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.
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.
A new tranche of up to 46 UAP videos held by the Pentagon's All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO) is expected to be released imminently under the Department of War's Presidential Unsealing and Reporting System for UAP Encounters (PURSUE) initiative. The release follows a March 31, 2026, letter from Representative Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.) to Secretary of War Pete Hegseth formally requesting the footage, which was originally due no later than April 14, 2026. On May 15, 2026, Luna confirmed she and Rep. Eric Burlison (R-Mo.) had completed a review of the videos alongside AARO director Jon Kosloski.
The forthcoming batch — anticipated to be designated "Release 02" — includes footage of spherical objects, cigar-shaped UAP, fast-moving objects, and at least two videos depicting what the military characterizes as "transmedium" or unidentified submerged objects (USOs). The collection also appears to include additional footage related to the January 26, 2023, Eglin Air Force Base diamond-formation incident and the February 12, 2023, Lake Huron shootdown event. The article, published by The Debrief on May 21, 2026, represents the most detailed public accounting of the expected contents of the release prior to its official publication.
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.'
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.
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.
Former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Intelligence Christopher Mellon published an op-ed in The Debrief on April 5, 2025, arguing that the Department of Defense is improperly withholding a large volume of unclassified UAP imagery from Congress and the public. Mellon contends that a restrictive classification guide created by the DoD's UAP Task Force — developed in the aftermath of the 2017–2018 Navy UAP video releases — has been applied to material that does not legitimately qualify for classification under Executive Order 13526, and that no official at DoD or in the Intelligence Community has been designated to advocate for or execute the release of unclassified UAP information.
Mellon's piece is directed at Representative Anna Paulina Luna's Congressional Task Force on the Declassification of Federal Secrets, as well as the broader Trump administration, urging both to compel a review and release of unclassified UAP videos held by military and intelligence agencies. He references specific prior commitments — including a 2022 pledge by Deputy Director of Naval Intelligence Scott Bray before the House Intelligence Committee — that have not resulted in any meaningful public disclosures beyond a handful of videos on the AARO website. Mellon also notes an encouraging development: AARO, under the direction of Dr. Jon Kosloski, has agreed to locate and submit for declassification review a specific F-18 UAP video he recalled from years prior.
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.
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.
A 2-minute-57-second AARO video from a U.S. military sensor records an unidentified object over Greece performing multiple sharp 90-degree turns at speed — flight characteristics that exceed publicly disclosed performance of known aircraft. Released as DOW-UAP-PR34 in PURSUE Release 01.
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.
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.'
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.
A 20-second infrared sensor recording from a U.S. military platform over CENTCOM waters near Iran, August 26, 2022, showing four areas of contrast moving together — and then a fifth object entering the frame from the top-left. The opening video of the new PR050-PR099 series released in PURSUE Release 02.
A sensor video from a U.S. Navy platform in March 2022 showing multiple spherical objects moving in and out of the water in close proximity to a surfaced U.S. submarine — the cleanest transmedium/USO (Unidentified Submerged Object) footage AARO has released to date, and the iconic image of PURSUE Release 02.
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.
Released as the kinematic standout of PURSUE Release 02, DOW-UAP-PR051 records a 2021 encounter on the Jordan-Syria border in which a U.S. Air Force MQ-9 Reaper drone achieves a weapons-quality lock on an unidentified object before that object exhibits instantaneous acceleration and abrupt directional changes that, per AARO's mission report, exceed the publicly disclosed performance envelope of any known crewed or uncrewed aerial system.
An infrared sensor video from November 23, 2020 over Afghanistan — captured by a U.S. military platform in CENTCOM's area of responsibility — showing a single spherical object moving in and out of cloud cover. The footage was uploaded to a U.S. classified network in June 2024 and declassified in PURSUE Release 02.
A U.S. Navy Range Fouler debrief from May 14, 2020 documents a 'solid white object' performing erratic movements above the water of the Persian Gulf — a close-proximity encounter with active U.S. military training. Released as DOW-UAP-D38 with companion video DOW-UAP-PR36.
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.
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.