The key phrase is right in the first sentence: "could someday [...]"
Usually (and especially in this case) a strong indication that reading the article is a complete waste of time.
Because it's hopelessly outdated down to the very core and that's kinda secretly the reason why throwing money or workforce on it wouldn't really get anywhere. It would need to be rewritten entirely and paying for improving something existing or financing the creation of a new "FOSS photoshop" are very different things.
Just imagine how bizarre, unexpected and awesome it would be if in two months there was a press conference with Xi Jinping announcing to the world that they found a cube/monolith with strange inscriptions on the moon...
How ridiculous the ET assumption is depends on the amount of plausible alternatives. And for the Nimitz encounter to be something mundane, several very different things must have glitched or been missinterpreted and one has to put how ridiculous THAT would be into perspective.
How do you come to the conclusion that they are hiding badly? Assuming they are there and they are in fact hiding, I think they are pretty good at it. Or do you have reliable photo or video evidence that suggests otherwise? :-)
The Pentagon didn't send or release anything. They confirmed the publication of an - at least perhaps initially - unidentified object to be a genuine recording.