Washington: The Pentagon has started releasing what it says are “never-before-seen files” related to reports of unidentified flying objects (UFOs), including videos and photographs of phenomena captured from US military posts around the world.
Many of the images published on Friday (US time) are murky black-and-white photos or video clips in which the purported flying object is unclear and resembles only a dot or black circle.
Others, however, show a more defined object. One brief clip taken from a US military infrared sensor in the East China Sea in 2024 purports to show a “football-shaped body” in motion.
Another, taken from a censor in the Middle East in 2013, purportedly depicts “an area of contrast resembling an eight-pointed star with arms of alternating length”.
A note accompanying each clip declares that the description provided is for “informational purposes only” and readers should not interpret it as an analytical judgment, investigative conclusion, or factual determination.
Several images appeared to relate to the same purported sighting. The trove also contains declassified witness reports about object sightings going back to the 1940s.
One recent report detailed an incident in which three separate teams of federal special agents purported to witness Orange “orbs” in the sky that emitted or launched smaller red “orbs” in groups of two to four, then disappear.
These events were purportedly witnessed in the western US by multiple teams at various vantage points over the course of two days in 2023.
Another showed a site photo with a rendered graphic overlay which the Pentagon said depicted “corroborating eyewitness reports from September 2023 of an apparent ellipsoid bronze metallic object materialising out of a bright light in the sky”, which had disappeared “instantaneously”.
The Pentagon – which last year imposed requirements on journalists that a court found were unconstitutional – said the files’ release was part of the Trump administration’s commitment to “unprecedented transparency” regarding Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena – a modern term for UFOs.
Defence Secretary Pete Hegeth said keeping the records classified had long fuelled “justified speculation” by the public, and it was time the American people saw the material for themselves.
Additional files would be released on a rolling basis “as they are discovered and declassified”, the Pentagon said, with new tranches expected every few weeks.
US President Donald Trump urged people to draw their own conclusions about what they could see in the files.
“In an effort for Complete and Maximum Transparency, it was my Honor to direct my Administration to identify and provide Government files related to Alien and Extraterrestrial Life, Unidentified Aerial Phenomena, and Unidentified Flying Objects,” Trump said on Truth Social.
“Whereas previous Administrations have failed to be transparent on this subject, with these new Documents and Videos, the people can decide for themselves, ‘WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON?’ Have Fun and Enjoy!”
Several files included military videos from the last several years that showed small ambiguous dots moving above the landscapes of Iraq, Syria and the United Arab Emirates. The white objects sometimes streaked across the screen in less than a second, while others slowly glided through the air or were followed by the camera.
Other documents included written reports from US military service members who were surveilling locations in the Middle East. One report described an object “shaped as a bouncy ball” and travelling 777km/h consistently for at least seven minutes over Syria in 2023. The object was later determined to be benign.
The Trump administration has previously released classified documents relating to the assassination of former president John F. Kennedy and civil rights activist Martin Luther King, but they revealed little information that was not already known.
With AP
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Michael Koziol is the North America correspondent for The Age and Sydney Morning Herald. He is a former Sydney editor, Sun-Herald deputy editor and a federal political reporter in Canberra.Connect via X or email.