▶ Watch Video: Astrophysicist Avi Loeb on Pentagon’s 4th UFO files release
Washington — The Pentagon on Friday released a new batch of files related to UFOs, also known as unidentified anomalous phenomena, including one report from a military aviator who said a mysterious object was “unlike anything I had seen” in 28 years of service.
Friday’s release includes a total of 40 files — 14 documents, 19 videos, four audio files and three images. The files come from a variety of agencies: the Pentagon, NASA, CIA, FBI and Energy Department.
The Pentagon posted the new files on its UFO website, which houses the material that has been released under an executive order that President Trump signed earlier this year.
What’s in the new UFO files?
The disclosure is similar to past releases — a mix of mostly unredacted historical documents and videos with other files detailing more recent events.
One notable file from the Energy Department details an intrusion by an unidentified object into the airspace over a nuclear weapons facility known as Pantex near Amarillo, Texas, in September 2015. The document includes the account of two officers who chased the object as the nuclear facility was placed on lockdown.
“Although they were unable to catch up to the object, they stopped their vehicle and got out. Once outside, they noted that the object did not make any sound. Furthermore, the [officers] stated that they were unable to identify any type of propulsion system on the object while using binoculars to assess the object,” the report said. “After viewing it for 1-2 minutes, the object then continued north offsite.”
About half the files are dated from 2010 or later, with videos showing infrared footage captured by military cameras. The grainy images show unexplained objects and encounters from around the world, including over the western Pacific Ocean, the Atlantic and the Middle East.
One of those incidents occurred over the Atlantic in 2020. The files include footage of an object that “was a darker, maroonish color, approximately 12-15ft in height,” according to an accompanying report by a Navy crew member, which is heavily redacted.
“Structurally, it appeared as a large, somewhat deformed balloon, but we were unable to verify that as we passed at the merge,” the weapons systems officer wrote, followed by two redacted lines. “We then proceeded back to the ship, landing uneventfully.”
The report is known as a “range fouler debrief,” which the Pentagon described as “a standardized reporting form the U.S. Navy uses to record the circumstances surrounding an unauthorized intrusion into controlled airspace during active military operations or training.”
Another debrief documented an object that an aviator saw in 2019 over the Eastern U.S., along with four other personnel.
“I noticed an object with flight characteristics unlike anything I had seen in my 28 years of performing for the [Air Force] and Navy,” the aviator wrote. “A small object was below us and appeared to be traveling in a straight line opposite our direction at high speed. I tracked it for ~10-15 seconds before we turned on the recorder to provide the attached video. When I zoomed in to try and achieve more resolution, the object’s speed took out of my FOV and I was unable to reacquire, even at a lower zoom. Upon analysis after the flight, the object appeared to be rectangular. Others with equal or more experience were also unsure as to what this object might be.”
The video of the incident shows what appears to be an object traveling at high speed:
The most recent events described in the fourth batch of files came in 2025 near China, under the military’s Indo-Pacific Command. One video shows a military sensor tracking “an area of contrast resembling a six-pointed star” over the Yellow Sea. Another seems to track an object over the East China Sea for several minutes.
The historical records include the transcript of a 1949 conference in Los Alamos, New Mexico, of top physicists and scientists, including those who worked on the Manhattan Project. The conference attendees tried and failed to explain “green fireballs” that had been spotted over the nuclear lab. One theory held that they were meteors entering the atmosphere, but a prominent astronomer noted that “nothing like this … has ever been observed in the case of meteorite drops.”
The Pentagon said Friday’s release is not the last disclosure under the president’s executive order. “The Department of War and our agency partners are actively working on the next release of UAP files,” spokesman Sean Parnell said in a statement.