{"id":573311,"date":"2026-05-08T17:41:09","date_gmt":"2026-05-08T17:41:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/573311\/"},"modified":"2026-05-08T17:41:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-08T17:41:09","slug":"pentagon-releases-first-batch-of-previously-secret-files-documenting-reports-of-ufos-us-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/573311\/","title":{"rendered":"Pentagon releases first batch of previously secret files documenting reports of UFOs | US news"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Pentagon on Friday released an initial group of previously secret files documenting reports of UFOs<\/a> \u2013 a move sought for decades by some.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese files, hidden behind classifications, have long fueled justified speculation \u2013 and it\u2019s time the American people see it for themselves,\u201d Pete Hegseth, the defense secretary, said in a statement<\/a> posted on X.<\/p>\n

The release follows a directive<\/a> from Donald Trump in February for federal agencies to begin identifying, declassifying and releasing government files related to unidentified flying objects, now known as unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAPs), and the possibility of alien life beyond Earth.<\/p>\n

The move, the US president said at the time, was \u201cbased on the tremendous interest shown\u201d by the public, and reflected renewed appetite<\/a> for information about the government\u2019s knowledge of, and perceived involvement in, programs tracking and even housing supposed aliens and their spacecraft.<\/p>\n

Last month Jared Isaacman<\/a>, the new Nasa<\/a> administrator, gave the drive for greater transparency at the agency more credence by stating the space agency planned missions to space at least in part because of the possible existence<\/a> of extraterrestrial alien lifeforms.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe odds that we will find something at some point to suggest that we are not alone are pretty high,\u201d he told<\/a> NBC\u2019s Meet the Press.<\/p>\n

Even so, the first batch of 162 files released on Friday, incorporating hundreds of pages on a monochrome new defense department website<\/a>, offered little new or conclusive evidence.<\/p>\n

The public, the Pentagon statement said, \u201ccan ultimately make up their own minds about the information contained in these files\u201d.<\/p>\n

They include old state department cables, FBI documents and transcripts from Nasa\u2019s crewed flights into space, the Associated Press reported. Other pages, stretching back decades, feature ambiguous eyewitness accounts of encounters with, or alleged sightings of UFOs.<\/p>\n

For example, one previously confidential 1947 report from Air Defense Command headquarters in New York features an account by the pilot and navigator of a Pan American World Airways (Pan Am) commercial jetliner who said they momentarily sighted a mystery \u201cbright orange object\u201d in the sky.<\/p>\n

The object was visible for only seconds, then disappeared quickly behind a cloud and was not seen again, the crew members said.<\/p>\n

A more recent document details an FBI interview with someone identified as a drone pilot who, in September 2023, reported seeing a \u201clinear object\u201d with a light bright enough to \u201csee bands within the light\u201d in the sky.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe object was visible for five to 10 seconds and then the light went out and the object vanished,\u201d according to the FBI interview.<\/p>\n

Numerous other pages recount similar but unproven accounts of sudden, brief, or unexpected phenomena witnessed in the sky.<\/p>\n

The Pentagon called Friday\u2019s publication of the documents an \u201cinitial release\u201d, in partnership with multiple federal entities including the White House, office of the director of national intelligence, energy department, the FBI and Nasa.<\/p>\n

\u201cAdditional files will be released by the Department of War on a rolling basis,\u201d the Pentagon said, using the unofficial name for the defense department.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile all of the files have been reviewed for security purposes, many of the materials have not yet been analyzed for resolution of any anomalies,\u201d it conceded.<\/p>\n

Despite Friday\u2019s hyped release, the policy of the defense department \u201cdrip feeding\u201d information to the public is not new.<\/p>\n

In 2024, a Pentagon report concluded<\/a> there was no evidence of extraterrestrial activity, and that most sightings were weather related or misidentified balloons, birds or satellites.<\/p>\n

Earlier the same year, a separate report published by the All-Domain Anomaly Resolution Office said the government was not, and never had been secretly hiding alien technology<\/a> or extraterrestrial beings from the public, and that a rumored facility in the New Mexico desert purportedly housing alien beings and spacecraft was a hoax.<\/p>\n

It followed a claim<\/a> by former US intelligence official and whistleblower David Grusch that the US government conducted a \u201cmulti-decade\u201d secret UFO program that found \u201cnon-human\u201d beings.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Pentagon on Friday released an initial group of previously secret files documenting reports of UFOs \u2013 a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":573312,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[49,50,51,47,52,48],"class_list":["post-573311","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/573311","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=573311"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/573311\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/573312"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=573311"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=573311"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=573311"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}