Scott Bray UAP Emails, Navy FOIA Release DON-NAVY-2022-008648

Overview

On September 23, 2026, the U.S. Navy answered a FOIA request filed by John Greenewald (The Black Vault) on May 24, 2022. It sought emails sent to, from or copied to Scott W. Bray, then Deputy Director of Naval Intelligence and Director of the Naval Intelligence Activity, containing terms such as UAP, UAPTF, UFO, AATIP and AAWSAP. Of 1,321 responsive pages, the Navy released 1,019 with redactions and withheld 302 in full. The published file has 1,325 PDF pages and runs from October 2019 to April 2022.

Why it matters

The emails show from the inside how a Navy matter turned into a formal government effort: the dispute over releasing the three Navy videos, the founding of the UAPTF in August 2020, the replacement of Jay Stratton at its head, mounting pressure from Congress, the ODNI preliminary assessment of June 25, 2021, and the transition to a successor organization. They say almost nothing about specific sightings, sensor data or analytic results; that material is classified or redacted. The substance lies in responsibilities, talking points and conflicts between the Navy, the Pentagon, intelligence oversight and Congress.

The three Navy videos (December 2019 to April 2020)

• p. 474 (Dec 10, 2019): A NAVAIR FOIA officer warns that continuing to withhold videos already widely available could create a "harmful perception" that the Navy is hiding something.
• pp. 306–307 (Jan 17, 2020): A reply to the Deputy Secretary of Defense's office states that the Nimitz video was initially classified SECRET by NAVAIR and later marked unclassified, adding: "We do not expect to release this video." It was released three months later.
• p. 319 (Mar 23, 2020): The DoD FOIA office rules that UAP videos do not qualify for the flight-data exemption (10 U.S.C. § 130e): "If 10 USC 130e was used previously for this information, it was in error."
• pp. 471–472 (Mar 16, 2020): When NAVAIR announces the release, Navy public affairs pushes back: "PLEASE WAIT... can we get a communications plan in place" and "This will be HUGE!"
• p. 336 (Apr 20, 2020): In parallel, a Security Classification Guide for the ongoing UAP investigations was signed to put in place "protections to preclude public release of any videos/reports/etc."
• p. 294 (Jun 12, 2020): Internally, a public affairs officer explains the timing of the release with an expiring FOIA deadline: "It was due to the FOIA coming due turning into a pumpkin."

Building the task force and the fight over the lead (2020)

• pp. 58 and 459 (Feb 13 and 17, 2020): ONI commander RADM Kelly Aeschbach does not want Stratton briefing senators unless USD(I) attends. On Feb 13 she notes that the CNO and VADM Kohler want the Navy "in the driver's seat"; four days later she writes: "I want to get Jay and the Navy out of the driver's seat."
• pp. 459–460 (Feb 17, 2020): A calendar of UAP briefings on Capitol Hill for February and March 2020, including SSCI members, Rep. Timmons and the HASC Future Defense Task Force.
• p. 268 (May 19, 2020): Stratton wants to drop the term "task force" because Pentagon draft direction calls it a "working group": "We need to get off the dance floor with the term task force".
• p. 480 (May 19, 2020): On press questions about Luis Elizondo, Stratton writes: "he was involved, especially in bridging us with colleagues across the DoD. There's plenty of paper trail to back that up." In 2019 the Pentagon had publicly said Elizondo had no assigned responsibilities for AATIP. The name is redacted in the duplicate on pp. 267–268 but not on pp. 478–480.
• p. 141 (Aug 7, 2020): "DSD signed the UAPTF memo Tuesday", contemporaneous confirmation that the Deputy Secretary of Defense signed the task force into being on August 4, 2020.
• pp. 23–24 (Aug 20, 2020): Bray declines sharper talking points because the task force had only been assigned to the Navy a week earlier. Public affairs complains that the media keep linking the UAPTF to "investigating aliens".
• pp. 132 and 139 (September 2020): OSD and the Navy openly spar over a UAP briefing for the National Security Advisor ("I work for OSD not the US Navy"); a briefing for House members at the Capitol is classified "up to TS/SI".

2021: Stratton's removal, questions from the top, internal conflict

• pp. 650–651 (Feb 8, 2021): VADM Jeffrey Trussler on Stratton's replacement, which Hill staff suspected happened because he told the truth: "We didn't fire him, we just put someone in place to manage the effort and team, not an analyst that likes to brief." The new lead is described as "not inciting people with unusual statements". Bray adds that if staffers want to yell about the change, "let 'em yell"; the task force should be judged by its performance.
• pp. 644–645 (Feb 8, 2021): Outgoing Deputy Secretary of Defense Norquist wants to know what he may say after leaving office. His first question: "Why can't we definitively say - no alien tech". He also asks: "Has the TF explained anything we previously categorized as unidentified?"
• pp. 647 and 538 (January/February 2021): The response line is that the Department does not comment on intelligence matters; under the Security Classification Guide "virtually everything" about the UAPTF except its existence and mission is classified.
• p. 800 (Feb 10, 2021): Asked about press reports of "UFO debris", an official declines to discuss what may be in the "Foreign Materiel Program" inventory because the discussion would quickly become classified.
• pp. 652–655 and 801 (Feb 9, 2021): Pentagon public affairs was caught off guard by a DIA FOIA release and internally links the released report to AATIP: "on the AATIP program, which this report was part of". The five DIA studies themselves are attached on pp. 656–798.
• p. 835 (Mar 11, 2021): Navy leadership criticizes a UAPTF briefing for providing "data" without translating it into "information" and for focusing on anecdotes rather than analysis.
• pp. 841 and 845 (Mar 16, 2021): Bray states that intelligence content will not be changed based on guidance from outside the Intelligence Community. Jennifer Obernier of the Under Secretary of the Navy's office replies: "I don't appreciate the insinuation that we are attempting to change your analytic content".
• p. 810 (Feb 22, 2021): A request to schedule an "Aliens, UAP Update" with Bray draws the reminder: "This stuff gets FOIA'd so I typically avoid witty emails".
• pp. 861–863 and 868 (April 2021): The drone swarm around USS Kidd is treated internally as outside the task force's purview. On the leaked imagery, an official wonders how a filmmaker can confirm authenticity "when we haven't yet" and adds it would be nice "if we could plug leaks about the UAPTF".

Before and after the ODNI preliminary assessment (May to December 2021)

• p. 926 (May 14, 2021): Bray to CNO Gilday ahead of the 60 Minutes segment on the 2004 Nimitz encounter: it will highlight the ridicule the two aviators faced "and suggest that the Navy didn't take this seriously at the time. We've come a long way since then." Bray had met one of the aviators that week.
• pp. 958–964 (May/June 2021): A list of UAP briefings from January to May 2021, ranging from congressional committees and Sen. Ossoff to the Secretary of Defense ("SECDEF briefing 21 May 2021 (DDNI delivered)") and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs.
• p. 911 (Apr 23, 2021): Public affairs notes that Elizondo is briefing the media on UAP and nuclear facilities.
• pp. 928–929 (May 19, 2021): An admiral sees "quite a bit of overlap" between counter-drone work and UAP, "particularly in the area of detection and counter/kill".
• pp. 547–548 (June 2021): ODNI's internal Q&A is more direct than the published report: "In a limited number of incidents, UAP appeared to exhibit advanced propulsion characteristics." The cases featured on 60 Minutes are among the 144 reports.
• pp. 1027 and 1039 (Jun 25, 2021): Quotes from the background briefing that reporters submitted for clearance: "These are things that physically exist. They are physical objects." A Reuters reporter attributes to Bray the statement that there is no clear explanation for any of the three Navy videos and that all three are among the 144 cases.
• pp. 1032–1033 (Jun 25, 2021): When one office refuses to clear the word "exotic" in press quotes, Bray defends it: "I'm good with using "exotic," which I've used with Congress and others."
• p. 1060 (Jun 27, 2021): Responding to a report that only two part-time staff worked the task force, Bray writes that this significantly underplays the full-time staff, including "multiple PhDs".
• pp. 1069–1070 (Jul 1, 2021): A Senate Intelligence Committee staffer warns against a repeat of the Anomalous Health Incidents hearing with the CIA, where briefers refused to provide details. Internally, officials describe a transition to "what comes after the Navy's UAPTF".
• p. 1096 (July/August 2021): The Naval Intelligence Activity's inspector general flags a DoD Inspector General visit, citing the interest in UAP "and some historical concerns with those who have represented the program in the past".
• pp. 1142 and 1145 (September 2021): The founding proposal for the successor group states that the problem extends well beyond the Navy's purview and aims to "remove bureaucratic stigma associated with UAP".
• p. 1172 (Nov 18, 2021): The UAPTF director had met with Sen. Gillibrand ahead of the vote on her amendment.

Context and limits

• Page numbers refer to the PDF pages of the file hosted by The Black Vault. Many email chains appear two or three times, and redactions are not always identical across copies.
• About 300 pages are placeholders for pages withheld in full. The longest redacted blocks are pp. 483–512 (immediately after the video release), pp. 1146–1171 (including drafts on the successor group) and pp. 1186–1287 (an attachment with no apparent UAP content).
• Most draft language and assessments are redacted under (b)(5). What remains visible is mainly what officials wrote about the process.
• A large share of the package consists of forwarded news articles and press clips. Their presence in Bray's inbox does not mean the Navy or Bray endorsed them.
• The request was bound to search terms, so the package is not a complete history of the UAPTF.