The Department of War is releasing UFO docs: Here are the highlights
The government has been sitting on these files for decades, and some of them date back to 1949. At the direction of President Trump, the Department of War launched PURSUE (the Presidential Unsealing and Reporting System for UAP Encounters) in February 2026, committing to a rolling public release of declassified UAP records across dozens of agencies. Three tranches have been published so far, on May 8, May 22 and June 12, 2026. What the releases share in common is a specific and deliberate framing: these are unresolved cases. The government cannot make a definitive determination on what was observed. That is not a disclaimer. That is the point.
The full archive is publicly accessible at war.gov/UFO, where all released documents can be searched, filtered and downloaded. Here are five highlights from what has been released so far.
A UFO sighting at Harare International Airport, July 2008
A previously classified report documenting a UAP incident at Harare International Airport in Zimbabwe, never publicly released before this tranche. The report is routed through intelligence channels and carries the subject line ZIMBABWE, visible on the document cover. What it contains beyond the routing information has not been summarized by the Department of War, which has consistently released documents without editorial commentary, a deliberate choice that leaves interpretation to the public and to private-sector analysts the DOW has explicitly invited to engage.
A 1949 US Army flying saucer study
A declassified secret file from the Department of the Army, dated 1949, containing an Evaluation Study of the Phenomenon known as Flying Saucers. Prepared at the request of the Plans and Operations Divisions of the General Staff, the study was commissioned to determine whether the phenomenon could be traced to natural causes or to the activities of a foreign power. The document predates the term UAP by decades; the military was still using popular-culture language. The question it was trying to answer is exactly the same question the PURSUE program is trying to answer now, seventy-seven years later.
An FBI field report from Colorado Springs, 2022
An FBI FD-1057 (the bureau’s standard form for recording investigative activity) containing a first-hand narrative description of unidentified anomalous phenomena reported near Colorado Springs in 2022. Filed as FBI-UAP-D002. The document contains redacted sections. What remains is a specific, first-person description of something the witness observed and reported to federal law enforcement, which then treated it seriously enough to file a formal investigative record.
An artistic rendering of the Colorado Springs incident
The Department of War released not just the FBI field report but a digital rendering derived from the witness’s first-hand description, an image of a phenomenon over a mountain landscape cataloged as FBI-UAP-D003. The decision to commission an artistic interpretation alongside the raw document is unusual. The PURSUE program has consistently stated it welcomes public engagement and analysis; an image serves that purpose more directly than a redacted federal form.
A February 2026 FBI interview about UAP incidents
An FBI FD-302 (the bureau’s standard form for recording witness interviews) documenting a February 2026 conversation with a US person who described incidents that may involve unidentified anomalous phenomena. The interview represents active, ongoing UAP reporting rather than historical documentation. The witness identity is redacted. The incidents described are classified as unresolved. Companion documents suggest this northeastern sighting and the Colorado Springs case may be part of a broader pattern of recent domestic UAP activity under active FBI investigation.
The bottom line
Three tranches released. Tens of millions of records still under review. The PURSUE archive is live, searchable and free to access at war.gov/UFO. Whatever the files contain, they are no longer classified. The interpretation is now a public matter.
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