【Down Town】

Former Blink-182 guitarist Tom DeLonge really wants to know the truth about aliens.

To that end,Down Town To the Stars Academy of the Arts and Sciences -- the organization DeLonge leads -- released a declassified military video on Friday of what they're claiming is a UFO.

The video, captured on a U.S. Navy F/A 18 Super Hornet fighter jet, includes the two pilots laughing as they wonder, "what the fuck is that thing?"

Using an infrared camera, the pilots track what appears to be a swiftly-moving white dot flying above the ocean.

"Wow! What is that, man?" a pilot says.

This uncertainty -- of not knowing what these unidentified flying objects might be -- is To the Stars' chief frustration. Former intelligence and defense officials, such as former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Intelligence Chris Mellon, have banded with Blink-182's DeLonge to stoke public interest in such UFO phenomena, with the ultimate goal of persuading the U.S. government to transparently investigate these sightings.

On Friday, Mellon wrote a piece for The Washington Post's "Perspectives" section in which he cites the newly released video -- as well as two previously declassified videos -- and urges the government to pursue answers. Mellon ponders if such high-speed UFO's could be technologically-advanced Russian aircraft, or perhaps, evidence of aliens.

"Unfortunately, we have no idea, because we aren’t even seeking answers," Mellon writes.

We reached out to the Department of Defense for comment and will update this post if we hear back from the department.

Another member of DeLonge's team is former intelligence official Luis Elizondo, who previously ran a clandestine program in the Pentagon which investigated UFOs. The program, investigated by The New York Times, was funded with $22 million over five years, but the government claims to have shuttered the program in 2012.

As Mellon emphasized, To the Stars contends that U.S. intelligence agencies -- funded with some $50 billion annually -- have the funds and technological prowess to study what these UFOs are and "how these vehicles achieve such extraordinary power and maneuverability." But the government, Mellon says, has little interest in seriously investigating these events.

Blink-182's DeLong, who left the band in part to pursue his work with To the Stars, has been candid about both his belief that extraterrestrials have visited Earth and that the government refuses to take the matter seriously.

"We all know conspiracies are dumb," DeLonge mockingly sings on Blink-182's 1999 track "Aliens Exist." So, really we all should have seen this coming far earlier.

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