The U.S. Department of War announced on September 15, 2026, a new legal waiver creating an authorized, legally protected disclosure mechanism for current and former government and military personnel to provide UAP-related National Defense Information (NDI) to designated representatives of the Presidential Unsealing and Reporting System for UAP Encounters (PURSUE). The waiver offers targeted relief from certain civil and administrative enforcement provisions contained in Non-Disclosure Agreements (NDAs) and Special Access Program Indoctrination Agreements (SAPIAs), and applies to Department of War service members, veterans, civilian employees, and contractors who hold or previously held access to UAP-related NDI.
The announcement represents a significant procedural development in UAP disclosure policy, addressing longstanding concerns from potential whistleblowers about legal and professional repercussions for discussing protected information. Critically, the waiver does not declassify any information; material submitted to PURSUE will undergo security review before any potential public release. The PURSUE initiative, launched earlier in 2026 by the Trump administration, is distinct from investigative bodies such as the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO) and is focused specifically on identifying, reviewing, declassifying, and releasing UAP-related records held across U.S. federal agencies.
The Department of Defense issued a formal waiver on September 14, 2026, providing targeted legal relief to past and present civilian personnel, service members, and contractors who wish to disclose UAP-related information to representatives of the Trump administration's Presidential Unsealing and Reporting System for UAP Encounters (PURSUE). The waiver explicitly supersedes civil and administrative enforcement provisions in Non-Disclosure Agreements (NDAs) and Special Access Program Indoctrination Agreements (SAPIAs) executed in the United States, authorizing covered disclosures to PURSUE representatives without triggering breach-of-agreement penalties or standard NDA violations.
The action represents a significant policy development in the federal government's ongoing UAP transparency effort. PURSUE, which President Trump unveiled earlier in 2026, directs all federal agencies and military branches to aggregate internal UAP records for potential declassification and public dissemination. The waiver addresses longstanding concerns among potential whistleblowers — cited in the Pentagon's own press release — that legal liability, loss of clearances, or administrative prosecution under standard NDA and SAP indoctrination terms have historically prevented individuals from coming forward with UAP-related knowledge.
The United States Department of War (DOW) published its fourth official release of declassified UAP imagery and historical files on July 10, 2026, under the Presidential Unsealing and Reporting System for UAP Encounters (PURSUE). The release, announced by Chief Pentagon Spokesman Sean Parnell, includes several previously unseen U.S. military videos of unidentified aerial objects collected by the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO), as well as historical documents dating to as early as the 1940s, all hosted at WAR.GOV/UFO.
The fourth PURSUE tranche is notable for the range of incidents represented, spanning imagery from the 1996 NASA STS-80 Space Shuttle Columbia mission, a 2019 Eastern United States sighting described by an observer with 28 years of combined U.S. Air Force and Navy experience, and multiple unresolved reports from 2020 over the Western United States and the Atlantic Ocean. Reporting by The Debrief's Micah Hanks notes that none of the released videos provide clear evidence of objects attributable to unknown aircraft or advanced technology, and that several are assessed as consistent with balloons or sensor artifacts. The DOW stated that additional file releases are being prepared on a rolling basis.
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.
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.