The US government just dropped 161 classified files on UFOs — and what’s inside changes everything we thought we knew.
May 8, 2026. The United States Department of War did something no government had ever done before at this scale — it opened its classified UFO files to the public. No clearance needed. No FOIA request. Just go to war.gov/ufo and start reading.
161 files, Videos, photos, and reports spanning from the 1940s all the way to 2026. And buried inside is an FBI report that, honestly, reads like a thriller — a military helicopter being circled by a glowing orb that came within 10 feet of the rotor blades, then disappeared faster than the helicopter could follow.
This isn’t a rumor. This isn’t a leak. This is the US government’s own words, in their own documents, now publicly available.
So what exactly was released? What do scientists say about what these files describe? And what does it mean for the rest of us? Let’s go through it — all of it.
What Are the 2026 Pentagon UFO Files? The PURSUE Program Explained
The release is called PURSUE — Presidential Unsealing and Reporting System for UAP Encounters. President Trump launched it on February 19, 2026, through a Truth Social post directing the Pentagon and all relevant agencies to begin identifying, declassifying, and releasing every UAP-related file the government holds.
Who’s involved? The Department of War, the FBI, NASA, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), the Department of Energy, and AARO — the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office, the Pentagon’s dedicated UAP investigation unit.
Secretary of War Pete Hegseth said at release: “These files, hidden behind classifications, have long fueled justified speculation — and it’s time the American people see it for themselves.”
FBI Director Kash Patel added: “For the first time in history, the American people have unfettered access to declassified government files on UAP.”
This is a rolling release. Every few weeks, a new batch goes live. Release 01 is what dropped on May 8, 2026 — and it’s already enough to keep researchers busy for months.
Access the files directly at war.gov/ufo — no account or clearance required.
What’s Inside Release 01? A Full Breakdown of the 161 Files
Here’s what the first batch actually contains:
- 28 videos — infrared and FLIR footage from military platforms around the world
- 14 images — including the Apollo 17 lunar triangle photo and a 2023 southeastern US composite sketch
- FBI field reports — eyewitness accounts from military personnel, declassified for the first time
- CENTCOM military memos — sightings from Iraq (2022), Syria (2024), Greece (2023–24), UAE (2024)
- Apollo mission transcripts and photos — covering Apollo 11, 12, and 17
- State Department diplomatic cables — sightings reported by US diplomats abroad
- 1947–1968 FBI archive — hundreds of pages, now with fewer redactions than the FOIA version
Geographic scope: Western United States, Greece, UAE, Iraq, Syria, Africa, Indo-Pacific (Japan region), North America (US Army, 2026)
Time span: 1940s through 2026 — including at least one report from this year
Read our UFO case studies breakdown to see how these incidents compare to historically documented sightings like Roswell Incident.
The FBI’s 2025 Helicopter Report: The Most Dramatic File in the Release
This is the file everyone is talking about.
Formerly classified SECRET/NOFORN — a designation meaning foreign nationals were specifically prohibited from seeing it — this FBI report covers a nighttime operation in the western United States in 2025. Two senior US intelligence officials, military pilots, and ground-based observation teams were all involved.
It started as a routine search mission. It ended with something the US government still cannot explain.
The Night It Happened: A Chronological Walkthrough
5:00 PM (1700h): Call Sign 1 — a State Partner Organization helicopter — departs the Operations Center. Onboard: WITNESS 1 and WITNESS 2 (both senior US intelligence officials), plus pilots and federal partner personnel. Mission: aerial search of a mountain range near a sensitive government site, following reports of orbs and lights — and thuds, “as if something had fallen.”
5:51 PM (1751h): Pilots spot a large cavern entrance. They orbit briefly. Nothing conclusive. They continue.
10:41 PM (2141h): Ground-based LP/OP (Listening Post/Observation Post) team — using FLIR and Night Vision Goggles — detects something in the mountains, roughly 4 miles out. Call Sign 1 flies there. Searches with NVG and spotlight. Negative results. Whatever FLIR saw was either gone or never stationary.
10:49 PM (2149h): Radar hits — 4 miles out. JOC (Joint Operations Center) provides coordinates. Helicopter moves to intercept.
11:02 PM (2202h) — First Contact: Call Sign 1 arrives. LP/OP reports an orb hovering at ground level under FLIR — described in the document as “super-hot.” The orb moves east, then south at high speed. Then it splits into two separate objects.
11:07 PM (2207h) — The 10-Foot Moment: The orb gains altitude. It approaches the helicopter. According to the LP/OP team monitoring via FLIR, the orb came within ten feet of Call Sign 1 — directly above the rotor disk. It then accelerates southeast. The helicopter pursues. LP/OP estimates the object crossed a major road roughly 20 miles away in seconds. The helicopter, unable to match speed, breaks off. The co-pilot reports seeing something emerge from the two objects and travel in a third direction.
11:18 PM (2218h): Pilots and WITNESS 1 (naked eye) observe a swarm of lights — “too many to count” — moving in all directions.
11:27 PM–11:57 PM: Over the next 30 minutes, six separate orb formations appear in different locations. Each follows the same pattern: orbs flare up one at a time in horizontal or vertical formation, hold for 10–15 seconds, then extinguish in reverse order. One formation is a clear triangle with three distinct orbs. Another appears directly above descending military aircraft.
WITNESS 1’s final note: “The orbs appeared to break off from Call Sign 1 and pursue the [Military Aircraft].”
What Does Science Say? Researchers Who Take This Seriously
This is where things get genuinely interesting — because the scientific community has been quietly building a body of research on UAP for years.
Dr. Kevin Knuth — University at Albany (SUNY), Physics
In 2019, Dr. Knuth (a professor of physics at SUNY Albany) published a peer-reviewed study in the journal Entropy titled “Estimating Flight Characteristics of Anomalous Unidentified Aerial Vehicles.” Co-authored with Robert M. Powell and Peter A. Reali of the Scientific Coalition for UAP Studies, the paper analyzed real military UAP cases — including the 2004 USS Nimitz “Tic Tac” encounter.
Their findings: estimated accelerations ranging from 100g to thousands of g’s, with no sonic boom, no observed air disturbance, and no heat signature proportional to the energy required. For context, a human pilot blacks out around 9g. Whatever these objects are doing, they are operating outside every known aerospace framework.
The paper’s conclusion was measured but stark: “These observations are either fabricated or seriously in error, or these craft exhibit technology far more advanced than any known craft on Earth.”
The 2025 FBI report — an orb outrunning a helicopter across 20 miles in seconds — fits exactly the flight profile Knuth’s paper described.
Dr. Avi Loeb — Harvard University, Galileo Project
Dr. Loeb, former chair of Harvard’s astronomy department, launched the Galileo Project in 2021 — the first systematic scientific program to physically search for evidence of non-human technology near Earth. His team installed telescopes at Harvard College Observatory to monitor the sky using AI-assisted analysis.
In June 2023, Loeb’s team recovered 850 microscopic spherules from the Pacific Ocean floor at the site of the 2014 interstellar meteor IM1. A tenth of these spherules had chemical compositions different from any known solar system material. The findings were published in the Elsevier journal Chemical Geology in September 2024.
Loeb’s position: he’s not saying aliens. He’s saying the scientific method requires we look — and that the data from cases like the 2025 FBI report, with multi-sensor confirmation from trained observers, is exactly the kind of data worth analyzing rigorously.
Dr. Andrew Morgan & Dr. Brian Tyson — NRGscapes Lab (2024)
In November 2024, Morgan and Tyson published peer-reviewed research (NRGscapes Lab Research Paper no. 002 and 003) studying orb and rod UAP morphology using 850nm infrared filming and electromagnetic field recordings. Their study found that orb sightings correlated with EM field buildup in the environment — and that some orbs displayed “rings rotating around a central sphere” that appeared to function as energy-harvesting mechanisms.
Their papers propose that these objects may represent either an “unknown technological phenomenon” or something that could be described as a “hybrid of technological and biological phenomena” — with possible non-human intelligence.
This is peer-reviewed work. It isn’t wild speculation — it’s researchers applying the scientific method to data that the government has, until now, kept mostly classified.
Apollo 17, Apollo 12, Apollo 11: When NASA Astronauts Saw Something Too
The helicopter report gets the most attention, but the Apollo mission files are arguably the most historically significant part of Release 01.
Apollo 11 (1969): Post-mission debriefing documents reveal that Buzz Aldrin reported seeing “little flashes inside the cabin, spaced a couple of minutes apart” while trying to sleep during the mission. Separately, he noted a “fairly bright light source” in space. These accounts were in government files but never previously highlighted in public releases.
Apollo 12 (1969): Astronaut Alan Bean reported “flashes of light” that appeared to be “sailing off into space.” A photo from the mission, now officially labeled as showing “unidentified phenomena,” shows a glowing object just above the lunar horizon. War.gov released this photo with the area clearly highlighted.
Apollo 17 (December 1972): This is the one that’s getting the most attention. Astronaut Harrison “Jack” Schmitt described seeing “very bright particles” tumbling in space — his exact words were “It’s like the Fourth of July out there!” A fellow crew member added: “There are a whole bunch of big ones on my window — just bright. Very jagged, angular fragments that are tumbling.”
A photo from that mission — officially catalogued as NASA-UAP-VM6 — shows three bright dots in a triangular formation above the lunar surface. Pentagon analysts reviewing it stated there was “no consensus about the nature of the anomaly” and said it could represent a “physical object in the scene.”
The Department of War has now opened a formal investigation. The original Apollo 17 mission film has been obtained. This is the first time a 54-year-old NASA photo has had an active government case file.
Comparison Table: Known Aircraft vs. UAP Behavior in the 2025 FBI Report
| Feature | Military Helicopter (Call Sign 1) | UAP Orb (per 2025 FBI Report) |
|---|---|---|
| Max speed | ~170 mph (standard military helicopter) | Outpaced helicopter across 20 miles in seconds — estimated 5,000+ mph |
| Thermal signature | Standard engine heat, trackable via FLIR | Described as “super-hot” — extreme, unusual thermal signature |
| Maneuverability | Limited — requires deceleration for turns | Split into 2 objects mid-flight; re-formed; changed direction instantly |
| Altitude behavior | Controlled, gradual altitude changes | Hovered at ground level → gained altitude rapidly → approached helicopter |
| Detection | Radar + visual | FLIR confirmed; visual by both pilots (NVG) and WITNESS 1 (naked eye) |
| Sound | Significant rotor noise | No sonic boom reported despite extreme speed |
| Formation behavior | Single craft, linear path | Multiple orbs in horizontal and triangle formations, coordinated flare pattern |
| Response to aircraft | N/A | Orbs appeared to pursue military aircraft after leaving helicopter |
| Explainable by known physics? | Yes | No — consistent with Knuth et al. (2019) “impossible flight characteristics” classification |
Note: The speed estimate is based on what witnesses described in the report. According to the document, the object appeared to travel nearly 20 miles in just a few seconds. However, the exact timing was not officially recorded, so this should be seen as a careful estimate, not a confirmed measurement. More technical analysis and sensor data would be needed to fully verify how fast the object was actually moving.
What the Government Is NOT Saying (And Why That Matters)
Let’s be honest about what this release does and doesn’t claim.
The Department of War has been careful. The war.gov portal includes a disclaimer: the language in these reports reflects the “subjective interpretation” of the person who wrote the report — and should not be treated as a “conclusive indication” of what actually occurred.
No file in Release 01 confirms extraterrestrial life. AARO, the Pentagon’s UAP office, has not confirmed extraterrestrial origin for any case in its entire history.
What’s actually been confirmed:
- Multiple independent witnesses with military-grade equipment observed phenomena they could not explain
- Objects demonstrated behavior inconsistent with all known aircraft — domestic or foreign
- Cases remain officially unresolved — not because investigators are hiding something, but because the data doesn’t support a definitive conclusion yet
- Government is now publicly acknowledging these cases exist and inviting private-sector analysis
Representative Tim Burchett, who has pushed for UAP disclosure in Congress for years, called this “a drop in the bucket” — meaning he believes far more sensitive material still exists. Whether that’s true, we don’t know.
What we do know: this is the most transparent the US government has ever been on this subject. And what they’re willing to show us already raises serious scientific questions.
What Happens Next? The Rolling Release Timeline
PURSUE is ongoing. Here’s what to expect:
- New batches every few weeks — the Department of War has committed to this publicly
- More State Department cables — diplomatic reports of UAP from US embassies around the world
- Apollo 17 investigation results — when the original film analysis is complete
- US Army 2026 case (PR49) — the most recent sighting in Release 01, already from this year
- Potentially active military files — cases currently under investigation, if/when cleared for release
The government also explicitly welcomes private-sector analysis of these files. Researchers, scientists, and independent analysts are encouraged to apply their own tools and expertise to the released data.
Harvard’s Galileo Project at galileo.hsites.harvard.edu is one of the leading independent scientific efforts studying UAP data using telescope networks and AI.
Conclusion:
The 2026 UAP file release does not prove extraterrestrial life — but it does show that governments, scientists, and military investigators are taking unexplained aerial phenomena more seriously than ever before.
From the 2025 helicopter orb encounter to the renewed attention on Apollo-era anomalies, these files reveal how many cases remain unresolved even after decades of investigation. Some incidents may eventually find ordinary explanations. Others may continue challenging our understanding of technology, physics, and observation itself.
What makes this release important is not the claim of aliens, but the shift toward transparency. For years, discussions about UFOs existed mostly in speculation and leaked reports. Now, more official documents, sensor data, and eyewitness accounts are entering public view.
Whether these phenomena turn out to be advanced technology, misunderstood natural events, or something entirely unknown, one thing is clear: the conversation around UAPs is no longer limited to conspiracy theories — it has become a serious topic of scientific and public interest.
And for many researchers, this may only be the beginning.
FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions)
Q1: Where can I see the actual UFO files the government released?
Go to war.gov/ufo — it’s publicly accessible, no login or security clearance required. Videos, photos, and PDFs are all available directly on the portal
Q2: What does UAP mean vs UFO?
UFO (Unidentified Flying Object) is the older term. UAP (Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena) is the current official US government term — it’s broader, covering aerial, underwater, and even space-based phenomena that can’t be immediately identified.
Q3: Has the US government confirmed the existence of aliens?
No document in this release or any previous release confirms extraterrestrial life. The government classifies these as “unresolved cases” — phenomena for which no definitive explanation has been found. That’s different from confirming alien origin.
Q4: What was the “super-hot” orb in the FBI report?
FLIR (Forward Looking Infrared) cameras detect heat. A “super-hot” reading means the object’s thermal signature was dramatically higher and more unusual than any conventional aircraft or drone would produce. The orb also hovered at ground level before moving — something no known aircraft does.
Q5: Could the orbs be secret US military technology?
It’s a fair question. But several things argue against it: the objects were being tracked by the same US military officials who would know about secret programs; the behavior (splitting into two, extreme speed, orb formations near military aircraft) goes far beyond any publicly known or rumored classified program; and government investigators themselves classified these as unresolved.
Q6: What did Buzz Aldrin actually report seeing on Apollo 11?
In post-mission debriefing documents now released through PURSUE, Aldrin described “little flashes inside the cabin, spaced a couple of minutes apart” during the mission. He also separately noted a “fairly bright light source” in space. These accounts were in government records but were not previously highlighted in public releases.
Q7: Why did it take until 2026 to release these files?
Classification decisions are made based on national security concerns — sometimes legitimate, sometimes overly cautious. Many of these records also existed only on paper, requiring manual review before any release could happen. The PURSUE program is the first systematic effort to coordinate this across all agencies at once.
Q8: What is the PURSUE program and who runs it?
PURSUE — Presidential Unsealing and Reporting System for UAP Encounters — is run by the Department of War with support from ODNI, FBI, NASA, Department of Energy, and AARO. It was launched by President Trump’s directive on February 19, 2026.
Q9: What is the Galileo Project and how does it relate?
Harvard’s Galileo Project, led by professor Avi Loeb, is an independent scientific program that physically monitors the sky for anomalous phenomena using telescopes and AI. It operates separately from government programs but has publicly supported the kind of transparency PURSUE represents. Loeb’s team previously recovered interstellar material from the Pacific Ocean — published in Chemical Geology in 2024.
Q10: What does the Apollo 17 photo actually show?
It shows three bright dots in a triangular formation above the lunar surface — visible when the area is magnified. Pentagon analysts reviewed it and stated there was “no consensus” on what it represents, and that it “potentially” shows a physical object. A formal investigation has been opened and the original mission film has been obtained.
Q11: Was the 2025 helicopter incident filmed?
Partially. The pilots indicated they were recording. However, WITNESS 1 noted that many sightings occurred above the helicopter, which was outside the FLIR camera’s field of view. What footage exists has not yet been publicly released — it may appear in a future PURSUE batch.
Q12: What is FLIR and why does it matter for UAP research?
FLIR (Forward Looking Infrared) is a thermal imaging technology used on military aircraft. It detects heat signatures rather than visible light — making it effective at night and at long range. UAP objects that are visible on FLIR but not to the naked eye, or vice versa, present unique anomalies that standard camera footage can’t capture.
Q13: What did scientists find when they mathematically analyzed UAP flight characteristics?
Dr. Kevin Knuth’s 2019 peer-reviewed study in Entropy (SUNY Albany) estimated accelerations of 100g to thousands of g’s for documented UAP cases — with no sonic boom, no air disturbance, and no commensurate heat signature. He concluded these observations “exhibit technology far more advanced than any known craft on Earth.” The 2025 FBI orb behavior is consistent with that classification.
Q14: Is there any scientific explanation for what the orbs might be?
Several are being explored. One leading hypothesis is plasmoid phenomena — high-energy plasma structures that can exhibit unusual electromagnetic properties. Research by Morgan and Tyson (2024) found that orb sightings correlated with electromagnetic field buildup. However, plasma alone doesn’t explain 20-mile-in-seconds travel. No single explanation currently covers all observed behaviors.
Q15: Will the government keep releasing more UAP files?
Yes. The Department of War has confirmed PURSUE is an ongoing program with releases every few weeks. There are tens of millions of records under review — many still existing only on paper. The Apollo 17 investigation results, additional Apollo-era materials, and future military sighting reports will all be released as they are cleared.
Final Thought: This Is the Beginning, Not the Answer
What the US government released on May 8, 2026 isn’t a revelation. It’s an invitation.
An invitation for scientists to look at data that was previously locked away. An invitation for the public to read primary sources instead of secondhand accounts. And honestly, an invitation for all of us to sit with the discomfort of not knowing — which is exactly where science lives.
A senior US intelligence official watched glowing orbs form in a triangle above a military helicopter. Apollo astronauts described watching light particles tumble through space like fireworks. A peer-reviewed physicist calculated that whatever these things are, they’re operating at accelerations thousands of times what any human-made aircraft can achieve.
Nobody is saying it’s aliens. But nobody can say what it is.
And now, for the first time, you can read the files yourself.
Read here: war.gov/ufo
Primary Sources: US Department of War — war.gov/ufo · PURSUE Release 01 · May 8, 2026 · FBI UAP Field Report (formerly SECRET//NOFORN) · Official DOW Press Release
Scientific References: Knuth, K.H., Powell, R.M., Reali, P.A. “Estimating Flight Characteristics of Anomalous Unidentified Aerial Vehicles.” Entropy, 2019, 21(10), 939. | Morgan, A.D., Tyson, B. NRGscapes Lab Research Papers no. 002 & 003, November 2024. | Loeb, A. et al. “Chemical classification of spherules recovered from the Pacific Ocean site of CNEOS 2014-01-08 (IM1).” Chemical Geology, Elsevier, September 2024. | Galileo Project, Harvard University (galileo.hsites.harvard.edu)
This article is based on primary government documents available at war.gov/ufo. Additional context gathered from public reporting and used for background analysis only.
Disclaimer: Some claims discussed in this article remain unverified or disputed. The article explores publicly discussed UAP reports, scientific commentary, and declassified-style disclosure scenarios for informational and analytical purposes.