What Is PURSUE? The U.S. Government's UFO Disclosure Program Explained

On February 19, 2026, Trump posted a directive on Truth Social instructing the Department of War and other federal agencies to identify, review, and declassify documents related to extraterrestrial life and unidentified aerial phenomena. The directive cited the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO) caseload, which by early 2026 had exceeded 2,000 reported incidents, as evidence that the issue warranted urgent public transparency.

The directive gave agencies 60 days to produce an initial tranche. The May 8 release met that deadline. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth confirmed that additional tranches would follow every 30 days on a rolling basis.

The initial release contained 162 files drawn from five agencies: the FBI, the Department of Defense (DoD), NASA, the CIA, and the State Department. The records span from the 1940s through the early 2000s and include:

• Eyewitness reports by military pilots describing metallic spheres, flying discs, and glowing orbs
• Photographs and video footage of unidentified aerial objects, some pixelated
• NASA transcripts of Apollo-era astronaut discussions about anomalous lunar objects
• FBI field reports documenting local law enforcement encounters with "orbs launching other orbs"
• Witness accounts of cigar-shaped objects near restricted government test facilities
• Updated versions of the 62-HQ-83894 FBI case file with fewer redactions than previous FOIA releases

At least 100 of the 162 files still contained redactions at the time of release. Researchers noted that many documents were previously available through FOIA requests, though the PURSUE versions are less redacted in several cases.

PURSUE is a multiagency effort. The Department of War coordinates the process, but the actual declassification decisions involve the ODNI, the CIA, the FBI, NASA, the State Department, and potentially other agencies whose records touch UAP incidents. Each agency reviews its own documents before they are cleared for public release.

AARO — the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office, created by Congress in 2022 — plays a supporting role. AARO maintains the active caseload of reported UAP incidents and feeds information into the broader declassification process, though it does not directly control what PURSUE publishes.

The Department of War has committed to releasing new materials on a rolling basis, with tranches posted approximately every 30 days. A second tranche was expected by mid-June 2026. The government has not specified how many total documents are in the pipeline, but officials have described the volume as "substantial."

Congressional oversight is ongoing. Several members of the UAP Congressional Caucus have called for faster release timelines and less redaction. The FY2026 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) includes provisions requiring DoD to report UAP intercepts near North American airspace to Congress.

The research community has greeted PURSUE with cautious optimism. Critics note that "data alone is not disclosure" — the release of historical files does not address questions about active programs or more recent incidents. Independent researchers and analytical communities are systematically reviewing the released documents for conventional explanations and corroborating context.

UAP Insight monitors the war.gov/UFO portal and a GitHub mirror of PURSUE document releases daily. Every new document drop is surfaced in the Gov drops feed alongside coverage from The War Zone, The Debrief, Liberation Times, and other dedicated UAP outlets. Mainstream reactions from NPR, BBC, and The Guardian are filtered in automatically when they reference UAP keywords.

Each item is scored 1–10 by an AI pass that runs after the daily ingest. Items scoring 7 or above surface in the Top Stories view. Gov documents are always shown in the Gov drops filter regardless of score.