The Pentagon has reportedly recovered metal alloys from unidentified flying objects that scientists do not recognise". Materials, which are alleged to have "amazing properties", are being stored in modified buildings in Las Vegas, the New York Times reports. The US Department of Defence (DoD) has admitted to a secret $22m (15m) programme, which ran between 2007 and 2012, that was tasked with investigating reports of UFOs. "They have some material from these objects that is being studied, so that scientists can try to figure out what accounts for their amazing properties," [said] Ralf Blumenthal, one of the authors of the New York Times report. Researchers also studied people who claimed they had experienced physical effects from encounters with unidentified aerial phenomena. A previously classified video released by the DoD shows Navy pilots reacting with astonishment after being sent to investigate a mysterious flying object as it hovered off the coast of San Diego. The recently released footage shows a 2004 encounter between an apparent object, roughly the size of a commercial plane, and two Navy F/A-18 Super Hornets. Commander David Fravor and Lieutenant Commander Jim Slaight were on a routine training mission 100 miles out into the Pacific when they were asked to investigate the object. Commander Fravor [said] the object was about 40ft long, had no plumes, wings or rotors, and outpaced their F-18s. It was big enough to churn the sea 50ft below it, he said.