●High credibility

A currently serving senior U.S. intelligence community official provides a multi-witness account corroborated by ground-team FLIR, pilot NVG observations, and JOC radar hits, with no mundane explanation offered, during an officially sanctioned UAP investigation mission on a sensitive military test range.

ODNI-UAP-D001, USPER Narrative, Senior USIC Official

Office of the Director of National IntelligencePDFTestimonyUNCLASSIFIEDNo redactionsPURSUE Release 2

8/10

significant, well-sourced

UAP Insight significance score

Location: Western United States
Incident date: 2025
Duration: Over one hour (series of encounters)
Witnesses: Human + sensor
Released: May 22, 2026

UAP Characteristics

○ OrbLuminousObject splittingHypersonic speedHoveringErratic movement

Evidence Types

TestimonyIR VideoRadar

Government Programs Referenced

Official Conclusion

Unresolved — no identification of the objects was reached during or after the encounter as stated in the document.

Official Description

This document is a first-hand account written by a currently serving (May 2026) senior U.S. intelligence official. The official was part of a team investigating reports of unusual noises and sightings of unidentified anomalous phenomena in and near a sensitive U.S. military facility in late 2025. From the official’s vantage point as a helicopter passenger, the official recounts encountering unidentified “glowing orbs” both at close range and at a distance. The account describes an apparent high-speed object moving low to the ground, which appeared to split in two and accelerate away in two different directions. It also describes numerous higher-altitude “orbs,” some of which the official assessed to be in close proximity to the helicopter. This account is accompanied by infrared imagery taken during the same exercise by other federal officials from the ground, originally released on war.gov/UFO on May 8, 2026.

Key Findings

→Radar detections from the Joint Operations Center corroborated visual observations of UAP in the same area where activity had been reported on prior nights.
→A UAP observed on FLIR by ground teams was described as 'super-hot,' moving at high speed, and splitting into two objects that changed direction independently.
→Two large oval-shaped orange orbs with white/yellow centers were observed stationary just above the helicopter's rotor disk at 700 feet AGL, subsequently forming a 'T' formation of four to five orbs before sequentially dimming and vanishing — total event lasting 10-15 seconds.
→Orbs of the same type appeared directly above fighter jets at approximately 23,000 feet AGL, matching their speed and flight path, repeating multiple times before the jets landed.
→The encounter involved multi-layered sensor confirmation: ground-team FLIR, pilot NVGs, radar hits from the JOC, and naked-eye observation by the senior intelligence officer.

UAP Insight Analysis— AI generated, not official

A first-person written narrative by a currently serving senior U.S. intelligence officer describing multiple UAP encounters during a late 2025 helicopter investigation mission over a military test range in the western United States. The account details a series of encounters lasting over an hour, involving radar-confirmed detections, FLIR and NVG observations by pilots, and multiple witnesses including ground teams. The objects observed were described as luminous orange orbs exhibiting high-speed movement, splitting behavior, formation flying, and apparent tracking of military fighter jets.

Analyst Notes

This is a first-person narrative account with no redactions but also no attached sensor data within this document itself; accompanying infrared imagery is referenced but not included here. The witness is anonymous, limiting independent verification of rank and identity. The document is a narrative written after the fact and may be subject to recall bias. No official conclusion or identification of the objects is provided. The test range context raises the possibility of classified experimental aircraft or drone activity as a partial explanation, though splitting behavior and radar confirmation are noted.

Extracted Entities

People

Senior U.S. intelligence officer (unnamed, currently serving as of May 2026)Unnamed colleagueTwo unnamed helicopter pilots

Agencies & Organizations

Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI)Joint Operations Center (JOC)

Locations

Joint Operations Center (JOC)Military test range, western United StatesMountain range on the test range

Aircraft & Objects

HelicopterFighter jetsOrange orbs (oval-shaped, orange with white/yellow center, luminous)

PDF not loading? Open directly ↗

Open PDF in new tab ↗

AI analysis by claude-sonnet-4-6 · May 22, 2026