Pentagon Releases New Batch of Classified UFO Sighting Files

The Pentagon just dropped its second batch of declassified UFO files — and this one's harder to brush off than the first.

The release includes 64 files total, and the headliner is a 2025 first-hand account from an intelligence officer about an experience that left him "virtually speechless." If you've been vaguely curious about the whole UFO conversation but never had a reason to pay close attention, this is a good moment to start.

What's actually in these files?

The latest batch includes six PDF files, seven audio files, and 51 video files. The videos show footage of UAPs — unidentified anomalous phenomena, the government's preferred term — captured from military aircraft, each clip accompanied by a detailed description.

The standout item is the written account from a currently serving "senior intelligence officer" who detailed his experience investigating UFO sightings in late 2025 onboard a military helicopter. The officer wrote that he and the crew had "a series of close UAP encounters lasting over an hour" as they investigated previous sightings. The officer says he was sent to investigate "loud thuds heard in the mountains" in an area where UFOs had been spotted days earlier. What he described seeing was striking: two large orbs that "flared up" near the helicopter, described as "oval-shaped, orange with a white or yellow center, and emitting light in all directions."

Then there's the Lake Huron video. One of the most striking clips appears to show the moment a U.S. fighter jet shot down an unidentified object over Lake Huron in February 2023. The video shows a missile streaking toward a blurry target until it disappears. Worth noting: later reports cited in official summaries have suggested the object may have been a balloon flown by a hobbyist group rather than something otherworldly.

The files also go way back. A 116-page document details strange sightings and investigations in Sandia, New Mexico, between 1948 and 1950, including 209 sightings of "green orbs," "discs," and "fireballs" reported near a military base. The documents also include historical accounts of UFO sightings, a report on Soviet intelligence activities, and Department of Energy files about UFO reports — including one from PANTEX, a key nuclear weapons facility.

And for the space history fans: the new batch includes audio of the Apollo 12 astronauts, who landed on the moon in 1969, describing "streaks of lights" they saw in the dark while trying to sleep. NASA eventually determined the unexplained phenomena was "internal to the astronauts' vision rather than external light sources."

Why is this happening now?

The files, which President Trump ordered to be made public via executive order earlier this year, can be viewed on the Pentagon's UFO website. This release comes two weeks after the Pentagon uploaded its first group of documents, photos, and videos — which included declassified pages from the FBI's UFO case files, reports from military pilots, diplomatic cables, and photos from NASA missions. More is coming: the Pentagon and other agencies are "actively working" on another release, to be announced "in the near future."

The big caveat you need to know

Before you go full Area 51 on this: the Pentagon concedes that "many of these materials lack a substantiated chain-of-custody," meaning officials can't rule out that some material was altered or mislabeled at some point. And the Pentagon's All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office has reiterated that it has no evidence pointing to an extraterrestrial origin for any of the objects observed in the videos or described in the written accounts.

So no, the government is not confirming aliens. But they are confirming that a lot of weird, unexplained stuff has been seen by credible people — military pilots, intelligence officers, astronauts — and that the files recording those encounters are now yours to review.