Pentagon releases previously secret files on UFOs

The Pentagon on Friday released a first batch of previously secret files documenting reported sightings of unidentified flying objects (UFOs) — some as far back as the 1940s — a move sought for decades by some Americans. “These files, hidden behind classifications, have long fueled justified speculation — and it’s time the American people see it for themselves,” War Secretary Pete Hegseth said in a statement. More than 160 files were released on Friday on the website of the War Department, which officially refers to UFOs as “Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena,” or UAPs. An image showing an Unidentified Anomalous Phenomenon, or UAP, released by the Pentagon on May 8, 2026. — Photo courtesy US Department of War One file — from December 1947 — contains a series of reports on “flying discs.” An Air Force intelligence report — marked “top secret” — from November of the following year features information on reported sightings of “unidentified aircraft” and “flying saucers.” Another file documents a 2023 incident in which three teams of federal law enforcement special agents independently described “seeing orange ‘orbs’ in the sky emit/launch smaller red ‘orbs’”. A screenshot of a file on Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena, or UAPs, released by the Pentagon on May 8, 2026. — Screengrab via US Department of War President Donald Trump directed US federal agencies in February to begin identifying and releasing government files related to UFOs and aliens, saying the move was “based on the tremendous interest shown”. The Republican president also claimed the same day he issued the release order that one of his Democratic predecessors, Barack Obama, had revealed “classified” information in viral podcast remarks about the existence of extraterrestrial life. “They’re real, but I haven’t seen them, and they’re not being kept in … Area 51,” Obama told host Brian Tyler Cohen, referring to the top-secret US military facility in Nevada at the heart of many UFO conspiracy theories. An imag