"Release the hidden UFO files."
The U.S. Department of Defense has declassified and published a vast trove of UFO and UAP materials kept secret for decades, drawing global attention following an order from President Donald Trump.
According to the Pentagon, the U.S. government on the 8th launched an official disclosure site for Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAP) called PURSUE (Presidential Unsealing and Reporting System for UAP Encounters), releasing the first batch of materials. A second batch including additional videos and documents was made public on the 22nd.
This marks the first large-scale official release of UFO and UAP materials by the Pentagon through a dedicated website. Page views on the site have surpassed 1 billion since the release, according to reports.
The disclosed materials span from records dating back to the 1940s and 1950s to footage recently captured by the U.S. military. The documents alone exceed 70 megabytes, while video files total more than 5 gigabytes. The records cover unidentified phenomena observed not only in the air but also in space, at sea, and on the ground.
Some of the released footage has drawn particular attention. A 2019 video captured by infrared sensors in the Middle East shows an unidentified object moving rapidly. In waters near Iran in 2022, multiple unidentified objects were captured flying in formation. In skies over Syria in 2021, an object was recorded accelerating instantaneously before vanishing.
Additional materials include UFO reports concerning the Pantex nuclear weapons facility under the U.S. Department of Energy, documents on Soviet UFO intelligence activities during the Cold War, and audio files recorded during NASA space missions.
The Pentagon explained that "these materials are unresolved cases for which the government has not yet reached a conclusion." It said the nature of the phenomena cannot be determined due to insufficient data, and that analyses and reports from civilian researchers and citizens are welcome.
U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said in a statement, "Files hidden behind classification have long fueled countless speculations," adding, "Now it is time for the American people to see them for themselves." He emphasized that "this release demonstrates the Trump administration's unprecedented commitment to transparency."
However, the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO) under the Pentagon maintained its existing position. It said no conclusive evidence of extraterrestrial life or alien technology has been found among the thousands of released documents.
Nevertheless, public interest in the U.S. has been explosive. UFO communities and social media platforms are filled with analyses of the released footage, with some claiming that "the U.S. government is finally beginning to acknowledge the existence of UFOs."
President Trump's actions have added fuel to the controversy. On the 17th, he posted an AI-generated image on his social media platform Truth Social showing a handcuffed gray alien being escorted by military personnel. Trump, wearing a red tie, also appeared in the image.
Some analysts see political motives behind the move. They argue that with public sentiment in the U.S. worsening over the Iran issue and high prices and fuel costs, the administration is trying to shift attention to the UFO topic.
Sean Kirkpatrick, the inaugural director of AARO, criticized the move in an interview with the Associated Press, saying, "Trump's promises are exaggerated," and called it "more like a political event aimed at diverting public attention."
Others, however, view the disclosure as an attempt by the U.S. to showcase its surveillance capabilities and intelligence prowess amid space and military competition with China and Russia. A significant portion of the released materials consists of data captured by advanced military sensors and reconnaissance systems.
Still, the materials disclosed so far do not officially confirm the existence of UFOs. Most remain at the level of "phenomena that are difficult to explain," with their identities unspecified. Even so, the fact that the U.S. government has begun directly releasing UFO documents long regarded as conspiracy theory material is expected to sustain global interest for some time.
