May 8, 2026 — The Pentagon has released its first tranche of declassified UAP files to the public, marking the most significant government transparency moment in UAP history since David Grusch’s Congressional testimony in 2023.
161 files — videos, photos, and original source documents spanning decades — are now publicly accessible at war.gov/UFO with no security clearance required. The release is part of a new interagency program branded PURSUE (Presidential Unsealing and Reporting System for UAP Encounters).
The agencies involved in PURSUE: The White House, ODNI, Department of Energy, AARO, NASA, and the FBI. The DOE’s inclusion is significant — the department oversees the NNSA and national laboratory network, which multiple UAP whistleblowers have named as the custodians of recovered non-human technology.
What’s in the First Tranche
- 2013 infrared footage (Central Command): Eight-pointed star-shaped object, 1 min 46 sec airborne sensor recording
- 2020 Central Command footage: Linear trajectory object, nine seconds
- Diamond-shaped UAP at 434 knots: Dual electro-optical + SWIR sensor confirmation simultaneously
- 2023 Central Command: UAP flying near ocean surface, multiple 90-degree turns at ~80 mph
- Indo-Pacific Command: Football-shaped object near Japan, 2024
- Africa 2025: US military operator UAP report, African airspace
- US Army, North America, 2026: Most recent reported incident in the release
- Iraq 2022: Internal military memo, “one possible small UAP”
- Syria 2024: Multiple lights of unknown origin, US forces present
- UAE and Greece 2023–2024: Additional military incident files
- Apollo 12 (1969): Astronaut Alan Bean — “It looks like some of those things are escaping the Moon”
- Apollo 17 (1972): Lunar Module Pilot Harrison Schmitt — “It’s like the Fourth of July out there” — three lights above lunar terrain in released photo
- FBI file 62-HQ-83894: Hundreds of pages of eyewitness reports and public testimonies, 1947–1968, with fewer redactions than any previously released version
- Southeast US, September 2023: Composite sketch recreation of anomalous sighting
The AARO Director Admission That Changes Everything
Four days before this release, Liberation Times published a bombshell from AARO director Dr. Jon Kosloski: there are UAP cases he cannot explain with his physics and engineering background, describing them as “really peculiar” and “perplexing.”
His predecessor at AARO, Tim Phillips, went further. He told Liberation Times that former AARO personnel encountered UAP displaying capabilities no known human system could replicate: “Highly qualified observers saw some truly astonishing performance capabilities — things that no known human system could behave.” He confirmed they were able to “conclusively prove it wasn’t a known system, either adversary or friendly.”
This is the sitting and former directors of the Pentagon’s official UAP office stating on the record that the phenomena are real, unexplained, and beyond known human engineering.
The Oracle Assessment
This first tranche is not the smoking gun. The Pentagon’s own disclaimer states these are “unresolved cases” where a “definitive determination” was impossible, often due to insufficient data. The department explicitly invites private-sector analysis.
What matters is the infrastructure now running. PURSUE is modeled on the Epstein Files release mechanism — a rolling interagency pipeline committed to new tranches every few weeks. With DOE, the White House, and ODNI all formally coordinated, this is no longer a military-only operation. The entities that whistleblowers have identified as controlling recovered technology are now officially inside the release framework.
Watch the DOE tranches specifically. That’s where the classified physics programs live.
Key Statements
Secretary of War Pete Hegseth: “These files, hidden behind classifications, have long fueled justified speculation — and it’s time the American people see it for themselves.”
DNI Tulsi Gabbard: IC declassification efforts coordinated with DOW — confirmed as “the first in an ongoing joint effort.”
NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman: “We will remain candid about what we know to be true, what we have yet to understand, and all that remains to be discovered.”
Trump (Truth Social): “WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON?” — directing the public to draw their own conclusions.
Access the Files
All released files are at war.gov/UFO. New tranches posted every few weeks. UAP Oracle will cover each release as it drops.
Sources: Department of War press release, Liberation Times (Christopher Sharp, May 4 2026), The Debrief (Micah Hanks, May 8 2026), CNN, NewsNation, NBC News