times this morning."9

Approval, charter and structure

On August 14, 2020 the Department of Defense announced that David L. Norquist approved the establishment of the task force on August 4. The release states that "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." It gives the mission as "to detect, analyze and catalog UAPs that could potentially pose a threat to U.S. national security."1

The charter, dated September 1, 2020, sets the mission as "to detect, analyze, catalog, consolidate and exploit advanced non-traditional aerospace vehicles currently posing an operational threat to U.S. National Security and avoid strategic surprise." It states that "Leadership of the Task Force will be designated by the Director of the Naval Intelligence Activity." The Director must "provide periodic updates, via the chain of command, to the UAP Executive Steering Committee (EXCOM)," and the task force must send a formal written report each month "to the Under Secretary of the Navy in support of the Under Secretary of the Navy's reporting requirement to the Deputy Secretary of Defense." The charter refers to the Deputy Secretary of Defense and Secretary of the Navy memorandums that directed its establishment. Two memoranda of September 23, 2020 cite them as dated August 4, 2020 and August 26, 2020.210

The same memoranda, from the Director of the Naval Intelligence Activity, ask the Army and the Air Force for participants, "preferably from both the operational and intelligence directorates within your services." They state that the Naval Intelligence Activity "will assess status, and if ready, determine a transition plan for the UAP TF by 1 January 2021."10

A briefing for the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence dated May 17, 2021 carries the title Director of the UAP Task Force, Naval Intelligence Activity, on its title slide, without printing a name. It describes nine participating organizations, eight partner agencies, five full-time employees and "12+ matrixed employees" across the government.11

The charter came out of a Freedom of Information Act request filed with the Department of the Navy under case DON-2021-003140. The Navy's final response, dated April 22, 2025, gives the request date as January 29, 2021. It reports one responsive document, refers other records to the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence and Security, and withholds portions under exemptions (b)(1) and (b)(6).212

The 2021 assessment and the reporting record

The Office of the Director of National Intelligence released "Preliminary Assessment: Unidentified Aerial Phenomena" on June 25, 2021. The report says that the UAPTF and the ODNI National Intelligence Manager for Aviation drafted it. It states that "The Director, UAPTF, is the accountable official for ensuring the timely collection and consolidation of data on UAP." The dataset is "limited primarily to U.S. Government reporting of incidents occurring from November 2004 to March 2021."13

The assessment states that "144 reports originated from USG sources. Of these, 80 reports involved observation with multiple sensors." It also states that "No standardized reporting mechanism existed until the Navy established one in March 2019." It reports: "We were able to identify one reported UAP with high confidence. In that case, we identified the object as a large, deflating balloon. The others remain unexplained."13

The assessment places unexplained reports in five possible categories: airborne clutter, natural atmospheric phenomena, U.S. Government or industry developmental programs, foreign adversary systems, and an "other" bin. It counts "18 incidents, described in 21 reports" in which observers reported "unusual UAP movement patterns or flight characteristics," and notes "11 reports of documented instances in which pilots reported near misses with a UAP." It states: "We currently lack data to indicate any UAP are part of a foreign collection program or indicative of a major technological advancement by a potential adversary."13

The May 17, 2021 briefing gives the multi-sensor share as 55 percent of the 144 reports.1114

Public claims and Pentagon responses

On April 10, 2021 The Debrief reported on leaked photographs and video attributed to the task force. The Pentagon spokesperson Susan Gough told the outlet: "I can confirm that the referenced photos and videos were taken by Navy personnel. The UAPTF has included these incidents in their ongoing examinations." Gough declined to comment on whether any objects in the images had been identified and cited operations security.15 Jeremy Corbell reported that the night-vision video, which Corbell published on April 8, 2021, relates to a July 2019 incident involving the USS Russell off San Diego.15

On April 21, 2021 The Black Vault asked Gough whether her statement covered the leaked briefing slides. John Greenewald wrote that she replied: "The only thing that my statement confirms is that the photos and videos in that Mystery Wire article are photos and videos taken by Navy personnel. I have nothing for you on anything else in the article."16 The statement she forwarded said she was confirming that the cockpit photographs and videos the Mystery Wire article calls "Sphere," "Acorn" and "Metallic Blimp," and the videos taken with a night-vision device in the Extraordinary Beliefs article, "were taken by Navy personnel," and: "I have nothing for you regarding any other images or depictions in those articles." Greenewald wrote that in his reading the original statement applied to the briefing slides as well.16

Corbell told Fox News on May 28, 2021: "The Pentagon did actually confirm that the footage that I obtained and released is authentic Navy footage."17

At the May 17, 2022 House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence hearing, Deputy Director of Naval Intelligence Scott Bray showed a night-vision video of triangles and said the Navy was "now reasonably confident that these triangles correlate to unmanned aerial systems in the area," the triangular appearance being "a result of light passing through the night vision goggles and then being recorded by an SLR camera." Committee chairman André Carson named "Mr. Corbell" in his opening statement.18

A December 2020 article in The Debrief described a photograph of a triangular object rising from the ocean. Emails of December 3 and 4, 2020, released under FOIA case 21-F-0299, include a message from the Deputy Chief of Naval Operations office to Susan Gough that reads "Jay [Stratton] tells me the photo is part of the active investigation, so it would probably be withheld from release for that reason."19 In a statement to The Black Vault, Jay Stratton said "I was handling multiple cases" at the time, and "We had photographs from F/A-18 pilots, instances of UAP that appeared triangular/pyramidal, and other unrelated cases." He said that no such photograph was received by the task force.19 The article's author, Tim McMillan, told the same outlet that its information "came from multiple sources with direct access to early UAPTF intelligence documents."19

Leadership and testimony

Luis Elizondo's account identifies Jay Stratton as the task force's first director.20 Radiance Technologies announced on May 12, 2022 that Stratton had joined as a subject matter expert and described him as the first director of the UAPTF.21 George Knapp of KLAS-TV reported on May 23, 2022 (posted 9:12 PM Pacific time) that in January 2021 Stratton was "surprisingly transferred out of the job."22 Elizondo, in his 2024 book, says that Stratton built the task force from the ground up, that Stratton was named its first director after the Secretary of Defense announced it, and that the task force briefed members of Congress and the National Security Council. He also says that the Legacy Program pushed back against the task force's work.20

The witness record of the July 26, 2023 House Oversight subcommittee hearing lists David Grusch as "Former National Reconnaissance Office Representative, Unidentified Aerial Phenomena Task Force, Department of Defense." In his written statement Grusch said that he was "my agency's co-lead in unidentified anomalous phenomena and trans medium object analysis" and was responsible for "reporting to the UAP Task Force." He said that he served as a reservist for the National Reconnaissance Office and "was a member of the UAP Task Force from 2019 to 2021."23 He said that "In 2019, the UAP Task Force Director asked me to identify all special access programs and controlled access programs," and that he was "informed in the course of my official duties of a multi-decade UAP crash retrieval and reverse engineering program to which I was denied access."23

Asked by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez whether he sat on "the unidentified anomalous phenomenon task force created in the 2020 NDAA," Grusch answered "Yes." He also said that he "did actually help author" the task force's 2019 security classification guide, which he described as written "with the Director."23

At the May 17, 2022 hearing, Scott Bray said that "Almost 2 years ago, in August of 2020, Deputy Secretary of Defense Norquist directed the establishment of the Unidentified Aerial Phenomena Task Force within the Department of the Navy." The subcommittee chairman, André Carson, called it "the third version of this task force in DOD."18 Asked about a reported incident at Malmstrom Air Force Base, Ronald Moultrie passed the question to Bray. Bray said "That data is not within the holdings of the UAP Task Force," "I have not seen the official data on that," and "We have not looked at that incident."18 Asked about any government study between Project Blue Book and the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program, Moultrie said "I am familiar with Blue Book. I am familiar with AATIP. I haven't seen other documented studies that have been done by DOD in that regard."18

AATIP and the official account

Elizondo's account, which places him in charge of the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program (AATIP), treats the UAPTF as its successor.20 An undated information memorandum from Garry Reid, Director for Defense Intelligence in the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence, refers to events of December 18, 2017 and states: "To the best of my knowledge, he had no job responsibilities related to the AATIP. The AATIP was terminated in 2012." The same memorandum says that Elizondo "has provided three different explanations for his sudden resignation."24 Elizondo's resignation letter, dated October 3, 2017, took effect October 4, 2017, and is in the same release.24

The AARO historical record report of March 2024 says that "Unlike AAWSAP, AATIP was never an official DoD program," and that "AAWSAP/AATIP was terminated in 2012 upon the completion of its deliverables due to DIA and DoD concerns about the project." The report lists the UAPTF separately under the heading "August 2020-November 2021." It says the task force "helped standardize, destigmatize, and increase the volume of UAP reporting," and that its "methods and processes directly led to the identification of the People's Republic of China's (PRC) high altitude balloons that traversed over the continental United States." It attributes that last claim to "AARO discussions with UAPTF leadership."25

Successor offices and the statute

Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks directed the Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence and Security on November 23, 2021 to establish the AOIMSG "as the successor to the U.S. Navy's Unidentified Aerial Phenomena Task Force," with an Airborne Object Identification and Management Executive Council (AOIMEXEC) to oversee it.3

Section 1683 of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2022, enacted December 27, 2021, required the Secretary of Defense, within 180 days, to establish an office "to carry out the duties of the Unidentified Aerial Phenomena Task Force, as in effect on the day before the date of enactment of this Act."26

A memorandum dated July 15, 2022 established the AARO "to carry out the duties that were to be fulfilled by the AOIMSG." It directed the Secretary of the Navy to "disestablish the Unidentified Aerial Phenomena Task Force (UAPTF) no later than the date the AARO is established," and to support "the transfer of any data, analysis, or other relevant material, to the AARO."4

Section 1683 of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2023, enacted December 23, 2022, required an office, to be established within 120 days, "to carry out the duties of the Unidentified Aerial Phenomena Task Force, as in effect on December 26, 2021." The office was to be "known as the 'All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office.'"27 Section 1673 of the same act directs a secure mechanism for reporting "any activity or program by a department or agency of the Federal Government or a contractor of such a department or agency relating to unidentified anomalous phenomena, including with respect to material retrieval, material analysis, reverse engineering, research and development."27

The AARO report says that AOIMSG "had not achieved initial operating capability before subsequent legislation in the FY2022 NDAA resulted in it being renamed to AARO."25 The July 15, 2022 memorandum states that its amendments were approved "to meet the DoD requirements in section 1683 of the NDAA for FY 2022."4

Footnotes

  1. Department of Defense, "Establishment of Unidentified Aerial Phenomena Task Force," press release, August 14, 2020. https://www.defense.gov/News/Releases/Release/Article/2314065/establishment-of-unidentified-aerial-phenomena-task-force/ (Wayback Machine copy, https://web.archive.org/web/2021/https://www.defense.gov/News/Releases/Release/Article/2314065/establishment-of-unidentified-aerial-phenomena-task-force/) ↩︎

  2. Department of the Navy, Office of the Chief of Naval Operations, final response letter in FOIA case DON-2021-003140, April 22, 2025, signed for R. Strong, Director, Navy FOIA/PA Program Office, enclosing the Naval Intelligence Activity, "Charter for Unidentified Aerial Phenomenon Task Force," September 1, 2020, hosted by The Black Vault. https://documents2.theblackvault.com/documents/navy/DON-2021-003140.pdf ↩︎

  3. Department of Defense, "DoD Announces the Establishment of the Airborne Object Identification and Management Synchronization Group (AOIMSG)," press release, November 23, 2021. https://www.defense.gov/News/Releases/Release/Article/2853121/dod-announces-the-establishment-of-the-airborne-object-identification-and-manag/ The OSD(PA) briefing card "AOIMSG Establishment," dated November 23, 2021, is in the Office of the Secretary of Defense FOIA reading room, file 22-F-0381. https://www.esd.whs.mil/Portals/54/Documents/FOID/Reading%20Room/UFOsandUAPs/22-F-0381_PA_AOIMSG_Briefing_Cards_05-22-23.pdf ↩︎

  4. Deputy Secretary of Defense, memorandum, "Establishment of the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office," July 15, 2022. https://media.defense.gov/2022/Jul/20/2003039074/-1/-1/1/ESTABLISHMENT-OF-THE-ALL-DOMAIN-ANOMALY-RESOLUTION-OFFICE.PDF ↩︎

  5. U.S. Senate, Select Committee on Intelligence, "Intelligence Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2021," S. Rept. 116-233, June 17, 2020, pp. 11 to 12, submitted by Mr. Rubio. https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/CRPT-116srpt233/pdf/CRPT-116srpt233.pdf ↩︎

  6. Congressional Record, vol. 166, no. 218, December 21, 2020, pp. S7932 to S7934, joint explanatory statement for the Intelligence Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2021, Part II, introduced by Mr. Rubio. https://irp.fas.org/congress/2020_cr/fy2021-exp.html (text of the Record reproduced by the Federation of American Scientists) ↩︎

  7. Office of Naval Intelligence, "Office of Naval Intelligence 27 Feb 2020 Task Force Overview," briefing for the Deputy Director of Naval Intelligence, released by The Black Vault. https://documents2.theblackvault.com/documents/ufos/DDNIBriefRedacted.pdf ↩︎

  8. Office of Naval Intelligence, "Task Force Overview," briefing for the House Armed Services Committee, March 2020, released by The Black Vault. https://documents2.theblackvault.com/documents/ufos/HASCBriefRedacted.pdf ↩︎

  9. Task force briefing slides ("Interagency Task Force," Director, ITF, Naval Intelligence Activity) and the message chain "Unidentified Aerial Phenomenon (UAP) Interagency Task Force," July 22 to 24, 2020, with STRATCOM J2 and Defense Intelligence Agency correspondents, released by The Black Vault. https://documents2.theblackvault.com/documents/ufos/USSCReferredRedacted.pdf ↩︎

  10. Naval Intelligence Activity memoranda Ser NIA/20S0063 and Ser NIA/20S0064, September 23, 2020, in the FOIA release cited at note 2. https://documents2.theblackvault.com/documents/navy/DON-2021-003140.pdf ↩︎

  11. Naval Intelligence Activity, "Unidentified Aerial Phenomena," briefing by the Director, UAP Task Force, for the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, May 17, 2021, released by The Black Vault. https://documents2.theblackvault.com/documents/ufos/UAPTFHPSCIBriefRedacted.pdf ↩︎

  12. The Black Vault, "FOIA Release Reveals Secret Charter Behind Creation of Pentagon's UAP Task Force," which publishes the Navy release and gives the filing date as August 14, 2020; the Navy's letter gives January 29, 2021. https://www.theblackvault.com/documentarchive/foia-release-reveals-secret-charter-behind-creation-of-pentagons-uap-task-force/ ↩︎

  13. Office of the Director of National Intelligence, "Preliminary Assessment: Unidentified Aerial Phenomena," June 25, 2021, pp. 2 to 9. https://www.dni.gov/files/ODNI/documents/assessments/Prelimary-Assessment-UAP-20210625.pdf ↩︎

  14. House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, Subcommittee on Counterterrorism, Counterintelligence, and Counterproliferation, hearing "Unidentified Aerial Phenomena," May 17, 2022, transcript, remarks of Adam Schiff, who said the ODNI reported "144 UAPs between 2004 and 2021, 80 percent of which were recorded on multiple instruments"; the ODNI report counts 80 of 144. https://www.congress.gov/117/meeting/house/114761/documents/HHRG-117-IG05-Transcript-20220517.pdf ↩︎

  15. Susan Gough as quoted in Tim McMillan's report "Pentagon Confirms Leaked UFO Images Are Authentic," The Debrief, April 10, 2021. https://thedebrief.org/pentagon-confirms-leaked-ufo-images-are-authentic/ ↩︎

  16. John Greenewald, "Confusion Surrounds Leaked UFO Images; Pentagon Declines to Comment," The Black Vault, April 22, 2021. https://www.theblackvault.com/documentarchive/confusion-surrounds-leaked-ufo-images-pentagon-declines-to-comment/ ↩︎

  17. Charles Creitz, Fox News, May 28, 2021, "Leaked footage of UFO 'harassing' US warship is 'authentic': Jeremy Corbell." https://www.foxnews.com/media/leaked-footage-ufo-harassing-us-warship-authentic.amp ↩︎

  18. House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, Subcommittee on Counterterrorism, Counterintelligence, and Counterproliferation, hearing "Unidentified Aerial Phenomena," May 17, 2022, statements of Ronald S. Moultrie and Scott W. Bray, the chairman's opening remarks, and the question period. https://www.congress.gov/117/meeting/house/114761/documents/HHRG-117-IG05-Transcript-20220517.pdf ↩︎

  19. The Black Vault, "FOIA-Released Emails Mention Alleged Triangular UAP Photo; Former UAP Task Force Director Speaks Out," FOIA case 21-F-0299, reproducing emails of December 3 and 4, 2020 and a statement from Jay Stratton. https://www.theblackvault.com/documentarchive/foia-released-emails-mention-alleged-triangular-uap-photo-former-uap-task-force-director-speaks-out/ ↩︎

  20. Luis Elizondo, Imminent: Inside the Pentagon's Hunt for UFOs (New York: William Morrow, 2024). ↩︎

  21. "John F. Stratton Jr. Joins Radiance Technologies as SME for Intel Strategy," Radiance Technologies, PR Newswire, May 12, 2022, read in the Internet Archive capture of the same date. https://web.archive.org/web/20220512145721/https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/john-f-stratton-jr-joins-radiance-technologies-as-sme-for-intel-strategy-301546258.html ↩︎

  22. George Knapp, "More UFO hearings? Congress might consider hearing from these 2 men," 8 News Now (KLAS), posted May 23, 2022, 9:12 PM Pacific time, https://www.8newsnow.com/news/local-news/more-ufo-hearings-congress-might-consider-hearing-from-these-2-men/ ↩︎

  23. David Grusch, statement, House Committee on Oversight and Accountability, Subcommittee on National Security, the Border, and Foreign Affairs, hearing "Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena: Implications on National Security, Public Safety, and Government Transparency," July 26, 2023, witness list and question period. https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/CHRG-118hhrg53022/html/CHRG-118hhrg53022.htm ↩︎

  24. Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence, information memoranda from Garry Reid, Director for Defense Intelligence, "Response to Your Questions on the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program (AATIP) and Actions of Former DoD Employee Luis Elizondo," and "Update on Media Reporting Related to the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program," both undated, with Elizondo's resignation letter at Tab B. https://www.esd.whs.mil/Portals/54/Documents/FOID/Reading%20Room/UFOsandUAPs/18-F-0324_Docs.pdf ↩︎

  25. All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office, "Report on the Historical Record of U.S. Government Involvement with Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAP), Volume I," cleared for open publication March 6, 2024, pp. 22 to 24 and notes 69 to 70. https://media.defense.gov/2024/Mar/08/2003409233/-1/-1/0/DOPSR-2024-0263-AARO-HISTORICAL-RECORD-REPORT-VOLUME-1-2024.PDF ↩︎

  26. National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2022, Public Law 117-81, Sec. 1683, "Establishment of office, organizational structure, and authorities to address unidentified aerial phenomena." https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/PLAW-117publ81/html/PLAW-117publ81.htm ↩︎

  27. National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2023, Public Law 117-263, Sec. 1683, "Establishment of All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office," and Sec. 1673, "Unidentified anomalous phenomena reporting procedures" (50 U.S.C. 3373b). https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/PLAW-117publ263/html/PLAW-117publ263.htm ↩︎