In 1991, Spain’s Ministerio de Defensa made a decision no NATO ally had made before it: to begin systematically declassifying its military UAP records. The result was the Expedientes OVNI — 80 files, 1,900 pages of officially documented strange phenomena sightings within Spanish airspace, involving Air Force personnel and equipment. They are fully accessible online, free of charge, at the Virtual Library of Defence.
Why Spain Moved First
The 1991 decision came at a moment of unusual political openness in Spain’s post-Franco democratic transition. The Ministry of Defence determined that the classification of the OVNI files served no ongoing strategic purpose and that public demand for access to these records was legitimate. The decision was not driven by the US, NATO, or any intelligence-sharing partner. It was a unilateral Spanish national decision — and it predated the UK’s MoD file releases by 17 years and the US PURSUE programme by 35 years.
What the Files Contain
The 80 expedientes document strange phenomena observations in Spanish airspace in which Air Force personnel or equipment were involved in some capacity. The files cover incidents across multiple decades. All personal data identifying witnesses and reporting Air Force officers has been redacted despite declassification — the content is public but the witnesses remain anonymous.
The files were physically deposited in 1992 at the Central Library of the Air Force at the Air Force General Headquarters in Madrid. Digitisation made them available online through the Virtual Library of Defence at bibliotecavirtual.defensa.gob.es. The current catalogue lists 83 entries (80 primary expedientes plus supporting documents).
How to Access Them
All files are accessible at bibliotecavirtual.defensa.gob.es/BVMDefensa/exp_ovni/en/micrositios/inicio.do. The portal has English and Spanish interfaces. Files can be searched by title or browsed via the title list. No registration or payment required.
The Oracle Assessment
Spain’s 1991 decision is one of the most underreported moments in UAP disclosure history. While the US, UK and France were maintaining classification, Spain’s Air Force was putting 1,900 pages of military UAP reports into its national library and opening them to the public. The files predate the internet — the physical deposit was 1992, before the World Wide Web was publicly accessible. Spain set a disclosure standard in 1991 that the United States only reached with PURSUE in 2026.
Source: Biblioteca Virtual del Ministerio de Defensa. bibliotecavirtual.defensa.gob.es/BVMDefensa/exp_ovni/