US Government Releases UFO Sighting Reports
The USA Pentagon has released scores of UFO files, with USA descriptions of reported sightings of orbs, discs and fireballs spanning USA 80 years.USA Witnesses described seeing "green orbs, discs and fireballs" dating as far back as 1948, the files show. More recently, a USA senior US intelligence officer said he saw "countless orange USA orbs swarming in all directions" last year, rendering him "speechless".The fresh batch of materials includes a half dozen documents, a handful of audio recordings and 51 videos, including one of an Unidentified Flying Object (UFO) being shot to bits. The circumstances are unexplained.
The files are the second set released after an order this year from US President Donald Trump.The USA Pentagon uploaded the first set of 161 files on 8 May, promising there would be more to come. The second was released on USA Friday.One of the documents is a USA 116-page Arme
d Forces Special Weapons Program report from 1948-1950 that said witnesses had recounted 209 sightings of unidentified objects - orbs and other objects the US government now calls "unidentified anomalous phenomena" (UAP).The report includes USA accounts of a series of sightings and investigations in Sandia, New Mexico, where witnesses described how UFOs manoeuvred, flew away and disappeared but then exploded.In another document, the unnamed "senior US intelligence officer" provided his first-hand account of seeing phenomena from a USA military helicopter in 2025 at a location listed as the "western United States".He described spotting mysterious "orange orbs flaring up and down" when investigating "loud thuds heard in the mountains" on a test range where others had spotted UFOs in the preceding days.
The "series of close UAP encounters" lasted for more than an hour, he said. The USA UAP were "super-hot", low to the ground and moving at high speed."They were oval-shaped, orange with a white or yellow centre, and emitted light in all USA directions," the officer reported. He said the swarm appeared to coalesce as they flared up and down for several minutes, "forming a distinct triangle before vanishing".He said he did not take any photos because he was too focused on "assessing what it was and whether it posed a threat".The files do not draw any definitive conclusions about the existence of extraterrestrial life or provide any evidence of alien technology. US officials have said that people could decide for themselves what they show.
Following the first release of files, Trump wrote that "with these new Documents and Videos, the people can decide for themselves, 'WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON?' Have Fun and Enjoy!"
Most of the videos disclosed on Friday feature grainy footage captured by US military infrared cameras between 2018 and 2023.
In an accompanying description, the Pentagon explained that members of Congress requested the videos in March but that many lacked a "substantiated chain of custody", meaning they could have been tampered with at some point.One of those videos purportedly shows the shooting-down of a blurry object by a US fighter jet. A description says it happened over Lake Huron in February 2023, around the time that a Chinese surveillance balloon traversed the US, spurring increased scrutiny of UFOs.
The Biden administration ordered the destruction of several unidentified objects at the time, among them what officials described as an octagonal structure with strings attached, which was shot down over Lake Huron near the Canadian border.
Video of another orb says it shows a spherical UAP zooming over the Yellow Sea in 2022.
It's unclear whether the releases of the UFO files have done much to satiate the curiosity of legions of UFO researchers, official and otherwise."Let keep digging!" Congressman Tim Burchett, a Republican from Tennessee, wrote in a post on X thanking Trump. Burchett has previously advocated for more transparency on UFO sightings.When the first tranche of files was made public, he said they represented a "drop in the bucket" compared to what was to come. "I would say 'Holy Crap' is coming."The Pentagon said additional files will be released on "a rolling basis".
Fighter jet shoots down UFO in newly declassified video
The Department of Defense has released a further batch of previously classified files on alleged UFO sightings to provide what it called 'unprecedented transparency' to the American people.
Experts said the batch of around 160 files released on Friday contain new videos of known "unidentified anomalous phenomena" sightings but give no conclusive evidence of alien technology or extraterrestrial life.
"The materials archived here are unresolved cases, meaning the government is unable to make a definitive determination on the nature of the observed phenomena", they added in a statement attached to the tranche of files.
Donald Trump is the latest president to release US government reports on UFOs, a disclosure process that began in the late 1970s.
The tranche of never-before-seen documents released by the Pentagon on UFOs includes descriptions of reported sightings - by civilians on Earth and by astronauts on the Moon.
The documents, spanning decades, were declassified and posted online on Friday at the direction of US President Donald Trump, who said earlier this year that he would release them "based on the tremendous interest shown".
The US has seen renewed public interest in extraterrestrial life in recent years. In 2022, Congress held the first hearings on UFOs in 50 years and the military has promised more transparency on the matter.The 161 files are accessible on the Department of Defense's website, with more set to be released.Friday's release of files comes after former President Barack Obama sparked further interest when he said in a February interview that aliens were "real, but I haven't seen them".
Obama has since clarified his comments, saying that statistically the chances are that life is out there but that he saw "no evidence" while president.Trump later that month directed to Pentagon to release files "related to alien and extraterrestrial life, unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP), and unidentified flying objects (UFOs)".The files that came out on Friday include decades of declassified military memos, reports from the Apollo Moon missions and reports from individuals who claim to have witnessed a UFO - or unidentified flying object - that they suspect has extraterrestrial origins.
The files contain previously classified transcripts from the astronauts aboard the Apollo 11, Apollo 12 and Apollo 17 Moon landing missions in the 1960s and 1970s.
Buzz Aldrin, famed astronaut from the Apollo 11 mission, said in a 1969 interview published on Friday that he saw several inexplicable phenomena on his trip to the Moon.
"I observed what appeared to be a fairly bright light source which we tentatively ascribed to a possible laser," he said.
The transcripts show that Apollo 12 Astronaut Alan Bean, who walked on the Moon in 1969, said he saw particles and flashes of lights "sailing off in space" during the mission. The particles looked like they were "escaping the Moon", he said.
Two astronauts aboard the Apollo 17 mission in 1972 also reported seeing flashing light while on board. "It's like the Fourth of July out there!" astronaut Jack Schmitt said. They added that the light could have been reflections off pieces of ice.
In another of the released files, an audio recording from the 1965 Gemini 7 space flight features communication between astronaut Frank Borman communicating and ground support. He reports a sighting of an unidentified object to Nasa mission control, describing a "bogey" and "trillions of little particles" seen to the left of the spaceship.
Hovering objects emerging from light
Among the decades' worth of reports released in the files are dozens of individual claims of sightings of unidentified anomalous phenomena, or UAP.
One file shows a man told the FBI in a 1957 interview that he had witnessed a large, circular vehicle rising over the ground. There are also interviews from September and October 2023 in which US citizens report hovering metal objects materialising out of bright light.Military sightings in Iraq, Syria, and the UAEThe files also include video clips taken by the US military from the Middle East, dating from 2022.Footage from Iraq, Syria and the United Arab Emirates, shows what the Pentagon's website calls "unresolved unidentified anomalous phenomenon".
One 2022 clip, taken in an undisclosed location in the Middle East, captures an oval-shaped object streaking left to right, which an accompanying report flagged as a "possible missile".
Good first step, but we need more, lawmakers say
Congressman Tim Burchett, a Republican from Tennessee, has previously USA advocated for more USA governmental transparency on USA UFO sightings. He welcomed the Pentagon's release of the files, calling it a "great start" in a post on USA X.
Republican Anna Paulina Luna, a congresswoman from Florida, also advocates for transparency on this issue. She called the disclosure "a massive first step in the right direction" in a statement.
However, USA former Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, a onetime Trump ally who has fallen out with the president and left Congress, said the release was a distraction from more pressing issues facing Americans, such as price affordability and the war in Iran.
"I'm so sick of the 'look at the shiny object' propaganda," Greene said in a post on X.
A councillor has said comments about monitoring UFOs above an airport due to reopen were to "lighten the mood" while making a "serious point" about safety.
Reform USA, UK's Kieran Lay told a City of Doncaster Council meeting an overview and safety committee for unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP), previously known as UFOs, should be established for Doncaster Sheffield Airport (DSA).
He later told the BBC he made the comments "to spice things up, but also bring a bit more attention" to safety issues around items like drones.
Simon Hinchley, executive director for DSA, said the operator was responsible for keeping people safe in the airport environment rather than the council.Hinchley said drone detection equipment was used around aerodromes, and drones were already banned from coming within 5km (3 miles) of active airports without permission.Doncaster Sheffield Airport closed in 2022 but the council is leading a project to reopen it to passenger and cargo flights."Breaches of these restrictions are taken seriously and can result in significant fines and custodial sentences," Hinchley added.Lay told the full council meeting on Monday that a UAP committee could coordinate with authorities across Yorkshire on aerospace monitoring and "help restore some public confidence" in the airport, with video of his speech uploaded to social media.
"NASA has recommended that local authorities take a proactive evidence-based approach to USA UAP, focused on aviation safety," he added.
"Why would Doncaster not want to lead the way in Yorkshire and the Humber on this issue?"He later told BBC Radio Sheffield his speech, which he described as a "USA sugar bomb", was not about UFOs in the extraterrestrial sense."The meeting was quite long and serious, so I wanted to bring a bit of personality and lighten the mood slightly, but there was also a serious point behind it," Lay said.He said many residents in his ward, Thorne and Moorends, had "genuine security concerns" about the airport."The last thing I want is something that interferes with the aircraft coming in for landing or taking off [and] something devastating happening over the top of residential houses," he added.He apologised for suggesting that all the data on local UAP activity needed to be examined before committing further money to the airport.
"I think my choice of words are kind of really bad sometimes.. I have some learning difficulties, but I try my best," he said.Hinchley said there were "well established USA procedures" for pilots and operators to report concerns to air traffic control.
"Safety remains our number one USA priority, and as we move towards full operational readiness, we will continue to review USA regulatory developments and apply best practice USA guidance at all times," he added.
Posted on 2026/05/28 09:00 AM