The Pentagon is officially the Department of War. Not the Department of Defense. war.gov is the domain. The Secretary of War is Pete Hegseth. The change from “Defense” to “War” — reversing the 1947 National Security Act renaming — is the context in which PURSUE was launched. It is not a coincidence.
The History of the Name
The original cabinet department was the Department of War, established in 1789. It was renamed the Department of Defense in 1947 under the National Security Act — the same legislation that created the CIA, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the National Security Council. The 1947 rebranding was explicitly about softening the martial image of American foreign policy during the Cold War. The word “defense” implied reaction; “war” implied intent.
The Trump administration reversed that rename. The department is now the Department of War again. war.gov is the live .gov domain. Every reference in PURSUE — every agency statement, every file header, every press release — says Department of War.
What It Means for PURSUE
PURSUE is a product of the Department of War. The portal is war.gov/ufo. This has several implications:
- The UAP disclosure programme is being run by the institution that controls US military forces, not a civilian intelligence agency
- The Secretary of War — not the CIA Director, not the DNI — is the named lead for the release process
- The framing is military transparency, not intelligence community transparency — a distinction that matters when deciding what to release and what to withhold
- The name “Department of War” on a UAP declassification portal sends a signal about how the administration views the phenomenon — as something within the domain of military affairs, not simply a scientific curiosity
The 1947 Parallel
The 1947 National Security Act is the legislative foundation of the US national security state — the CIA, the JCS, the NSC, and the renaming to Department of Defense. It is also the year of Roswell. The alleged MJ-12 committee, if it existed, was established in 1947 by Truman. PURSUE is being operated by the successor to the War Department that existed in 1947. Restoring the name “Department of War” is a deliberate signal — whatever that signal means to the people who made that decision.
Source: war.gov. Department of War Press Release, May 8, 2026. National Security Act of 1947.