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The Pentagon on Friday released the first batch of newly declassified files on unidentified flying objects and unidentified anomalous phenomena, making more than 160 documents available to the public through a Defense Department website.
The files, which include investigation records, witness statements and public reports, can be accessed through the website “WAR.GOV/UFO” without a security clearance, the Pentagon said.
The Defense Department said the process was launched under instructions from U.S. President Donald Trump to identify and declassify government files related to unidentified anomalous phenomena, or UAPs.
The first series published by the Pentagon includes 162 documents covering reported sightings and related records.
The files include materials from the Pentagon, the FBI, the State Department and NASA, and some date back to the 1940s.
More documents will be released gradually, the Pentagon said.
The Defense Department officially refers to UFOs as unidentified anomalous phenomena, or UAPs.
The Pentagon said the declassification effort is being carried out with the White House, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, the Energy Department, NASA and the FBI.
The Pentagon said the process is aimed at identifying government records related to UAPs and removing their classification status.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said the files had long been kept behind classifications and had fueled speculation.
“These files, hidden behind classifications, have long fueled justified speculation -- and it’s time the American people see it for themselves,” Hegseth said in a statement.
Trump welcomed the release in a post, saying previous administrations had failed to be transparent on the subject.
“With these new Documents and Videos, the people can decide for themselves, ‘WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON?’” Trump said.
Trump had directed U.S. federal agencies in February to begin identifying and releasing government files related to UFOs and aliens, citing what he called strong public interest in the issue.
At the time, Trump also referred to remarks by former U.S. President Barack Obama on extraterrestrial life.
“They’re real, but I haven’t seen them and they’re not being kept in... Area 51,” Obama told podcast host Brian Tyler Cohen, referring to the top-secret U.S. military facility in Nevada that has been linked to UFO conspiracy theories.
Trump told reporters at the time that Obama had “gave classified information,” while also saying of his own views: “I don’t know if they are real or not.”
One file from December 1947 includes a series of reports on “flying discs.”
“Continued and recent reports from qualified observers concerning this phenomenon still makes this matter one of concern to Headquarters, Air Material Command,” a document in the file said.
An Air Force intelligence report from November 1948, marked “top secret,” included information about reported sightings of “unidentified aircraft” and “flying saucers.”
“For some time we have been concerned by the recurring reports on flying saucers,” a document in that file said.
Another file summarizes statements from seven federal government employees who separately reported seeing “several unidentified anomalous phenomena” in the United States in 2023.
A description of the file said the credibility of the reporters and the potentially anomalous nature of the events made the report “among the most compelling” in the current holdings of the Pentagon’s All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office.
In one incident, three teams of federal law enforcement special agents separately described seeing orange “orbs” in the sky emit or launch smaller red “orbs.”
In another incident, two federal special agents reported seeing “a glowing orange orb” close to a rock pinnacle.
The account included an artist rendering of a red-orange circle with a streak of yellow in its lower third. The object was described as looking “similar to the Eye of Sauron from Lord of the Rings, except without the pupil.”
Public interest in UFOs has grown in recent years as the U.S. government investigated reports of unusual aircraft, along with concerns that adversaries could be testing advanced technologies.
No evidence has been produced of intelligent life beyond Earth.
In March 2024, the Pentagon released a report saying it had no proof that UAPs were alien technology. It said many suspicious sightings turned out to be weather balloons, spy planes, satellites and other normal activity.
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