My understanding is such craft have been in use in the SSP for at least 50years ..they are called TR3's... One other note - given that the Naval Air Warfare Center decided to pursue a patent, meaning the information is made freely available to all including potential military adversaries, I think this signals that they see no real practical application of the technology.
Over 100 different insiders have reported travelling in them ....
Artists impression

In addition this exact craft in the patent is well known to UFO spotters

This is all old tech... the pressure is building in the military to start to release it to the civilian population so it can be used for normal transport and so the patent was made public allowing commercial companies can start building craft ....
Trump's 'space force' is about preparing the public mind for the release of this and other tech .....