Pentagon Releases Third PURSUE Batch: CIA Zimbabwe File, Colorado Springs "Potato" Object, and Spherical UAP Video from CENTCOM Theater

The U.S. Department of War posted its third PURSUE release on Friday, June 13, 2026. Assistant to the Secretary of War for Public Affairs and Chief Pentagon Spokesman Sean Parnell accompanied the release with a statement noting that WAR.GOV/UFO had received more than 1.7 billion worldwide hits since its launch on May 8, 2026, and that additional releases are in preparation. PURSUE — the Presidential Unsealing and Reporting System for UAP Encounters — was established under the Trump Administration as a rolling declassification mechanism for government UAP records.

Among the newly released documents is a CIA file describing an incident at Harare International Airport in Zimbabwe in 2008. Witnesses reportedly observed a "disc-like" object with a hollow center and "a series of rotating lights on the underside of the airframe." After the object's lights shifted colors, it ascended rapidly and disappeared. The document states the incident "resulted in the decision to place the Zimbabwe [redacted] on high alert," and notes that observers debated whether the object was "an advanced reconnaissance device of a foreign government or of extraterrestrial origins." Portions of the document are redacted. A separate set of documents describes a 2024 sighting near Colorado Springs, in which witnesses near Cheyenne Mountain observed a "potato"-shaped object described as "creamy/whitish opalescent" and "somewhat translucent," with "articulating fish scales or panels." AARO's intelligence community partner assessed with "low confidence" that backscattering of sunlight reflecting off snow-covered ground "might account for the visibility of the object followed by its sudden disappearance." A third document pair, accompanied by supplemental video, describes a luminous reddish "sphere" with an interior "white plasma sun" observed near a residential backyard; analysts assessed the footage as consistent with sky lanterns, and Hanks notes it may be identical to a video previously evaluated by an aviation safety advocacy group.

The article also examines a video from the second PURSUE batch — formally designated DOW-UAP-PR061, "Spherical UAP [CALLSIGN] 2021/04/12 vid 0" — which the Department of War describes as likely derived from a full-motion video camera and an infrared sensor aboard a U.S. military platform within the USCENTCOM area of responsibility. Originally captured on April 12, 2021, and uploaded to a classified network in June 2024, the footage appears to show a small, light-colored spherical object moving above desert terrain. The object descends, casts a shadow against the terrain below, abruptly changes direction, and moves into a shadowed portion of the landscape where it becomes indiscernible. Hanks notes the behavior is suggestive of controlled flight and possibly intentional concealment, while stopping short of attributing extraordinary or non-terrestrial capabilities to the object.

Hanks contextualizes the releases against AARO's published technical target profile for genuine UAP, first presented by inaugural AARO Director Dr. Sean Kirkpatrick before U.S. Senators in April 2023. That profile characterizes typical UAP as generally round objects 1–4 meters in diameter, white/silver/translucent in appearance, operating at 10,000–30,000 feet altitude, with velocities ranging from stationary to Mach 2. No thermal exhaust signatures have been associated with such objects; intermittent radar returns in the X-Band (8–12 GHz) range and RF emissions in the 1–3 GHz and 8–12 GHz ranges have been noted. Hanks argues that the specificity of these technical parameters implies the existence of higher-quality, still-classified UAP data from which such signatures were derived — data that has not yet been included in the PURSUE releases.

The piece also engages skeptic Mick West, who commented via X following the second PURSUE release that "all 46 videos have been released" and that "none of them are amazing," suggesting the material may represent the best available. Hanks, while sympathetic to the methodological point, disagrees with the conclusion, arguing instead that the PURSUE releases likely represent a declassified subset of a larger, more compelling body of UAP data still withheld for national security or counterintelligence reasons.