The United States is the deepest single record in the archive: Navy F/A-18 FLIR encounters, ODNI annual reports, AARO mission summaries, House and Senate hearings, the FBI Vault UAP file, and major civilian sightings from Roswell forward. Entries below are sorted newest first.
The U.S. Department of War released its third batch of UAP files on June 13, 2026, under the Presidential Unsealing and Reporting System for UAP Encounters (PURSUE). The release includes a previously undisclosed CIA document describing a disc-like object observed over Harare International Airport in Zimbabwe in 2008, reports of a translucent "potato"-shaped object seen near Cheyenne Mountain, Colorado Springs in 2024, and footage of apparent luminous orbs assessed by analysts to likely be sky lanterns. Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell stated that WAR.GOV/UFO had received over 1.7 billion hits worldwide since its May 8, 2026 launch and confirmed that the Department of War and agency partners are actively preparing the next release.
The article, written by Micah Hanks of The Debrief, also highlights a video from the second PURSUE batch — designated DOW-UAP-PR061, "Spherical UAP [CALLSIGN] 2021/04/12 vid 0" — which captured on April 12, 2021 from a U.S. military drone operating within USCENTCOM's area of responsibility appears to show a small, light-colored spherical object descending, changing direction, and moving into shadowed terrain. Hanks argues this video, while not extraordinary, is consistent with AARO's own "target package" for genuine UAP as characterized by former AARO director Dr. Sean Kirkpatrick in April 2023, and raises the broader question of whether higher-quality UAP data that informed AARO's technical signature data remains classified and unreleased.
The third tranche of the Trump administration's PURSUE program: 72 files — 53 documents, 10 images, 6 videos, 3 audio files — bringing the public corpus to 294 files. The FBI dominates with 29 files, anchored by two modern American case clusters: a four-year series of orb sightings in the northeastern U.S. that the Bureau's own agents witnessed first-hand, and the first-person record of the October 2023 Western US Event. Also included: the CIA's 1953 Robertson Panel report in less-redacted form, NASA's Gemini-era crew debriefings, and the 1962 Cronkite–Cooper interview audio.
On June 9, 2026, UAP whistleblower David Grusch joined a bipartisan group of House members on the steps of the U.S. Capitol to demand that the federal government declassify and publish its records on unidentified anomalous phenomena. Reps. Anna Paulina Luna, Eric Burlison, Tim Burchett, and Jared Moskowitz appeared alongside investigative journalist Leslie Kean and documentary filmmaker James Fox, pressing Congress to pass the UAP Disclosure Act and to ensure that career intelligence officials do not obstruct the administration's declassification directive. At the lectern Grusch went further than usual on the nature of the phenomena, telling reporters the government is aware of 'several' kinds of non-human life, ranging from 'corporeal bipedal type life' to what he called 'sentient plasma life.'
Exactly 14 days after PURSUE Release 01, the U.S. Department of War publishes a second tranche of declassified UAP records through war.gov/UFO: 51 sensor videos (the DOW-UAP-PR050–PR099 series), 7 NASA crew audio files, and 6 documents. The centerpiece is a first-person USPER narrative from a currently-serving senior U.S. intelligence officer describing a one-hour, multi-witness UAP encounter from a U.S. military helicopter in late 2025.
Eighteen sections and serials of the FBI Headquarters master investigative case file on 'flying discs,' covering the Roswell era through the late 1960s. Includes Oak Ridge nuclear-facility overflight reports. The largest single PDF in PURSUE is 101 megabytes.
The Trump administration launches PURSUE — the Presidential Unsealing and Reporting System for UAP Encounters — and the Department of War publishes 160 declassified UAP-related files in the first tranche: 117 PDFs, 29 sensor videos, and 14 photographs spanning 1944 to 2026. Secretary of War Pete Hegseth says the goal is 'maximum transparency.'
This document is email correspondence describing the content of a mission report and requesting clarification on its content. All descriptive and estimative language contained in this report reflects the reporter’s subjective interpretation at the time of the event. Such characterizations should not be interpreted as a conclusive indication of the presence or absence of any intrinsic object features or performance characteristics.
The most recently dated video in PURSUE Release 01 — DOW-UAP-PR49, captured in 2026 by a U.S. Department of the Army sensor — runs 1 minute 49 seconds and shows infrared tracking of an unresolved aerial object.
Physicists at the University at Albany, New York, have announced the launch of UAlbany Project X (UAPx), a formally endowed, university-backed scientific research program dedicated to the long-term study of unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAP). The initiative is led by professors Kevin Knuth, Matthew Szydagis, and Cecilia Levy, and was made possible by a multi-year endowment gift from Albany-area businessman Tony Gorman, which the team states will fund operations for at least five years and support the program in perpetuity thereafter. The project was officially launched in November 2025 and was reported by The Debrief on December 2, 2025.
UAlbany Project X is described as the direct academic continuation of the original nonprofit UAPx organization, which conducted a 2021 field expedition over the Santa Catalina Channel — the site of the 2004 USS Nimitz "Tic Tac" encounter — collecting optical, infrared, and other sensor data. That expedition's findings were subsequently published in the peer-reviewed journal Progress in Aerospace Sciences in 2025, co-authored by Szydagis, Knuth, and Levy. The new university program plans to expand data collection using camera arrays, diffraction gratings for spectral analysis, and magnetic and electric field instrumentation, while also increasing peer-reviewed publication output. Physicist Eric W. Davis has been named as a volunteer adjunct researcher in an advisory capacity.
A first-person USPER narrative published as the centerpiece of PURSUE Release 02 by a currently-serving senior U.S. intelligence officer who describes 'a series of close UAP encounters lasting over an hour' from a U.S. military helicopter in late 2025: two oval orange-with-white-center orbs stationary just above the rotor disk, a swarm of smaller orbs forming a triangular pattern, and a fighter scramble in which the same orbs trailed the responding jets.
The Pentagon's All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO) convened a private workshop in August 2025 in the Washington, D.C., area to address the standardization of UAP data collection, management, and analysis. The event was coordinated by AARO and hosted by Associated Universities, Inc. (AUI), and brought together participants from government agencies, academic institutions, and civilian research organizations. A white paper detailing the workshop's proceedings and recommendations was published on AARO's official website in February 2026 and was subsequently reported by The Debrief on February 26, 2026.
The workshop represents a notable shift in AARO's posture under current director Dr. Jon T. Kosloski compared to the more security-focused, limited-engagement approach of AARO's inaugural director, Sean M. Kirkpatrick. Key recommendations produced by the workshop included the development of standardized metadata templates incorporating AI tools with human oversight, open-ended public narrative reporting mechanisms, and the release of de-identified public UAP data to reduce stigma and build trust. Department of War spokesperson Sue Gough confirmed to The Debrief that AARO intends to use public reports to enhance UAP trend analysis, though no timeline was given for a public reporting mechanism.
Beginning in mid-November 2024, residents across northern New Jersey report waves of large, slow, often car-sized 'drones' at night, with early clusters near Picatinny Arsenal. The FBI logs thousands of tips, the FAA restricts airspace, and a December 12 joint DHS/FBI statement finds no threat and attributes many sightings to misidentified manned aircraft. A January 2025 White House statement calling the flights 'authorized' closes the news cycle without reconciling the record.
Beginning in mid-November 2024, a sustained wave of unidentified drone sightings over New Jersey — concentrated around Morris County, Picatinny Arsenal, and Naval Weapons Station Earle — prompted responses from local, state, and federal officials. By early December the sightings had spread to at least ten New Jersey counties as well as Philadelphia, Brooklyn, and Staten Island, with additional parallel incidents reported over RAF Lakenheath, RAF Mildenhall, RAF Feltwell, and RAF Fairford in the United Kingdom in late November. On December 6, 2024, the DoD's All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO) delivered a classified briefing to lawmakers; the specific content of that briefing regarding the drone sightings was not publicly disclosed.
The episode is notable for the formal involvement of AARO — the DoD's official office for unidentified anomalous phenomena — in what is primarily a domestic drone-security matter. AARO Director Dr. Jon Kosloski had previously told lawmakers during a Senate hearing that while his office is not directly tasked with drone investigations, AARO's detection capabilities and best practices could be offered to counter-UAS efforts. The incident underscores growing congressional and executive-branch concern about unidentified unmanned aerial systems over sensitive military and civilian infrastructure.
PURSUE Release 03 declassifies the FBI's investigation of recurring orb phenomena in one sparsely populated area of the northeastern United States: four authenticated eyewitness videos spanning November 2021 to July 2025 — 'Triangle Orbs,' 'Red Orb Rotation,' 'Orbs Over the Pond,' and the 'Northeastern Orb Sighting' — plus seven investigative records. The standout: an FD-1057 documenting two FBI special agents' own first-hand UAP observation during a November 2024 site survey. The Bureau assesses the civilian witnesses as 'highly credible.'
The House Oversight Committee Subcommittee on Cybersecurity, Information Technology, and Government Innovation, chaired by Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.), holds a public hearing titled 'Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena: Eyes on the Sky, Secrets in the Dark,' featuring testimony from former military and intelligence officials.
The All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office releases the first volume of its congressionally directed historical record of U.S. government involvement with UAP. The 63-page report concludes that no verifiable evidence has been found of extraterrestrial technology in U.S. government possession.
NASA's Science Mission Directorate published a Frequently Asked Questions page addressing the agency's Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAP) Independent Study, commissioned in 2023. The page clarifies the study's scope, team composition, methodology, and conclusions, confirming that the 16-member independent study team — led by astrophysicist David Spergel — was charged exclusively with identifying how scientific data and tools could be applied to UAP going forward, not with reviewing past UAP incidents. The FAQ also states that NASA has found no credible evidence of extraterrestrial life and no data supporting the hypothesis that UAP represent alien technologies.
The document provides institutional context for NASA's UAP engagement: the nine-month study was conducted under the Federal Advisory Committee Act (FACA), required financial disclosures and ethics briefings from all members, and was overseen by Daniel Evans, Assistant Deputy Associate Administrator for Research at NASA's Science Mission Directorate. The FAQ further notes that NASA does not actively search for UAP, has not established a dedicated UAP program, and that study funding was consistent with other external review groups convened through NASA's Research Opportunities in Space and Earth Science (ROSES) process. The page also references NASA's commitment to cooperating with the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO), citing President Trump's direction for whole-of-government transparency.
On June 9, 2022, NASA announced it was commissioning an independent study team to examine unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAP) from a scientific perspective. The study focused on identifying existing data holdings, determining how best to collect future data, and assessing how NASA's scientific capabilities could advance understanding of UAP. The effort was organized under NASA's Science Mission Directorate in consultation with the Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate, and was governed by terms of reference consistent with the Federal Advisory Committee Act.
The UAP Independent Study Team held a public meeting on May 31, 2023, broadcast live and open to public participation. On September 14, 2023, the team published its final report containing a series of recommendations for advancing the scientific study of UAP. The initiative reflects NASA's stated commitment to scientific transparency and rigor, and represents the first formal, agency-wide scientific study of UAP conducted by a civilian space agency. Contact for UAP inquiries was designated as Daniel A. Evans of NASA.
Newly released FBI 302 interviews and an FBI Lab composite sketch describe an ellipsoid bronze metallic object, 130-195 feet in length, that materialized out of a bright light, was observed by multiple credentialed witnesses at a U.S. test site, and disappeared instantaneously.
Over two days in 2023, seven separate U.S. federal government employees reported close-range encounters with multiple unidentified phenomena at a site in the western United States — including orbs launching other orbs, a large stationary glowing orb at close range, and a large semi-transparent object described as a 'translucent kite.' AARO calls it 'among the most compelling within AARO's current holdings.'
Former intelligence officer David Grusch, retired Navy Cmdr. David Fravor, and retired Navy Lt. Ryan Graves testify under oath before the House Oversight Subcommittee on National Security, the Border, and Foreign Affairs. Grusch states that the U.S. government operates a long-running classified program to retrieve and reverse-engineer non-human craft.
Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Senator Mike Rounds (R-S.D.) introduce the Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena Disclosure Act of 2023 as an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act. The legislation proposes a nine-member presidentially appointed Review Board modeled on the JFK Records Review Board.
Cockpit/sensor footage from the February 12, 2023 U.S. Air National Guard F-16C engagement over Lake Huron, Michigan — the third of four shootdowns that month in the wake of the Chinese surveillance-balloon incident. AARO has characterized the underlying object as 'a benign hobbyist or research balloon' but the engagement footage itself is published for the first time in PURSUE Release 02.
The James M. Inhofe National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2023 codifies the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO), absorbing the predecessor Airborne Object Identification and Management Synchronization Group and giving it statutory authority and a public reporting mandate.
The House Intelligence Subcommittee on Counterterrorism, Counterintelligence, and Counterproliferation holds the first open congressional hearing on UAP in fifty-three years. Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence Ronald Moultrie and Deputy Director of Naval Intelligence Scott Bray testify.
U.S. military service members near Colorado Springs reported a motionless, silent, matte-white 'bean-shaped' object whose surface was covered in intersecting ridges forming an abstract polygon pattern. PURSUE Release 03 declassifies the FBI's witness interviews, a digital rendering, and an Intelligence Community partner's analysis assessing — with low confidence — that the phenomenon may have been sunlight backscattering from snow-covered mountains. The case remains unresolved as of June 2026.
The Office of the Director of National Intelligence delivers to Congress a nine-page 'Preliminary Assessment: Unidentified Aerial Phenomena' covering 144 reports collected primarily by U.S. Navy aviators between 2004 and 2021. The report concludes that the U.S. government cannot identify 143 of the 144.
The Pentagon publicly releases three U.S. Navy gun-camera videos — 'FLIR1' (2004), 'GIMBAL' (2015), and 'GO FAST' (2015) — and confirms that the objects depicted remain unidentified. The release marks the first formal U.S. government acknowledgment of authentic military UAP imagery.
Infrared sensor footage from a U.S. military platform in U.S. Northern Command's area of responsibility in December 2019, showing a single unidentified object off the U.S. East Coast. Uploaded to a U.S. classified network in September 2020 and declassified in PURSUE Release 02 — a rare NORTHCOM (continental U.S.) entry in the PR-series corpus.
Helene Cooper, Ralph Blumenthal, and Leslie Kean publish a front-page New York Times investigation revealing the existence of the Department of Defense's Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program. The story includes a release of the 'FLIR1' video and on-the-record statements from former AATIP director Luis Elizondo.
A Navy ATFLIR clip appears to show a small object streaking just above the Atlantic. Officially released in April 2020 alongside FLIR1 and GIMBAL, GO FAST became the clearest case study in how sensor geometry can mislead: analyses using the video's own displayed data — including AARO's published assessment — put the object several thousand feet up, moving far slower than it appears.
An F/A-18F crew from the USS Theodore Roosevelt's air wing records an infrared object with no visible exhaust that appears to rotate in flight while the crew reports a formation of additional objects on their situational-awareness display. One of three videos the Pentagon officially confirmed authentic in April 2020 — and the only one of the three with no published resolution.
F/A-18F crews assigned to Strike Fighter Squadron 11, operating from Naval Air Station Oceana, report routine encounters with UAP off the U.S. East Coast. Two of the three Pentagon-released videos — 'GIMBAL' and 'GO FAST' — are recorded during this period.
The oldest sensor video in PURSUE Release 01 — a 1-minute-46-second AARO clip from 2013 — shows what military observers described as an 'eight-pointed star formation' of objects over a Middle Eastern theater of operations.
The Defense Intelligence Agency awards the Advanced Aerospace Weapon System Applications Program (AAWSAP) contract to Bigelow Aerospace Advanced Space Studies. Roughly $22 million flows through the program from 2008 to 2010, and Skinwalker Ranch — owned by the contractor's founder — becomes its primary field laboratory.
Dozens of residents around Stephenville, Texas, report large, fast-moving, brightly lit objects in the night sky. A subsequent FOIA release of FAA radar data confirms anomalous tracks consistent with witness reports.
United Airlines ground personnel, mechanics, and pilots at Chicago O'Hare International Airport report a metallic, disc-shaped object hovering at low altitude above gate C-17, then ascending rapidly through the cloud deck. The Federal Aviation Administration confirms the report but declines to investigate.
Aircrews from the USS Nimitz Carrier Strike Group report repeated radar contacts and a daylight visual encounter with a small, white, smooth, Tic Tac–shaped object during a training exercise in the Pacific. One of three Pentagon videos later released by the Department of Defense (FLIR1) documents a portion of the event.
Thousands of witnesses across Arizona report a large V-shaped formation of lights moving slowly southward over the state, followed by a separate set of stationary lights over Phoenix. The Air Force later attributes the second event to flares dropped during a training exercise; the first remains unexplained.
The Deseret News publishes Terry and Gwen Sherman's account of eighteen months of unexplained phenomena on their Uintah Basin ranch — lights, orbs, and cattle deaths. Within months, Robert Bigelow's National Institute for Discovery Science purchases the property and stations scientists on it, beginning the longest-running instrumented field study of a single site in UAP history.
Capt. Kenju Terauchi reports two small craft and a much larger, walnut-shaped 'mothership' alongside a Japan Airlines 747 cargo flight transiting Alaskan airspace. The objects are corroborated by FAA ground radar at Anchorage Center.
Three Texas residents report a close-range encounter with a diamond-shaped object emitting intense heat, escorted overhead by approximately twenty-three twin-rotor military helicopters. All three subsequently report serious medical injuries.
A New Hampshire teenager and two Exeter, New Hampshire, police officers report a large, silent, brightly lit object hovering at low altitude over a residential field. The Air Force initially attributes the sighting to a high-altitude refueling mission, then revises the case to 'unidentified.'
Eleven members of an extended family in rural Kentucky report being besieged through the night by small, silver-coated humanoid figures. The Hopkinsville Police, Kentucky State Police, and U.S. Air Force investigate.
PURSUE Release 03 publishes the CIA's 1952-1953 Scientific Advisory Panel on Unidentified Flying Objects — the Robertson Panel — in less-redacted form, with the Department of War's own transmission copy to the Secretary of Defense. The panel found no direct physical threat but warned that public fascination could clog intelligence channels and that a 'morbid national psychology' could be exploited by adversaries — and recommended an official policy of 'debunking' to 'strip the UFO subject of its mystery.'
Across two consecutive weekends, multiple radar installations and visual observers track unidentified objects above the restricted airspace surrounding the U.S. Capitol and White House. The Air Force convenes its largest press conference since World War II to address the events.
FBI Detroit field office investigative files 100-DE-26505 and 100-DE-18221, covering early-Cold-War flying disc and UFO reports across Michigan and the Great Lakes region. Released by the Department of War in PURSUE Release 01.
A 116-page joint file from the U.S. Air Force and the Armed Forces Special Weapons Program — the Manhattan Project's nuclear-weapons custodial successor — documenting 209 sightings of 'green orbs,' discs, and fireballs maneuvering near the Sandia, New Mexico custodial nuclear-weapons installation between 1948 and 1950. Released in full as part of PURSUE Release 02; some sighting locations contained recovered copper powder.
Kentucky Air National Guard pilot Capt. Thomas Mantell is killed when his P-51 Mustang crashes during the pursuit of a large, slow-moving object reported above Godman Field. The Air Force eventually attributes the object to a Skyhook research balloon.
The Roswell Army Air Field public information officer issues a press release stating that the 509th Bomb Group has come into possession of a 'flying disc' recovered from a nearby ranch. Within twenty-four hours the Army retracts the statement and identifies the debris as a weather balloon.
Civilian pilot Kenneth Arnold reports nine crescent-shaped objects flying in formation near Mount Rainier at speeds he estimates at more than 1,200 mph. His description gives rise to the term 'flying saucer' and is widely treated as the start of the modern UFO era.
PURSUE's earliest entry — wartime Department of War records from 1944-1945 documenting the 'foo fighter' encounters reported by U.S. Army Air Forces pilots over the European theater, with corroborating Air Ministry analysis.