Department of War (DOW)
OrgGovernment AgencyDepartment of War (DOW)
OrgGovernment AgencyThe Department of War is the Trump administration’s secondary title and public branding for the U.S. Department of Defense, whose statutory name remains unchanged.
The Department of War is the Trump administration’s secondary title and public branding for the U.S. Department of Defense, whose statutory name remains unchanged.
Andy Kim
Pete Hegseth
The Department of War is the secondary title adopted by the executive branch in 2025 for the institution legally established as the United States Department of Defense. President Donald Trump’s executive order authorized officials to use the older title in executive communications and directed the department to seek a permanent statutory change. The website moved from defense.gov to war.gov and signs and public materials adopted the new branding, but Congress had not changed the department’s legal name as of August 2026.
The historical Department of War existed from 1789 until the national-security reorganization that followed World War II. The 1947 National Security Act created the National Military Establishment and a separate Department of the Air Force; amendments in 1949 renamed the combined institution the Department of Defense. Today it oversees the military departments, combatant commands, defense agencies, intelligence components, and a global civilian and uniformed workforce. The Pentagon serves as its headquarters and as a common shorthand for the institution.
Defense organizations have managed military UFO and UAP reporting through changing offices and programs, from early Air Force projects to the Navy-led UAP Task Force and the present AARO. The department authenticates or releases some military imagery, establishes reporting procedures, and determines how much operational sensor information can be declassified. Its records also sit at the center of allegations about hidden retrieval or exploitation programs, allegations the department and AARO say their reviews have not substantiated.
The War Department branding matters because names can shape public expectations, but it does not create a new agency or erase the legal and archival continuity of the Department of Defense. In the UAP field, the institution’s authority is substantial but not unlimited: intelligence agencies, the services, the White House, Congress, and the National Archives hold distinct records and powers. Accurate evaluation therefore requires attention to the specific component that collected a report, classified a record, conducted an analysis, or authorized release.
[Retweeted] EXCLUSIVE: Scientists say these Norwegian “lights” could hold clues to Trump UFO files mystery Scientists who have studied a rare aerial phenomenon in Norway tell PARADIGM it could shed light on two notable cases from the War Department's UFO disclosures. Both cases involve recent eyewitness reports by U.S. officials of luminous orbs behaving in ways that have defied explanation. Experts on the Hessdalen lights, a luminous phenomenon observed for decades over a Norwegian valley, s...
[Retweeted] EXCLUSIVE: Scientists say these Norwegian “lights” could hold clues to Trump UFO files mystery Scientists who have studied a rare aerial phenomenon in Norway tell PARADIGM it could shed light on two notable cases from the War Department's UFO disclosures. Both cases involve recent eyewitness reports by U.S. officials of luminous orbs behaving in ways that have defied explanation. Experts on the Hessdalen lights, a luminous phenomenon observed for decades over a Norwegian valley, s...
[Retweeted] I understand that since early August a senior official within ODNI, and a senior DoW official involved in directing energy technology have reported being targeted. These incidents involved suspect vehicles which may have contained a directed energy device. I asked the CIA, DoW, DHS, and DNI for comment about the analysis of the device, the uptick in suspected domestic attacks, the status of DNI Gabbard's report into these incidents. While the CIA confirmed receipt of my questions,...
Probed ingest of: The New Space Race, AI Threats, and National Survival | Bigelow Podcast Ep. 8
UPDATE ON DEAN JOHNSON ON WHETHER HE REACHED OUT TO THE MALMGREN FAMILY PRIOR TO PUBLISHING HIS MALMGREN HIT PIECE. He never answered the question. https://t. [Quoted] UPDATE ON DAVID GRUSCH FOIA LAWSUIT The Department of Justice (DOJ), representing the Department of Defense (AKA Department of War) today (September 21, 2026) filed a motion for summary judgment in federal court, which if granted by the judge would end David Grusch's federal FOIA lawsuit against the Department of Defense. In hi...
David Grusch's FOIA lawsuit update, compliments of @ddeanjohnson. See below. 👇 https://t.co/Pc3wCqjIRs [Quoted] UPDATE ON DAVID GRUSCH FOIA LAWSUIT The Department of Justice (DOJ), representing the Department of Defense (AKA Department of War) today (September 21, 2026) filed a motion for summary judgment in federal court, which if granted by the judge would end David Grusch's federal FOIA lawsuit against the Department of Defense. In his March 2026 lawsuit (Grusch v. Department of Defense,...
🚨 Last Friday's UAP/UFO files release from the Department of War have been added to The Black Vault's UFO File search engine. Also available, a .zip archive of the entire release. I also re-processed each PDF to make them more easily searched (OCRd). https://t.co/MAh30edhrk
[Retweeted] Disclosure Foundation Executive Director @jordanflowers joined @GadiNBC on @NBCNews to discuss this past Friday's Department of War's sixth release of UAP records and newly released military footage. Flowers: "I think in order to protect our men and women in service, we really need to see more context [that comes along with these videos], we need to see the data, we need science to be done on this and we need a National Intelligence Estimate." Authentic disclosure must include ana...
[Retweeted] Disclosure Foundation Executive Director @jordanflowers joined @GadiNBC on @NBCNews to discuss this past Friday's Department of War's sixth release of UAP records and newly released military footage. Flowers: "I think in order to protect our men and women in service, we really need to see more context [that comes along with these videos], we need to see the data, we need science to be done on this and we need a National Intelligence Estimate." Authentic disclosure must include ana...
[Retweeted] Here are my insights from the sixth tranche of archival data on Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAP) released by the U.S. Department of War on behalf of the Presidential Unsealing and Reporting System for UAP Encounters. https://t.co/iZBTnNa7Z0
