Pentagon Releases First Tranche of Declassified UFO Files, Including Nearly 30 Secret Videos
Summary: The Pentagon released its first batch of 161 declassified UFO files on May 8, 2026, including nearly 30 secret videos captured by various military platforms, marking the largest UFO disclosure in U.S. government history, responding to a directive signed by President Trump in February.
On May 8, 2026, the Pentagon released its first tranche of declassified UFO files, responding to a directive signed by President Trump in February. The new release consists of 161 files — mostly PDFs recounting investigative reports and eyewitness testimonials, including accounts from Apollo astronauts who observed strange phenomena near the Moon. But most striking are the imagery files: nearly 30 videos featuring a range of intriguing unidentified objects.
The newly released videos cover observations from multiple military platforms across various scenarios. For example, a video submitted by U.S. Central Command features five seconds of footage captured in Syria in October 2024 by a full-motion video camera. An accompanying mission report described the object as a "misshapen and uneven ball of white light," noting a "light/glare halo effect" appeared at the top of the footage. Another video, submitted by U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, documents an observation from 2024 captured by an infrared sensor aboard an unspecified U.S. military platform. According to the Pentagon's description, the sensor focused on "an area of contrast that resembles a football-shaped body with three radial projections: one oriented vertically, and two oriented downward at a 45-degree angle relative to the major axis of the main mass."
The Pentagon combined all these newly declassified videos into a supercut, published on Space.com and Space.com's YouTube channel. These videos provide an important window into how the U.S. military records and analyzes unidentified aerial phenomena.
Previously, the U.S. government established a dedicated Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (UAP) task force in 2024 and promised gradual declassification of related archives. This May 8 release marks a new phase in the government's open approach to such information.