The U.S. government's site for releasing data on unidentified flying objects (UFOs) and unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAP) has surpassed 1 billion views. With additional materials released on the 22nd (local time), global interest is rising.
Citing an executive order by President Donald Trump, the U.S. government on the 8th launched an official site called the "Presidential UAP Reporting and Unveiling System" (PURSUE) and released the first batch of materials. The second batch includes sighting reports and video collected over decades by the U.S. military and government agencies in the air, space, on land, and at sea. Based on compressed files, the second release comprises 70.1MB of documents and 5.6GB of video. The previously released first batch contained 1.2GB of documents and 1.3GB of video.
According to Reuters, the second batch includes a 116-page document containing sighting reports and investigation records from around a top-secret facility in Sandia, New Mexico, from 1948 to 1950. The Ministry of National Defense said the file contains 209 cases reported near military bases, including sightings of "green spheres," "discs," and "fireballs."
Many videos of unidentified objects captured in recent war zones were also released. According to the British daily the Guardian, footage believed to have been shot with an infrared sensor in 2019 in the U.S. Central Command's area of responsibility in the Middle East contained three UAP over the Persian Gulf. In 2022, near Iranian waters, four unidentified objects flying in formation were filmed passing near a vessel. In Syrian airspace in 2021, an object was captured accelerating briefly and disappearing, and footage from Oct. 2022 showed a cigar-shaped craft speeding over a residential area.
According to CBS News and tech outlet Cybernews, the materials also include a 46-second infrared video from Feb. 12, 2023, showing an F-16 fighter of the Minnesota Air National Guard shooting down a balloon-shaped unidentified object over Lake Huron near the U.S.-Canada border. The incident heightened tensions at the time amid the Chinese "spy balloon" episode, but according to Canadian government documents released in Nov. 2024, debris analysis suggested it was weather observation equipment.
A firsthand account by a current senior intelligence officer who boarded a military helicopter in late 2025 was also released. The officer reported that, along with the helicopter's occupants, they observed for about an hour multiple orange spheres flying in groups against a mountain backdrop at close range. The officer also said two orange oval spheres hovered stationary above the helicopter's right rotor, emitting light in all directions, adding they were "virtually at a loss for words."
Also released were a UFO report from the Pantex nuclear weapons facility under the U.S. Department of Energy, a report on Soviet intelligence activities related to UFOs, and audio files recorded during past NASA missions. In Oct. 1962, astronaut Wally Schirra, orbiting Earth aboard Mercury-Atlas 8, reported that small white objects appeared to emerge from the capsule and drift away. NASA later concluded they were ice fragments from the spacecraft reflecting sunlight.
Pentagon Spokesperson Sean Parnell said the release reflects the Trump administration's transparency efforts and high public interest, adding a third batch is planned. No specific timetable was provided.
The All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO) under the Pentagon reaffirmed its position that among the thousands of materials released or explained this time, there is no conclusive evidence proving the existence of extraterrestrial technology or extraterrestrial life.