In a historic move toward government transparency, the Pentagon has officially begun releasing long-classified files on UFOs — and the public has been invited to draw its own conclusions. This is the moment UFO enthusiasts, researchers, and skeptics alike have been waiting decades for. Here is everything you need to know about the UFO files released, what they contain, who is behind the push, and what comes next.
What Has the Pentagon Released?
According to the Associated Press, the Pentagon has formally begun releasing new files on UFOs — officially referred to as Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAP) — stating that the public can make up its own mind about the material. The release is a coordinated effort involving not just the Pentagon, but also the White House, the Director of National Intelligence, the Energy Department, NASA, and the FBI.
As per Fox News, among the most striking items in this initial release are declassified UAP files featuring photographs and transcripts from NASA’s Apollo 12 and Apollo 17 missions. One transcript from the Apollo 17 mission documents operators describing unusual bright particles or fragments drifting past the spacecraft during a maneuver. Another set of files comes from the FBI and contains images from New Year’s Eve 1999 showing unidentified objects in proximity to U.S. military assets.
According to the Pentagon’s official statement posted on X (formerly Twitter), while previous administrations tried to discredit or discourage public inquiry, the current administration is “focused on providing maximum transparency to the public, who can ultimately make up their own minds about the information contained in these files.” Additional documents, per the Pentagon, will be released on a rolling basis and are accessible at WAR.GOV/UFO.
Trump’s Role: From Directive to Delivery
The journey to this release began in February, when President Donald Trump issued a directive on social media calling for full transparency around “alien and extraterrestrial life, unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP), and unidentified flying objects (UFOs).” According to PBS NewsHour, Trump framed the effort as one of public truth, echoing his stance during other declassification pushes by stating that “the American people deserve transparency and truth.”
As per reporting by Fortune, Trump built anticipation over months with a series of teasing updates. At a White House event celebrating NASA astronauts, he stated the administration would be “releasing a lot of things that we haven’t” and suggested the material would be “very interesting to people.” At a Turning Point USA event in Phoenix in April, Trump told supporters the initial releases would begin “very, very soon,” encouraging the public to review the documents and form their own judgments.
According to the Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, the Office of the DNI is “actively coordinating the Intelligence Community’s declassification efforts” to ensure a careful and comprehensive process in line with Trump’s directive.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth Gets to Work
As per Time magazine, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth confirmed in March that the Pentagon had personnel actively working on identifying and gathering the relevant files. “We’ve got our people working on it right now,” Hegseth said when asked by reporters. He added that his team would be “in full compliance” with Trump’s instructions, though he cautioned against overselling the timeline.
Congress Pushes for More: The Role of Rep. Anna Paulina Luna
The congressional pressure behind this release has been significant. According to reporting by Newsweek, Representative Anna Paulina Luna — an Air Force veteran who co-chairs the House Task Force on the Declassification of Federal Secrets — sent a formal letter to Defense Secretary Hegseth in March demanding the release of over 46 UAP videos identified by whistleblowers. Those videos reportedly include footage of spherical, cigar-shaped, and “Tic Tac”-like objects recorded by U.S. military platforms over war zones, oceans, and restricted airspace.
As per the Associated Press, when Luna’s deadline came and went without the videos being produced, she publicly criticized the Pentagon. However, following the May 8 release, Luna confirmed on social media that those specific videos are now expected to be included in a later Pentagon release.
According to AP, Rep. Tim Burchett also welcomed the release, thanking Trump for “keeping his word” on transparency. Burchett noted that “transparency won’t all happen at once, it will take some time.”
The Road That Led Here: A Brief History of UAP Disclosure
This is not the first time the government has moved toward transparency on UFOs. According to LiveNOW from FOX, the Pentagon has been in a process of gradual declassification for years — a process that accelerated after a group of former officials leaked Navy videos of unidentified objects to the New York Times and Politico in 2017. That leak triggered the first congressional UFO hearing in 50 years, held in May 2022.
As per Fortune, citing concerns over national security, Congress created a dedicated office in 2022 to investigate UAP sightings and declassify as much material as possible. The office’s debut report in 2024 revealed hundreds of new UAP incidents but found no confirmed evidence that the U.S. government had ever verified a sighting of alien technology.
According to PBS NewsHour, former U.S. Air Force intelligence officer Retired Maj. David Grusch had previously made waves with allegations that the government was concealing key details about UFO encounters — claims that added urgency to congressional demands for disclosure.
In one notable piece of testimony gathered by the congressional task force, as per AP reporting, a senior Navy officer described being off the coast of California in 2023 when he witnessed a glowing “Tic Tac” shaped object emerge from the ocean, link up with three similar objects, and then speed away in an instant.
What Experts Are Saying
Not everyone is expecting the revelations to be earth-shattering. According to PBS NewsHour, Greg Eghigian, a Pennsylvania State University professor who authored a book on the history of UFO sightings, cautioned that promises of big revelations have historically failed to satisfy serious investigators. “There is almost no satisfaction that is possible for many of the really die-hard folks,” he said, suggesting that some level of disappointment is almost inevitable regardless of what the files contain.
Still, the scale of this release — spanning multiple intelligence agencies and including never-before-seen Apollo mission transcripts and FBI records — represents a genuinely unprecedented step in government transparency on the subject.
What to Expect Next
According to the Associated Press, the Pentagon has confirmed that more documents will follow on a rolling basis. The 46 UAP videos demanded by Rep. Luna — which reportedly include footage from conflict zones and sensitive military airspace — are expected in a subsequent release. The Trump administration has framed this as an ongoing process, not a one-time event.
As per Fox News, the Trump administration’s UFO disclosure program is operating under the name PURSUE, and the full document archive is being made publicly available at WAR.GOV/UFO.
The vaults are finally opening — what do you think is really in those files? Drop your thoughts in the comments below and bookmark this page for updates as new documents are released.