The United States Department of Defense released on Friday the first batch of declassified files on Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAP), in what the government describes as a historic effort for transparency regarding unidentified flying objects and potential extraterrestrial life.
The initial collection, called "Release 01," includes 162 files —photos, documents, and videos that have never been publicly seen before— available on the official site war.gov/ufo, where the administration will continue to release materials on an ongoing basis in batches every few weeks.
The publication responds to a directive that Donald Trump announced on February 19th on Truth Social, where he ordered the Secretary of Defense and other agencies to "identify and release government files related to alien and extraterrestrial life, unidentified aerial phenomena, and unidentified flying objects."
The program, called PURSUE (Presidential Unidentified Aerial Phenomena Declassification and Reporting System), involves the White House, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, the Department of Energy, NASA, the FBI, and other intelligence agencies.
All published cases are "unsolved": the government acknowledges that it cannot determine the nature of the observed phenomenon due to a lack of sufficient data.
Among the most striking materials is a composed sketch created by the FBI based on consistent testimonies from eyewitnesses in September 2023 in the southeastern United States. It describes an ellipsoidal object of bronze color with an estimated length ranging from 130 to 195 feet, which materialized from a bright light in the sky and disappeared instantly.
The collection also includes infrared images of unidentified objects over the west and southeast of the country taken in 2025, a frame from the Apollo 17 mission in 1972 showing three visible lights on the lunar surface, and reports from military operators in the Middle East, Greece, the United Arab Emirates, Africa, the Indo-Pacific, and North America.
The process involves reviewing tens of millions of records, many of which exist only on paper and span several decades.
Of the 162 files published, 108 have minimal redactions to protect the identities of witnesses or the locations of facilities, although none affect data regarding the nature of the encounters.
The Secretary of War, Pete Hegseth, justified the publication with a straightforward statement: "These files, hidden behind classifications, have long fueled justified speculation and it is time for the American people to see it for themselves."
The NASA administrator, Jared Isaacman, supported the initiative and stated that the agency "will remain candid about what it knows to be true, what it does not yet understand, and everything that is yet to be discovered."
Trump's directive arose in part as a reaction to statements made by former President Barack Obama, who on February 14 claimed in a podcast that aliens "are real, but I haven't seen them". Trump accused Obama of disclosing "classified information" and making a "serious mistake."
On April 29, during the visit of the Artemis II astronauts to the White House, Trump promised to release the files "very soon" and revealed that he had personally interviewed military pilots: "They said they saw things you wouldn't believe. So you're going to read about it."
Public interest in the topic has grown steadily: 41% of Americans believe in extraterrestrial life visiting Earth, according to a Gallup survey from November 2025, the highest level since 1997, while 65% support the complete declassification of the files.
The Department of War —a name restored by executive order from Trump in September 2025 for what had previously been called the Department of Defense— will continue to publish new materials in periodic batches under the slogan that concludes its official statement: "Under this Administration, we will pursue the truth and share our findings with the American people."
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