Video shows an encounter between a Navy F/A-18 Super Hornet and an unknown object. It was released by the Defense Department's Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program. The whitish oval object, about the size of a commercial plane, was chased by two Navy F/A-18F fighter jets from the aircraft carrier Nimitz off the coast of San Diego in 2004.The shadowy program — parts of it remain classified — began in 2007, and initially it was largely funded at the request of Harry Reid, the Nevada Democrat who was the Senate majority leader at the time and who has long had an interest in space phenomena.The initiative, which boasted an annual budget of $22 million dollars, centered around UFO sightings recorded by US military aircraft and whether or not these anomalous objects posed a threat to the country.Deemed a "restrictive special access program," the AATIP was described by Reid to the Times as being funded with "so-called black money" in an effort to keep the venture under wraps to avoid ridicule from other members of Congress, the mainstream media, and the public.