Pentagon Releases New Batch of Declassified UFO Sighting Files

Okay, so here's what happened — and yes, it's as wild as it sounds. The Pentagon has been dropping batches of declassified UFO files, and we now have two tranches of material out in the open for anyone to look at. No security clearance required.

The first release came on May 8, 2026, when the Department of Defense launched what it's calling the Presidential Unsealing and Reporting System for UAP Encounters — or PURSUE, because the government loves an acronym — specifically to release military data related to UFO phenomena. Then, a second batch of 64 files dropped on Friday, under the same executive order by President Trump.

The first release alone included 162 files from the FBI, Department of Defense, NASA, and State Department — containing eyewitness testimony, photos, and reports of unexplained objects dating back decades from around the globe. That first batch included 120 PDFs, 28 videos, and 14 image files.

So what's actually in these files? A lot of genuinely strange stuff. The bulk of the documents feature modern incident reports from military personnel detailing encounters with strange objects over Iraq, Syria, the Persian Gulf, the Strait of Hormuz, Greece, and elsewhere — including one pilot who described seeing a "triangular and metallic UAP" flying at 25,000 feet over the Mediterranean. One State Department cable described an object making 90-degree turns, doing corkscrews, and maneuvering in circles at great rates of speed. A military report from the Aegean Sea in 2023 cited a UAP flying just above the ocean surface and making "multiple 90-degree turns at an estimated 80 mph."

Other documents cover historical encounters, including the famous 1947 Roswell, New Mexico crash. One section of an FBI case file includes a memo by a Dallas field office agent reporting that an Air Force major called to say "an object purporting to be a flying disc was recovered near Roswell, New Mexico."

The second batch is where things get really interesting for the conspiracy crowd. The most striking document is a first-hand account by a currently serving "senior intelligence officer" who detailed his experience investigating UFO sightings in late 2025 aboard a military helicopter — writing that he and the crew had "a series of close UAP encounters lasting over an hour." There's also a video from 2022 showing multiple spherical objects going in and out of the water near a submarine.

But before you update your alien bunker plans — pump the brakes. The documents don't suggest any wide-ranging government cover-up of extraterrestrial encounters. The files show no indication that the U.S. government has had any interaction with beings from other planets or that it has any reason to believe such beings have visited Earth. The Pentagon's own website carries a disclaimer noting that the language in these memos reflects the "subjective interpretation" of whoever wrote the report and "should not be interpreted as a conclusive indication" of what actually happened.

Why does this matter to you personally? Because this is your tax dollars, your government, and decades of classified information that's now sitting on a public website. You can view all of it yourself at war.gov/UFO. Whether you're a true believer, a hardcore skeptic, or just curious — the government is officially saying, here's what we've got, make of it what you will.