The Defense Department (DOD) released newly declassified files documenting unexplained aerial phenomena (UAP), including military footage of objects tracked over the Middle East and Yellow Sea and decades-old records from the U.S. government’s investigations into unidentified flying objects (UFOs).
The latest disclosure, described as the sixth tranche of declassified UAP files, contains 72 files: 56 PDF documents, 15 other files and one audio recording. The oldest document dates to 1952, while the most recent is from this year.
The release is part of PURSUE, or the Presidential Unsealing and Reporting System for UAP Encounters, an interagency effort led by the DOD. This latest release brings the total number of publicly available files to 447, following five earlier releases of previously secret or rarely seen UAP-related material.
UAPs, commonly known more broadly as UFOs, are observed objects or events in the air, sea or space that cannot immediately be identified or explained.
The sixth release comes just days after the DOD created a protected channel for current and former Pentagon personnel to share UAP-related national defense information with the PURSUE initiative.
Under the Trump administration, the DOD was rebranded as the War Department.
What is inside the files?
The newly released material contains a mixture of mostly unredacted historical documents and videos, alongside records of more recent incidents. The files include firsthand accounts from civilians and military personnel, as well as reports submitted by law enforcement.
MeriTalk reviewed the files and identified several containing unusual imagery and detailed eyewitness testimony.
One of the oldest items is an audio recording of a March 1952 presentation by Captain Edward J. Ruppelt, who outlined the U.S. Air Force’s reorganized investigation into UFOs.
Ruppelt described proposed technical methods including diffraction-grating photography and radar-scope synchronization. Those approaches were subsequently incorporated into Project Blue Book, the Air Force program that investigated UFOs from 1952 to 1969.
In the presentation, Ruppelt said the Air Force had reviewed approximately 800 historical cases and found that about 20% remained unexplained after technical analysis. He said the unresolved reports came from credible military personnel, commercial pilots, and other qualified technical observers.
The latest batch of UAP documents also contains records submitted by local law enforcement in Colorado to the DOD’s All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO), which is responsible for investigating UAP reports.
In one report, from October 2023, the reporting officer described the phenomenon as silent and said it displayed red, blue and green flashing lights.
The files also contain footage from outside the United States.
In 2023, the United States Indo-Pacific Command submitted footage to AARO involving 27 seconds of infrared video recorded by a sensor aboard a U.S. military platform in the Yellow Sea.
Another report, submitted by the United States Central Command in 2022, is of footage from electro-optical and infrared sensors aboard a U.S. military platform operating in the Middle East region. An accompanying mission report, DOW-UAP-D109, described the UAP as traveling at various speeds between 80 and 180 miles per hour.
At one point, an object moves across the sensor’s field of view from the lower right and exits through the upper left. A second area of contrast briefly appears later in the recording.
The materials do not, however, provide confirmation of extraterrestrial life.