Last updated: June 27, 2026
The Pentagon dropped its third batch of declassified UFO files on Friday, June 12, 2026 — 72 newly released documents spanning from the 1940s to the present day, including previously unseen video footage of orb-like objects and investigative records from the FBI, CIA, NASA, and the Department of Defense.
The release, pushed forward at the direction of President Donald Trump, follows two earlier tranches of declassified material housed on a dedicated Pentagon public affairs website. Like its predecessors, however, this batch stops short of providing the definitive proof of extraterrestrial life that much of the UAP disclosure community has been waiting for. “The official responses consistently state that, circa 1998, the U.S. Government is not aware of evidence supporting the existence of extraterrestrial technology,” one of the newly released documents reads.
What’s in the Third Batch
The 72 files are distributed across multiple agencies: 29 from the FBI, 18 from the CIA, 12 from the Department of Defense, 11 from NASA, one from the intelligence community, and one from an unspecified U.S. government agency. They cover sightings not just in the United States, but around the world — including a July 2008 incident at Harare International Airport in Zimbabwe where witnesses debated whether a suspected UFO was “an advanced reconnaissance device of a foreign government or of extraterrestrial origins,” with “beams” observed emanating from the object.
Six new videos depict orb-like objects moving through the sky, four of them shot in the United States between 2021 and 2025. One standout document — dated June 5, 2026, and signed by Dr. Jon Kosloski, director of the All-Domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO) — describes an orange “mother” orb launching smaller red orbs. The report also states that 40% of reported UAP phenomena remain unresolved with no reasonable explanation.
AI-Generated Images and a Federal Agent’s Account
Among the more unusual inclusions is a Defense Department memo from an unidentified federal law enforcement agent working in the western United States who reported seeing, in October 2023, an object resembling “the flying car from the Harry Potter series.” The memo includes AI-generated images of the object — created two and a half years after the sighting — along with the explicit caveat that they are artistic interpretations, not photographs or sensor recordings.
Historical Documents: Eight Decades of Records
The oldest files date to June 1946, including a Defense Department “Evaluation Study of the Phenomenon (Flying Saucers)” that examined approximately 210 incidents. The study found that 20% had been explained but contained “no tangible evidence” attributing any incident to foreign nation activity — and notably, did not rule out non-human origins either.
A 1949 letter chain involves then-FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover and a Reverend Charles Barnes who reported seeing four beams of light converging in the Cascade Mountains followed by “a great explosion” visible for at least ten minutes. Hoover forwarded the letter to the Atomic Energy Commission, suggesting what Barnes saw may relate “to a military or scientific experiment within the commission’s purview.”
The batch also includes excerpts from a November 1962 interview CBS News anchor Walter Cronkite conducted with astronaut Gordon Cooper — pilot of the final Mercury spaceflight — in which Cooper stated that “a large number of exceptionally well-qualified people have seen objects” without any “logical explanation” and speculated on the existence of life elsewhere in the universe.
The CIA’s 1950s “Debunking” Policy
One of the most significant historical documents covers a CIA “Scientific Advisory Panel on Unidentified Flying Objects” convened in 1952–1953. The panel’s primary conclusion: flying saucers posed no direct physical threat to U.S. national security. The real danger, in the CIA’s view, was a “sensationalist press” — and its recommended remedy was an official “policy of ‘debunking'” designed to “strip the UFO subject of its mystery.”
A 1958 CIA memo adds another layer of institutional evasion. Officer R.P.B. Lohman wrote that he had informed Dr. Leon Davidson — a Manhattan Project veteran who later investigated UFO sightings — that records related to “space messages and its transmitter” had been “destroyed by the evaluating agency.” Lohman acknowledged the response was “extraordinarily noncommittal and evasive” but said it was the only possible answer to avoid contradicting prior statements from multiple intelligence agencies.
What This Release Means for Disclosure
“The materials archived here are unresolved cases, meaning the government is unable to make a definitive determination on the nature of the observed phenomena,” the Pentagon press release stated — language nearly identical to the first two batches.
That framing will disappoint those hoping for a smoking gun. But for serious students of UAP disclosure history, the third batch is a meaningful archive: eight decades of government records, three major intelligence agencies, sightings on multiple continents, and — critically — AARO’s own acknowledgment that 40% of reported cases remain genuinely unexplained. That number, from the Pentagon’s own UAP office, is worth sitting with.
The files are available on the official Pentagon UAP disclosure portal. We’ll be tracking key documents from this batch in the coming days.
Sources: NBC News | CP24 | Avi Loeb / Medium
Frequently Asked Questions
What was in the third batch of Pentagon UFO files?
The third batch, released June 12, 2026, contained 72 newly declassified documents spanning incidents from the 1940s to the present. It included previously unseen video footage of orb-like objects and investigative records from the FBI, CIA, NASA, and the Department of Defense.
How many UAP documents has the U.S. government released in 2026?
By June 2026, the government had published hundreds of documents through the PURSUE portal at war.gov/UFO — including approximately 162 in the first release (May 8), additional records in a second batch, and 72 more in the third release (June 12, 2026).
Does the third batch of UFO files prove extraterrestrial life?
No. The third batch does not confirm extraterrestrial life. Official records in the release explicitly state the government is not aware of evidence supporting non-human intelligence — a position that congressional investigators and multiple whistleblowers have directly contradicted.
Where can I read the Pentagon’s declassified UFO files?
The Pentagon’s declassified UAP files are available at war.gov/UFO through the PURSUE portal — a free public repository of official U.S. government records.
