Pentagon UFO Files Released Today: Everything Inside the Historic war.gov/UFO Disclosure

The United States government made its most sweeping public disclosure of UFO and UAP records in history on Friday, May 8, 2026, dropping 162 never-before-seen files at war.gov/UFO — with no security clearance required. The documents, videos, and photographs span nearly eight decades of unresolved encounters, from Cold War-era flying disc reports to infrared footage of unexplained objects filmed over active military zones as recently as 2025.

Pentagon UFO Files Released Today — The Historic First Tranche

The Pentagon released what it calls "never-before-seen files" on UFOs, following President Donald Trump's directive earlier this year. The batch outlines various investigations of reported sightings of Unidentified Aerial Phenomena spanning decades. The Defense Department said the latest UAP videos, photos, and original source documents from across the entire United States government are now in one place — no clearance required.

The release includes 162 files from the FBI, Department of Defense, NASA, and State Department. The documents contain eyewitness testimony, photos, and reports of sightings of unexplained objects detailing incidents dating back decades from around the globe. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said in a statement: "These files, hidden behind classifications, have long fueled justified speculation — and it's time the American people see it for themselves."

war.gov/UFO — The New Government UAP Portal

At the direction of President Donald Trump, the Department of War is overseeing a multiagency effort to expeditiously find, review, identify, declassify, and publicly release unresolved Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena-related records and historical documents in the federal government's possession.

The interagency effort operates under the acronym PURSUE — the Presidential Unsealing and Reporting System for UAP Encounters. The Pentagon confirmed that declassified UAP videos, photos, and original source documents from across the entire US government will be stored at the portal, with additional files released on a rolling basis as they are discovered and declassified, with new tranches posted every few weeks.

What Is Actually Inside the Pentagon UFO Files — Key Documents and Footage

The released records include Cold War reports of mysterious rotating saucers and recent sightings of metallic elliptical objects floating in mid-air, spanning the full modern history of US government UFO investigation.

The roughly two dozen videos run for a total of 41 minutes and show reported encounters around the world between 2020 and 2026. Most show footage from an infrared camera tracking a white object moving through the air. The report accompanying a video taken in Greece in 2023 described an object making multiple "90-degree turns" at approximately 80 miles per hour. One video shows an object resembling a football near Japan in the Indo-Pacific, and another from Syria shows two semi-transparent, irregularly shaped orange areas each appearing for two seconds.

The files include internal military memos describing "one possible small UAP" in Iraq in 2022, as well as "multiple glares or light from an unknown origin" observed in Syria in 2024. There are also recent reports from US troops stationed in the United Arab Emirates and Greece.

Apollo Moon Mission UFO Photos — What NASA Released

The Pentagon's UFO files include a NASA photograph from the Apollo 17 mission, taken in December 1972, described as containing "three dots in a triangular formation" in the lunar sky. Another document reveals that Apollo 17 astronaut Jack Schmitt reported seeing "a flash on the lunar surface north of Grimaldi crater."

On the Apollo 17 photo, the Pentagon stated there is "no consensus about the nature of the anomaly" but that new preliminary US government analysis suggests the image feature is potentially the result of a physical object in the scene — a significant walk-back from earlier dismissals of the photograph.

The Bronze Metallic Object — Most Striking Single Report in the UFO Files

One of the most striking items in the release is a composite photo based on "corroborating eyewitness reports from September 2023 of an apparent ellipsoid bronze metallic object materializing out of a bright light in the sky, 130 to 195 feet in length, and disappearing instantaneously." The image was reconstructed by the FBI from multiple independent witness accounts.

A separate FBI file details an interview with a drone operator who in September 2023 reported seeing a "linear object" with a light bright enough to "see bands within the light." The object was visible for five to ten seconds before the light went out and the object vanished.

UFO Files Summary — What the Pentagon Confirms, and What It Does Not

The Pentagon stated that the materials released detail "unresolved cases, meaning the government is unable to make a definitive determination on the nature of the observed phenomena." The department welcomed analysis from the private sector. Out of the 162 files, 108 contain redactions to protect eyewitness identities, government facility locations, and sensitive military site information.

The documents do not suggest any wide-ranging government cover-up of extraterrestrial encounters. The files show no indication that the US government has had any interaction with beings from other planets or that it has any reason to believe such beings have visited Earth.

Who Is Behind the UFO Files Release — Agencies Involved in PURSUE

Trump, Critics, and What Comes Next for the Pentagon UFO Files

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?'" NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman praised the release, saying: "We will remain candid about what we know to be true, what we have yet to understand, and all that remains to be discovered."

Critics have accused Trump of using high-interest disclosure topics to divert attention from political pressures. Republican Representative Thomas Massie called the UFO release the "ultimate weapon of mass distraction." The files contained no clear immediate revelations, and it remained to be seen how impactful the documents would ultimately prove to be.

The Pentagon has committed to releasing new tranches of UFO and UAP files every few weeks at war.gov/UFO — meaning this historic first batch is only the beginning of what the US government has been holding.