Washington, D.C. — The Pentagon, on Friday, unveiled a substantial collection of 64 additional files about unidentified flying objects (UFOs) or unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAPs). This release of records includes an intriguing first-hand account from an intelligence officer in 2025, who was left “virtually speechless” by his experience.
The files, mandated to be made public by President Trump through an executive order earlier this year, are open for public viewing on the Pentagon’s UFO website. The second batch of files released on Friday includes six PDF files, seven audio files, and a sizeable collection of 51 video files. Each of these video files displays footage of UAPs captured from military aircraft and is paired with a comprehensive description of the events depicted.
This recent disclosure comes on the heels of the Pentagon’s initial release of a batch of documents, photographs, and videos two weeks prior, which were uploaded to the newly established website. The original batch of files included declassified pages taken from the FBI’s UFO case files, reports detailing strange encounters by military pilots, diplomatic cables detailing incidents occurring globally, and a variety of photographs sourced from NASA missions.
Among the 51 videos included in the recent release are grainy infrared footage captured by military cameras and sensors, a type of footage that has become somewhat commonplace over the past few years. The Pentagon, in the descriptions accompanying the videos, mentioned that the footage was requested by House lawmakers in March. The videos were sourced by the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO), the military office responsible for investigating encounters with UAPs. The Pentagon clarified that “many of these materials lack a substantiated chain-of-custody,” indicating that the descriptions provide details about when and where the footage was likely captured.
One particularly notable video appears to show a fighter jet shooting down an unidentified object over Lake Huron in 2023. This high-profile incident followed the traversal of a Chinese spy balloon across the U.S., which led to heightened fears surrounding UAPs. However, subsequent reports suggested that the unidentified object might have been a balloon operated by a hobbyist group.
A large portion of the videos capture encounters that occurred within the U.S. Central Command’s area of responsibility between 2018 and 2023, including several instances over the Persian Gulf. One video from 2022, which does not specify a location, shows multiple spherical objects entering and exiting the water near a submarine.
The released documents include historical accounts of UFO sightings, a report on Soviet intelligence activities, and multiple Department of Energy files about UFO reports. One of these files originated from PANTEX, a key nuclear weapons facility.
The most fascinating document from this collection is an account by a currently serving “senior intelligence officer” who detailed his late 2025 experience investigating UFO sightings aboard a military helicopter. The officer and his crew experienced “a series of close UAP encounters lasting over an hour” as they investigated previous sightings.
“In the distance, we saw countless orange orbs swarming in all directions against the backdrop of the mountain. The display lasted several minutes before fading,” the officer wrote. He continued, “[The pilots and I] observed two large orbs flare up side by side, close to the helicopter — stationary and just above the rotor disk to our right. They were oval-shaped, orange with a white or yellow center, and emitted light in all directions.” The officer and his crew were left “virtually speechless after these observations.”
The audio files consist of recordings from NASA astronauts during the Apollo and Mercury missions about observations they made while in space. Objects were described as “fireflies” and “snowflakes.” The Pentagon noted that NASA “later determined that the ‘fireflies’ are attributable to frozen condensation separating from the spacecraft body. The white, green-hued appearance of this phenomenon results from sunlight reflecting off frozen condensation.”
The release of these files by the Pentagon marks a significant move towards transparency concerning UFOs or UAPs. The public now has access to previously classified information, including first-hand accounts from military personnel and footage from military aircraft. As more files are released, we may gain a better understanding of these unidentified phenomena. For now, the released files have only deepened the mystery surrounding UFOs or UAPs.
