Harvard University theoretical physicist and Professor of Science Avi Loeb announced the formation of a new UAP Science Advisory Council on or around June 17, 2026, disclosing early details to DefenseScoop. The multidisciplinary council, comprising twelve named expert researchers spanning physical sciences, biology, psychology, and anthropology, is chartered to provide scientific guidance to the U.S. government's unidentified anomalous phenomena investigations and to advise on whether unexplained sightings constitute national security threats or represent novel discoveries. The council will report to a newly established interagency UAP Governance Board, co-established by ODNI, the FBI, and the Department of Defense, which held its first meeting on June 16, 2026.
The council's formation follows President Donald Trump's February 2026 directive instructing the Defense Secretary and relevant agencies to begin identifying and releasing government files related to UAP, aliens, and UFOs. Three batches of UAP files were released under that initiative on May 8, May 22, and June 12, 2026. AARO Director Jon Kosloski signed the most recent report, dated June 5, 2026, which described law enforcement officials observing an orange "mother" orb launching smaller red orbs during two days in October 2023, with approximately 40 percent of reported phenomena remaining unresolved. All data provided to the science council will be unclassified.
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.
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.'