The footage was leaked to the public years ago, but according to a release by the Department of Defense, the videos are now officially available “in order to clear up any misconceptions by the public on whether or not the footage that has been circulating was real, or whether or not there is more to the videos.”
A New York Times story from 2017 included interviews with the pilots featured in the first video, in which they described seeing an object about 40 feet long hovering 50 feet above the water. Upon their approach, the object rapidly rose into the air and disappeared from sight. In a second New York Times story, published in 2019 about the two incidents from 2015, pilots claimed to have seen similar objects during their flights.
The Pentagon has not, however, determined what these objects actually are.
Instead, it issued a statement saying, “The aerial phenomena observed in the videos remain characterized as ‘unidentified.’” 