The Pentagon has officially released three videos taken by US Navy pilots that reportedly show 'unexplained aerial phenomena'.

The footage that had been previously acknowledged as real by the Navy, capture what pilots recorded on their video sensors during training flights in 2004 and 2015.

Two of the clips were first published in 2017 by the New York Times and the third by the To The Stars Academy in 2018 - a group that specializes in unexplained phenomenon and was founded by Blink-182 guitarist Tom DeLonge.

'The Department of Defense has authorized the release of three unclassified Navy videos, one taken in November 2004 and the other two in January 2015, which have been circulating in the public domain after unauthorized releases in 2007 and 2017,' said Susan Gough, a Defense Department spokesperson in a statement.

The statement, released on Monday added that the videos were released after a 'thorough review' which determined that the unclassified videos 'does not reveal any sensitive capabilities or systems, and does not impinge on any subsequent investigations of military air space incursions by unidentified aerial phenomena'.

One of the videos was captured off the coast of Jacksonville, Florida, in 2015 (pictured)

One of the clips shows the notorious 2004 'Tic Tac' incident that was recorded over the Pacific Ocean. A second video was captured off the coast of Jacksonville, Florida, in 2015.

Several months after those videos were published, To The Stars Academy released an additional video from the 2015 incident, which features a navy pilot remarking: 'What the f**k is that thing?'

DOD officials said they released the videos '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'.

'The aerial phenomena observed in the videos remain characterized as 'unidentified,'' the department said.

Former senator, Harry Reid, lauded the Pentagon's decision to officially release the clips.

'I'm glad the Pentagon is finally releasing this footage, but it only scratches the surface of research and materials available,' Reid tweeted Monday.

'The US needs to take a serious, scientific look at this and any potential national security implications. The American people deserve to be informed,' he added.

In September 2019, the Navy confirmed the authenticity of the videos for the first time.

The other video shows the notorious 2004 'Tic Tac' incident (pictured) that was recorded over the Pacific Ocean

Former senator, Harry Reid, lauded the Pentagon's decision to officially release the clips

'The Navy considers the phenomena contained/depicted in those three videos as unidentified,' Navy spokesman Joseph Gradisher told The Black Vault at the time.

The Navy prefers to call the objects seen in the videos 'unexplained aerial phenomena' (UAP), as opposed to the more commonly-used 'unidentified flying object' (UFO).

The clips were first published by The New York Times in December of 2017 and were recorded on two separate occasions.

According to the DOD, the videos have been circulating in the public domain after unauthorized releases in 2007 and 2017.

In June 2019, senators were reportedly briefed by the Pentagon about reports of UFO sightings by Navy pilots.

One of those senators was Mark Warner, of Virginia, the vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, whose spokesperson said: 'If naval pilots are running into unexplained interference in the air, that's a safety concern Senator Warner believes we need to get to the bottom of,' Politico reported at the time.

The briefing was delivered by the Navy and included staff from the Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence.

It is understood that such briefings have been on the rise since it was revealed that the Pentagon's secretive Aerospace Threat Identification Program continues to investigate reported sightings of unknown aircraft.