Pilots who reported them were grounded. Officers who documented them were reassigned. The files were buried.
Now the Pentagon is building a public website for them.
In February 2026, President Donald Trump directed US federal agencies to identify and declassify records connected to unidentified anomalous phenomena, more commonly known as UFOs or UAPs. The programme became known as PURSUE, short for Presidential Unsealing and Reporting System for UAP Encounters.
The first release arrived on 8 May. It contained 162 files pulled from agencies including the FBI, NASA, the Department of State, and intelligence archives dating back decades.
On 22 May, a second tranche dropped.
This time the release included military videos, infrared footage, audio files, intelligence memos, and firsthand testimony from US personnel describing encounters they still cannot explain.
And suddenly the story stopped feeling like internet culture.
“We Were Virtually Speechless”
The most disturbing account came from a senior US intelligence officer involved in a helicopter mission near a mountain range in late 2025.
According to the newly released memo, the crew had been investigating mysterious “thuds” reported in the area when glowing orange objects suddenly appeared near the aircraft.
The officer described oval-shaped orbs with bright white-yellow centres hovering beside the helicopter before splitting apart and changing direction mid-air.
Then the encounter escalated.
The objects reportedly approached within 10 feet of the aircraft before dropping beneath it and accelerating away at extreme speed.
The officer wrote that more glowing orbs soon appeared across the sky, swarming in all directions.
Fighter jets were then scrambled.
What happened next transformed the report from strange to deeply unsettling.
“The same orbs we had encountered were now chasing the fighters,” the officer wrote.
“We were virtually speechless after these observations.”
The testimony is now publicly available through an official US government release.
They Almost Hit One
The intelligence officer’s account was not the only testimony in the files describing close-range encounters.
A former Navy Lieutenant, whose account was included in the first tranche, described objects holding perfectly still in 150-knot winds while fighter jets around them struggled to maintain position. The objects had no visible exhaust and no discernible means of propulsion. They appeared to be dark grey or black cubes inside clear spheres, measuring between five and 15 feet across.
“We almost hit one of the objects,” he said. “They came within 50 feet of the lead aircraft. That is really when we knew we were dealing with something abnormal.”
Fighter Jets, Submarines, And Nuclear Facilities
The files go far beyond individual encounters.
One newly released infrared video captures the moment an F-16 shot down an unidentified object over Lake Huron in February 2023. The object was described as round or diamond-shaped before breaking apart on impact, debris scattering in every direction.
A separate 2022 video appears to show multiple spherical objects moving in and out of the water near a submarine. The objects enter and exit cleanly, with no disruption to the water surface consistent with conventional aircraft or known technology.
Historical archives released in the programme include a 116-page document detailing 209 sightings of “green orbs,” “fireballs,” and discs near Sandia military facilities in New Mexico between 1948 and 1950. Witnesses described unexplained manoeuvres, disappearances, explosions, and strange copper powder residue left behind at sighting locations.
The archive also contains Department of Energy material linked to PANTEX, one of the most sensitive nuclear weapons facilities in the United States.
For generations, stories connecting UFO sightings to nuclear infrastructure were dismissed as paranoia or science fiction.
The US government is now publicly releasing documents discussing them.
Why Now?
That question may be bigger than the objects themselves.
Trump has framed the releases as a transparency initiative, accusing previous administrations of suppressing discussion around UAP encounters and ridiculing witnesses.
But critics believe the timing is not accidental.
The release campaign arrives during growing political pressure surrounding the DOJ’s handling of Jeffrey Epstein-related investigations. One Republican congressman called the UFO rollout “the ultimate weapon of mass distraction.”
The Pentagon itself has avoided drawing conclusions from the material. Officials say many files were screened only for security purposes and have not yet been analysed for resolution of any anomalies.
The government still says there is no confirmed evidence of extraterrestrial life.
The Pentagon’s top spokesman confirmed the PURSUE website crossed a billion global views within days of launch.
For generations, governments told the public these stories were nonsense.
Now they are releasing the files themselves.
Why now?
By Shizza Farooqui
Sources
CNN | Al Jazeera | Reuters | TIME | Pentagon PURSUE Archive | Department of Defense statements | ODNI documents | NASA archives | CBS News
