The Pentagon has begun releasing a new tranche of documents on unidentified anomalous phenomena, or UAPs, framing the disclosure as part of a broader transparency push and urging Americans to review the material for themselves.
In a post on Twitter on Friday, officials contrasted the new effort with what they described as earlier attempts to dismiss public interest in the subject. “While past administrations sought to discredit or dissuade the American people, President Donald Trump is focused on providing maximum transparency to the public, who can ultimately make up their own minds about the information contained in these files,” the statement read.
The documents are expected to be released in phases. The initiative involves several federal agencies, including the White House, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, the Energy Department, NASA and the FBI.
Trump had previously teased the release of the files and strange incidents have been happening to witnesses of UFOs recently.
The Pentagon has also launched a dedicated website for the files, using a retro design that features black-and-white images of aerial objects and text styled to resemble old typewriter print. The first release includes 162 documents, spanning historical State Department cables, FBI reports and transcripts from NASA space missions, noted The Associated Press.
One FBI record describes an interview with a drone operator who said that, in September 2023, he observed a “linear object” emitting a bright light that appeared to reveal internal bands. “The object was visible for five to ten seconds and then the light went out and the object vanished,” according to the FBI interview.
Another document includes a 1972 photograph from NASA’s Apollo 17 mission showing three points arranged in a triangle. Pentagon analysts said there was no consensus on what the anomaly depicted, though a new review suggested it could be a “physical object.”
This is interesting.
"As part of the review of historical UAP materials under PURSUE, DOW has opened a case to investigate the accompanying NASA photograph from the Apollo 17 mission, taken December 1972. The image contains three “dots” in a triangular formation in the lower… pic.twitter.com/JedLhtFuLA
— Chris Ramsay (@chrisramsay52) May 8, 2026
Trump, who has long promised greater openness on UAPs, began previewing the release earlier this year. His administration also authorized the declassification of files related to the assassinations of President John F. Kennedy, Sen. Robert F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr., though those releases largely reinforced information already available to the public.
The Pentagon’s UAP disclosure effort predates the latest release. In 2022, Congress created a dedicated office to review the issue, and lawmakers later required broader disclosure of historical sighting reports after military personnel described unexplained encounters.
A 2024 report from that office documented hundreds of new incidents but said it found no evidence that the government had verified alien technology.
Rep. Tim Burchett praised the disclosure, saying Trump was “keeping his word” on transparency and public access. “I would like to remind people that transparency won’t all happen at once, it will take some time,” Burchett said in a statement.
Still, analysts have urged caution in interpreting the files. Videos and images of unexplained phenomena are often misunderstood by viewers unfamiliar with advanced military systems, optical effects or classified technology. The Pentagon’s previous assessment explicitly rejected claims that the government had recovered extraterrestrial craft or confirmed evidence of alien life.
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