For the first time, an authentic US military video of an Unidentified Flying Object (UFO) displaying highly unusual maneuvering capabilities, has been released to the public.

The UFO video, “Gimbal”, which shows a Navy jet encounter near San Diego back in 2004 with what looked like a “40-foot long tic tac” flying object, rushing past the American military aircraft at very high speeds while rotating, marks Pentagon’s first public acknowledgement of a long-secret UFO hunting program tasked with studying and investigating sightings of UFOs. In a recent interview with CNN, Luis Elizondo, the Intelligence official who managed the government’s secret UFO program said “that there is very compelling evidence that we may not be alone.”

According to a New York Times report, the funding for what was known as U.S. Defense Department’s Advanced Aviation Threat Identification Program (AATIP) ran from 2007 to 2012. However, the program’s $22 million in annual funding which was secretly tucked away in the gargantuan $600 billion annual Pentagon budget, dried up in 2012 when U.S. defense officials shifted attention to other priorities. The report points out however, that officials familiar with the shadowy program say that some of its efforts have remained active with involvement of officials in the CIA and the Navy.

It’s worth noting, that the program’s initial funding came largely at the request of former Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nevada, well known for his interest in investigating unexplained phenomena in outer space.

“I’m not embarrassed or ashamed or sorry I got this thing going,” Reid told the Times. “I think it’s one of the good things I did in my congressional service. I’ve done something that no one has done before.”

Reid took to Twitter after the Times report was released, saying that a commitment to pursing the UFO phenomena is not only about science but also national security.

“This is about science and national security. If America doesn’t take the lead in answering questions, others will,” he said.

The AATIP yielded also documents describing sightings of UFOs that moved at a velocity with no visible sign of propulsion or hovered with no apparent means of lift, the Times said.

Returning to the “Gimbal” footage. While the 2004 encounter was analyzed by Pentagon’s UFO hunting program, the nature of the object and what it was doing have remained unanswered.

Here is the US government’s viral video taken from the jet’s cockpit camera, including audio of Navy pilots struggling to process the physics-defying UFO sighting as it unfolded. Video starts at 1:10.