STRATCOM Reports Reveal Previously Unknown Effort Investigating UAP; Pentagon Quickly Denies and Explains As “Simple Error”

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In the military world of researching Unidentified Aerial Phenomena, or UAP, the list of research efforts, acronyms and “task forces” keeps getting bigger. Despite some controversy and fine-print details on the exact scope of some earlier programs, the efforts known as AAWSAP, AATIP, UAPTF, AOIMSG, and AARO have all been said to represent some form of research into UAP, most of which was officially sanctioned and mandated.

Now, that list gets even longer, and two formerly classified Top Secret reports from the United States Strategic Command (USSTRATCOM) written in July and August of 2020 and released in part to The Black Vault in December of 2022, reveal the “Unidentified Aerial Phenomenology (UAP) Joint Inter-agency Task Force (JIATF).”

The full acronym? UAP JIATF.

But despite details about classified briefings, and at least two mentions of the UAP JIATF in formerly Top Secret documents written nearly a month apart; the Pentagon claims the group name is only a mistake.

Just over four hours after being asked by The Black Vault, the Pentagon quickly shot down the idea that the UAP JIATF actually existed.

“That was a simple error in terminology – both ‘JIATF’ and ‘Phenomenology’ — when USSTRATCOM personnel prepared their internal report.  There was not a DoD JIATF on UAP,” said Pentagon Spokesperson Susan Gough in an e-mailed statement to The Black Vault. “We began using ‘task force’ or ‘UAPTF’ informally internally shortly before the UAPTF establishment memo was signed on Aug. 4, 2020.”

The Black Vault reached out to the former chief scientist for the UAP Task Force (UAPTF), Dr. Travis Taylor, but he did not submit comment for this story.

The documents released to The Black Vault are “USSTRATCOM Intelligence Team Activity Reports,” and they detail important intelligence activities for USSTRATCOM sent via email to an unknown number of military and government personnel. They chronicle classified details of various activities of the command that may be of interest.

Two of these reports were sent to U.S. Navy Vice Admiral Matthew Kohler, and came up as responsive records to a July 2022 Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request filed by The Black Vault to the U.S. Navy (Case DON-NAVY-2022-010335) seeking UAP related emails within Vice Admiral Kohler’s inbox.

Only two responsive records were found in that case, both of which were forwarded to USSTRATCOM for review and release and are now archived below.

The first released report was written July 24, 2020, and sent to an unknown number of recipients. Classified Top Secret, it was declassified in part. Below, you will find the pertinent paragraph relating to UAP:

One easily overlooked detail of the above, is the date it is written.

July 24, 2020, pre-dates the official establishment of the UAPTF, which was formerly created August 4, 2020. But these reports establish classified briefings were already taking place, including a specific request to brief the Commander of USSTRATCOM, who according to USSTRATCOM’s website, “… serves as the senior commander of unified military forces from all five branches of the military assigned to the command.” In addition, CDRUSSTRATCOM, “…is the leader, steward and advocate of the nation’s strategic capabilities.”

At the time, CDRUSSTRATCOM was Admiral Charles “Chas” Richard, and from the other documents released, shows that Admiral Richard did, in fact, later receive that briefing along with other USSTRATCOM senior staff.

Admiral Richard retired from active duty just four days ago.

Additional FOIA cases have been filed to understand the scope and the reaction to that briefing, if any.

That report proving the briefing took place was the second report released to The Black Vault. This was written on August 21, 2020, and stated the following:

Also to note that other than confirming the briefing for Admiral Richard and his senior staff took place, is yet again the timeframe — late August of 2020.

Though the UAPTF at this point had been established by the DoD, USSTRATCOM continued to use the UAP JIATF reference to the group giving the briefings.

It also stated in the report that the Secretary of Defense (SecDef) had received the UAP briefing circa August 17, 2020. The SecDef at the time of that briefing would have been acting SecDef Dr. Mark Esper.

The Black Vault filed a FOIA request for Esper’s records on UAP in October of 2019, but the DoD recently denied having received the request despite proof it was sent to a valid email box for the agency to receive FOIA requests. Discussions about what happened to that request filed more than three years ago are still ongoing.

If the Pentagon’s statement that the UAP JIATF reference was a “simple error” is true, it does beg the following question:

How can numerous Top Secret documents referencing classified briefings to high ranking individuals claim it was all done so by a group that didn’t exist?

Aside from that question, there are numerous Joint Inter-agency Task Force (JIATF)’s that do exist, including the Joint Interagency Task Force (JIATF) South. Their mission:

“Joint Interagency Task Force (JIATF) South, in conjunction with Partner Nations, leverages all-domain capabilities to target, detect and monitor illicit drug trafficking in the air and maritime domains, within the Joint Operating Area (JOA), facilitating interdiction and apprehension to reduce the flow of drugs and degrade & dismantle Transnational Criminal Organizations (TCOs).”

There is also the Joint Interagency Task Force West (JIATF) West. Their mission:

“Joint Interagency Task Force West (JIATF West) is the U.S. Pacific Command (USPACOM) Executive Agent for Department of Defense (DoD) support to law enforcement for counterdrug and drug-related activities. The JIATF West team is a composite of approximately 166 active duty, reserve, DOD civilian, contractor, and U.S. and foreign law enforcement agency personnel.”

Could a JIATF on UAP have existed in secret, carried out with the same objectives as the above, just with a different target of investigation?

Lastly, the word “phenomenology” used in the USSTRATCOM reports echoes that of a previous Pentagon statement about the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program (AATIP). This statement, first given to writer Roger Glassel, a contributor to Swedish magazine UFO-Aktuellt, is often cited as proof that the highly controversial program revealed by former counter-intelligence agent Luis Elizondo actually investigated UFOs. But despite Harris’ statement, the Pentagon continues to deny Elizondo’s overall claims about AATIP, and his stated involvement.

In May of 2018, Glassel received the following from then Pentagon Spokesperson Major (now Colonel) Audricia Harris:

Harris’ word usage of “phenomenology” stuck out as something that veered away from the Pentagon’s later stated explanation for what AATIP was all about. This statement, given to Glassel, was written more than two years prior to the USSTRATCOM reports, and although the reports from USSTRATCOM are not referencing AATIP; many feel the effort known as the UAPTF continued the mission of AATIP.

Was the UAP JIATF simply a mistaken reference for the later established UAPTF? Or was this another effort secretly underway that was conducting UAP research and giving classified briefings to high ranking military personnel about their findings?

As a result of these two formerly classified reports being released, The Black Vault has filed numerous other requests to find out if the UAP JIATF possibly existed in secret, or if it was all just a mistake. Those results, when available, will be posted here.

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Document Archive

Note: In the course of the below FOIA case, The Black Vault agreed to consider all non-UAP material as “not responsive” in order to speed up the processing of this request. Therefore, all non-UAP material in the document was redacted without review, and it was marked as “not responsive”. 

22-F-049 [10 Pages, 1MB]

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