The Pentagon UFO files released under orders from President Donald Trump have put America’s long-running mystery over unexplained objects back in the spotlight. The Pentagon published 160 government files Friday morning, including videos, photos, mission reports and older records tied to what the military now calls “unidentified anomalous phenomena,” or UAP.
The release includes material that dates back nearly 80 years, according to the records described in the document dump. Many clips appear similar to videos that surfaced in recent years. They show sphere-like objects moving near aircraft, with no visible propulsion system and flight behavior that remains difficult to explain from the footage alone.
Pentagon UFO files include Apollo-era material
The most striking material may come from NASA’s Apollo 12 and Apollo 17 moon missions in the 1960s and 1970s. One image from the lunar surface appears to show three unexplained points in the dark sky. Other Apollo 12 images mark several unusual dots above the moon’s horizon.
In a transcript of radio traffic with NASA, one astronaut described bright lights outside the spacecraft. He compared the sight to “4th of July” fireworks. The records also mention glowing “particles” and “fragments,” though the files do not establish whether the objects had an ordinary space-flight explanation.
The Pentagon UFO files also include FBI images from 1999 that show unknown objects near U.S. military aircraft. Fighter jet cameras captured fast-moving objects racing past at extreme speed. However, the release does not confirm an extraterrestrial origin for any of the sightings.
Pentagon UFO files draw questions over secrecy
The document dump also contains MISREP reports, the military’s mission reports on operational incidents. In one account, a service member said he tracked one object for roughly 20 seconds through a targeting system before it darkened and disappeared.
Another file includes an FBI-style reconstruction based on witness accounts from September 2023. It shows a bronze-colored, ellipsoid object. Witnesses described it as 40 to 60 meters long. They said it appeared from a bright light in the sky, then vanished almost immediately.
Yet the Pentagon UFO files quickly triggered criticism from transparency advocates. Several passages remain blacked out. In addition, the release did not include 46 secret UAP videos that a group of lawmakers, including Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, had demanded from the Pentagon.
No smoking gun in first release
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth had faced a deadline to release more material. That deadline passed. However, the Pentagon has announced that more UFO-related files will come in future batches.
For now, the Pentagon UFO files offer strange images, unusual testimony and fresh political drama. Still, they do not provide a “smoking gun” proving alien activity on Earth.
Trump celebrated the release on social media. He wrote that the files concerned “alien and extraterrestrial life, unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAP), and unidentified flying objects (UFOs).” Then he added: “GOD BLESS AMERICA!”
