The United States Department of Defense said additional declassified UFO files are being prepared for release just weeks after its first public dump of unidentified anomalous phenomena records triggered intense global attention and drove more than one billion visitors to a newly launched government disclosure website.
Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell confirmed on May 19 that more UAP-related documents are "actively being processed for publication," with officials promising new releases "every few weeks" through the government's expanding transparency initiative.
The disclosures are being published through the Pentagon's PURSUE system - short for the Presidential Unsealing and Reporting System for UAP Encounters - hosted at war.gov/ufo. The portal aggregates declassified records from agencies including the Pentagon, NASA, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the State Department.
The first tranche, released May 8, included 162 separate files comprising:
- 120 PDF documents
- 28 videos
- 14 images
The records covered alleged encounters stretching from the 1940s through modern military operations, though much of the public fascination quickly centered on several recent cases involving U.S. military sensors tracking objects that officials acknowledged remain unexplained.
One report from 2024 described a football-shaped object with three fin-like protrusions hovering near Japan before disappearing after approximately nine seconds. The object was reportedly detected using short-wave infrared systems operated by United States Indo-Pacific Command.
Another military video from 2023, originating from United States Central Command, allegedly showed an unidentified object moving near the ocean surface off Greece while performing multiple sharp 90-degree turns at speeds estimated near 80 miles per hour before tracking systems lost contact.
The Pentagon has not identified either object as a known aircraft, drone, atmospheric phenomenon or foreign technology.
That ambiguity has become central to the government's carefully calibrated messaging strategy.
In official statements accompanying the files, the Department of War repeatedly emphasized that the incidents remain "unresolved cases," a phrase officials appear intent on distinguishing from claims of extraterrestrial activity.
"The government is unable to make a definitive determination on the nature of the observed phenomena," the Department of War stated.
Officials also cautioned that many of the records have only undergone security review and have not yet received full analytical assessment.
"While all of the files have been reviewed for security purposes, many of the materials have not yet been analysed for resolution of any anomalies," the department added.
The new disclosure effort reflects growing bipartisan political pressure in Washington for greater transparency surrounding military encounters with unidentified aerial phenomena, especially after years of congressional hearings, whistleblower testimony and leaked Navy footage intensified public interest.
Among the loudest advocates for broader disclosure has been Tim Burchett, who suggested the initial release represented only a small fraction of what remains under review.
"The 1st drop will be big but in comparison to what is coming they will be a drop in the bucket," Burchett wrote on X. "I would say 'Holy Crap' is coming."
Pentagon officials say the broader review process involves "tens of millions of records," many of which reportedly exist only in paper archives spread across multiple government agencies and military branches.
