Pentagon Releases Third Batch of Declassified UFO Files

The Pentagon released 72 more declassified UFO files on June 12, opening yet another chapter of a government record it kept hidden for decades. The third batch arrives under the PURSUE program, a presidential initiative that demands the government treat unexplained aerial phenomena as serious national security matters. That is a fundamental shift from the institutional secrecy that defined how agencies handled these reports for generations.

The June 12 release brings the cumulative total to 456 documents since the Presidential Unsealing and Reporting System for UAP Encounters launched May 8. Chief Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said the war.gov/ufo website has drawn more than 1.7 billion visits worldwide. The traffic demonstrates a public appetite for answers that the government long ignored.

The third batch includes firsthand accounts from federal agents who witnessed unexplained phenomena. Five law enforcement special agents reported seeing strange orbs over the western United States in October 2023. One agent compared the sight to "the flying car from the Harry Potter series." A former Army intelligence officer watched a "potato"-shaped object hover over Colorado Springs in February 2022 before it vanished without leaving a shadow.

These modern sightings stand in sharp relief against how the government once handled such claims. A 1952 CIA Scientific Advisory Panel recommended a formal "policy of debunking" designed to "strip the UFO subject of its mystery." A 1958 CIA memo reveals the agency gave Manhattan Project scientist Dr. Leon Davidson an "extraordinarily noncommittal and evasive answer" when he asked about space messages.

"The Department of War is in lockstep with President Trump to bring unprecedented transparency regarding our government's understanding of Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena," Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth stated. "These files, hidden behind classifications, have long fueled justified speculation — and it's time the American people see it for themselves."

The administration's approach marks a direct reversal of decades of institutional stonewalling. Federal agents and military observers now document objects that defy conventional physics. A July 2008 incident involved a disc-like object with rotating lights and "beams" emanating from it, prompting authorities to put the area on high alert.

"This is citizen science right now," NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman told Fox News Digital. "Government agencies really didn't take this quite as seriously in the past until President Trump put out the tweet, basically giving an order to government agencies."

The proposed Bipartisan UAP Transparency Act, H.R. 1187, would require federal agencies to declassify all UAP-related records. The legislation reflects a growing bipartisan push for government transparency. The All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office currently maintains more than 2,000 UAP cases, with approximately 1,000 reports lacking sufficient data for analysis.

Former Pentagon official Luis Elizondo, who previously investigated UAPs, called the releases "a treasure trove of information." He noted "this administration is the first administration in my memory that's actually delivering on a promise to be more transparent."

The files include a July 2025 sighting from the northeastern United States where eyewitnesses described "brilliant and beautiful" glowing red and white orbs. The orbs measured approximately 1 meter in diameter, and one observer filmed the phenomenon on an iPhone 14 Pro Max. Another report from October 2024 documents a luminous "plasma-like sphere" hovering 2,700 feet above a pond for 45 minutes.

"Readers should not get their hopes up that there's going to be some document with photos, interviewing the aliens when they came down," cautioned former AARO director Sean Kirkpatrick. "Because that just doesn't exist. Videos purporting to show alien technology tend to have mundane explanations."

The Department of War confirmed additional files are actively being prepared for future release. The third batch includes 53 documents, 10 images, 6 videos and 3 NASA audio recordings from agencies including the CIA, FBI, NASA and the Department of War.

Historical documents in the release reveal the government's long-standing approach to UAP reports. A 1946 Defense Department study reviewed approximately 210 incidents and found only 20 percent explained, with no tangible evidence attributed to foreign nations.

Mercury and Gemini-era astronaut Gordon Cooper said in a 1962 NASA audio recording that "a large number of exceptionally well-qualified people have seen objects" without a "logical explanation." This recording was among the materials declassified in the third release.

Vice President JD Vance offered a theological perspective on the phenomena, stating "I don't think they're aliens. I think they're demons." That view found support from some religious figures, including former exorcist Monsignor Stephen Rossetti, who was removed from his position after stating "probably many, if not most, of these UFO sightings are in fact demons."

The release coincides with heightened public interest, as evidenced by the Steven Spielberg film "Disclosure Day" premiering the same day as the third tranche. The movie dramatizes government secrecy around UAPs and their eventual disclosure.

"As the unprecedented levels of interest in both this topic and the Trump administration's historic transparency effort continue," Parnell stated, "the Department of War and our agency partners are actively working on the next release of UAP files."

For decades, the government answered citizens' questions with evasion and classified stamps. Now ordinary Americans have access to the same records once locked away in agency vaults. The files may not contain definitive answers about what flies above us, but they represent something equally significant: a government finally acknowledging that the public deserves to see what it has been watching all along.