Pentagon releases new UFO files, including 209 sightings near Sandia facility

A 116-page set of declassified UAP records put 209 reported sightings near a Sandia, New Mexico, facility into the public record, alongside references to green orbs, discs and fireballs. The new material adds detail to a mystery that has followed the government for decades, but it does not turn unexplained reports into evidence of alien technology.

The Department of War said on May 22 that it published the second release of historical UAP files under the Presidential Unsealing and Reporting System for UAP Encounters, or PURSUE. Pete Hegseth framed the move as a transparency push, saying people should be able to see the information for themselves. The department said more files will come on a rolling basis and that a third release is already being prepared.

The first tranche went out on May 8 at Donald J. Trump’s direction, and the UAP site has since drawn more than 1 billion hits worldwide. The release was built as a broad interagency effort involving the White House, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, the Department of Energy, the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office, NASA, the FBI and other intelligence components. That scale reflects how firmly UAPs have moved from fringe speculation into the official bureaucracy.

The archival infrastructure matters as much as the files themselves. The National Archives says Record Group 615, the Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena Records Collection, was created under the 2024 National Defense Authorization Act, and agencies must transfer digital copies of UAP records on a rolling basis. AARO’s February 2024 historical review covered U.S. government involvement with UAP since 1945 and found no evidence that any investigation confirmed a UAP as extraterrestrial technology. Its fiscal 2024 annual report, covering May 1, 2023 to June 1, 2024, logged 757 UAP reports. The message from Washington is consistent: open the files, study the sightings and keep sorting anomalies from ordinary misidentification, incomplete data and whatever remains unresolved.