PURSUE Release 01: 158 Unresolved UAP Files (8 May 2026)

OFFICIAL FILES · Released 8 May 2026. These are U.S. government records published at war.gov/ufo. Incident years: 1945 to 2026. Redacted Weekly archives them as public-domain government works.

On 8 May 2026, the Department of War posted Release 01 of the Presidential Unsealing and Reporting System for UAP Encounters (PURSUE) at https://www.war.gov/ufo/. The release page lists 158 records: 110 PDF, 27 VID, 14 IMG, 6 PDF , 1 AUD (PDF = document, VID = video, IMG = image, AUD = audio). The bulk downloads offered on the page were documents (1.2 GB) and videos (1.3 GB).

What PURSUE says these are: the program page says “The materials archived here are unresolved cases, meaning the government is unable to make a definitive determination on the nature of the observed phenomena. This can occur for a variety of reasons, including a lack of sufficient data.” So no record in this release is an official finding of anything extraordinary. The government simply could not explain them with the data it had.

Who supplied the files: Department of War (79), FBI (57), NASA (15), Department of State (7).

Where they happened: the most common listed locations are Western United States (25), Arabian Gulf (12), Syria (10), Iraq (8), Moon (8), United States (5).

Highlights picked by the Department of War

The database marks some records as “Featured.” Where fewer than three are flagged, we added the earliest incident, a video and a non-DoW record. Here are up to four from this release, with the official description quoted rather than paraphrased:

331_120752_Numeric_Files_1944–1945_37153_German_Armament_Equipment_Documents

Incident: 3/18/1945, Germany · Department of War

Official description (quoted from the PURSUE database): “This file contains SHAEF messages and memorandums related to “night phenomena (foofighters),” flak rockets, unidentified cylindrical objects, and blinking lights. The documents include multiple references to the observations of the 415th Night Fighter Squadron.”

DOW-UAP-PR019, Unresolved UAP Report, Middle East, May 2022

Incident: N/A, Middle East · Department of War

Official description (quoted from the PURSUE database): “The United States Central Command submitted a report of an unidentified anomalous phenomenon to the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO) consisting of five seconds of video footage from an infrared sensor aboard a U.S. military platform in 2022. An accompanying mission report, DoW-UAP-D10, described the observation as a “possible missile” moving across the field-of-view.”

255_413270_UFO’s_and_Defense_What_Should_we_Prepare_For

Incident: n/a, N/A · NASA

Official description (quoted from the PURSUE database): “This file contains an independent report on UFOs written by the French association COMETA (previously published in the French magazine VDS in 1999), which details the results of a study by the Institute of Higher Studies for National Defence. The file also includes a letter from Carol Rosin in which she notes that she was spokesperson for von Braun during the last years of his life.”

59_214434_SP 16 [7.18.1963]

Incident: 7/18/1963, N/A · Department of State

Official description (quoted from the PURSUE database): “This memorandum, dated July 18, 1963, from the Executive Office of the President, National Aeronautics and Space Council, relates to thoughts on the space alien race question. Included are details relating to plans if alien intelligence is discovered, expanding scientific knowledge, the possibility of life on Mars, and diplomatic policy.”

CASE FILE · PURSUE-R01
Publisher: U.S. Department of War (with ODNI support), war.gov/ufo
Released: 8 May 2026
Records: 158 (110 PDF, 27 VID, 14 IMG, 6 PDF , 1 AUD)
Incident years: 1945 to 2026
Status: all listed as unresolved by the publisher

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