162 Declassified UAP Files Released at war.gov — None Confirm Extraterrestrial Origin

The Department of War released 162 declassified files on May 8, 2026, through a newly launched portal at war.gov/UFO, under the Presidential Unsealing and Reporting System for UAP Encounters — known by the acronym PURSUE. The files span eight decades of government documentation, from World War II-era "Balls of Fire" reports through military observations logged as recently as late 2025.

The release is an interagency effort drawing on records from the Department of War, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, the Department of Energy, NASA, the FBI, and additional intelligence components. Document types include military field reports, FBI investigative files, NASA spaceflight crew transcripts and debriefings, infrared sensor imagery, and witness interview records. The portal also includes 17 publicly visible images in a carousel format, among them FBI-labeled infrared stills and archival Apollo mission photographs.

None of the 162 files contain a government determination that the reported phenomena were extraterrestrial in origin. The Department of War has classified every case in the release as "unresolved" — meaning the government has not explained the observation, but has also not concluded it represents extraordinary origins.

The All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office, the Pentagon body established in 2022 to investigate UAP incidents across the military and intelligence community, had logged more than 1,600 cases in its active holdings as of its most recent public reporting. AARO stated it had found no verified evidence of extraterrestrial activity, technology, or beings.

What the Files Cover

The earliest materials in the release document post-World War II aerial observations. The Apollo mission files include NASA crew transcripts from Apollo 11, Apollo 12, and Apollo 17 — sessions in which astronauts noted anomalous objects, light flashes, and what mission logs termed "bogeys." Apollo 17 photographs in the release show what crew members described as three dots in a triangular formation in the lunar sky; the Department of War has not characterized these images as depicting known or unknown objects.

Recent military sightings in the release include a January 2024 incident over Greece, an October 2024 observation from Syria, a 2024 encounter near Japan described in the report as involving a "football-shaped" aerial body, and a 2020 sighting over the southern United States. AARO conducted measurements of a 2023 incident involving a large orb observed by seven federal employees in the western United States, estimating the object was roughly 1,050 meters from observers and between 12 and 18 meters in diameter. No determination of origin was made.

The 1964 Socorro, New Mexico incident — in which Police Officer Lonnie Zamora reported a landed craft that left ground depressions and scorched grass — appears in the historical files. An Alaska case involving an airline captain who reported a cigar-shaped metallic object traveling at 270 to 290 mph is also included.

The Directive and Its Scope

President Trump posted on February 19, 2026, directing the Secretary of War and other relevant departments and agencies "to begin the process of identifying and releasing Government files related to alien and extraterrestrial life, unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP), and unidentified flying objects (UFOs), and any and all other information connected to these highly complex, but extremely interesting and important, matters."

Secretary of War Pete Hegseth framed the May 8 release as delivering on that directive: "The Department of War is in lockstep with President Trump to bring unprecedented transparency regarding our government's understanding of Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena. These files, hidden behind classifications, have long fueled justified speculation — and it is time the American people see it for themselves."

The PURSUE portal generated 340 million hits within the first 12 hours of operation, according to a Pentagon official statement.

Rolling Release

The Department of War has described PURSUE as an ongoing program. The portal states that additional files will be released in tranches every few weeks as agencies locate, review, declassify, and clear records for public access. The effort is described as spanning dozens of agencies and tens of millions of records, many of which exist only on paper. No date has been set for subsequent releases, and no total count of documents to be eventually published has been specified.

Notably absent from the first release: any imagery or documentation from the February 2023 shootdowns of unidentified objects over U.S. and Canadian airspace.