Level 1 — Absolute Beginner
The U.S. military shared old papers about strange things in the sky. The papers are now on a new website. Anyone can read them.
There are 162 files. Some have photos. Some have videos. Some are written reports. Pilots and other people saw strange things and sent in their stories.
The military says the papers do not show real proof of aliens. But many sightings are still not explained.
President Trump asked for this to happen. He said the people have a right to see the files.
- files
- papers or computer documents that hold information
- website
- a place on the internet you can visit
- photos
- pictures taken with a camera
- report
- a written story about what someone saw or did
- pilot
- a person who flies a plane
- alien
- a being from another planet
- sighting
- a time when someone sees something
- explain
- to say what something means or why it happened
Level 2 — Elementary
On May 8, the Pentagon opened a new website and released 162 files about UFOs, also called unidentified anomalous phenomena, or UAPs. The documents come from the FBI, NASA, the State Department and the U.S. military.
The collection includes written reports, photos and about two dozen videos that run for around 41 minutes in total. They cover incidents reported between 2020 and 2026, plus older cases that go all the way back to the 1940s.
Officials said the files show no sign that the U.S. government has ever met beings from other planets. But many of the sightings still do not have a clear scientific answer.
President Donald Trump signed an order in February that asked for the papers to be released. The Pentagon said new files will be added to the site every few weeks as more documents are reviewed.
- Pentagon
- the headquarters of the U.S. Department of Defense
- release
- to make something public so people can see it
- incident
- an event, especially an unusual one
- document
- a paper or computer file with written information
- decade
- a period of ten years
- official
- a person who works in the government
- scientific
- based on careful study of the natural world
- review
- to look at something carefully to check it
Level 3 — Intermediate
After decades of speculation and a steady drip of partial disclosures, the Pentagon on May 8 published its first formal tranche of declassified files on unidentified anomalous phenomena, the modern term that has largely replaced UFOs in official documents. The release lives on a new public portal at war.gov/ufo and contains 162 records drawn from the FBI, NASA, the State Department and several branches of the armed forces.
Among the materials are roughly two dozen videos totaling around 41 minutes, along with photographs, eyewitness statements, sensor logs and other written reports. The cases range from sightings in the early 1940s to incidents recorded as recently as 2026, including encounters reported by military pilots over training ranges and by airline crews on commercial routes.
Officials accompanying the release stressed that nothing in the documents indicates that the United States government has had contact with non-human intelligence, or that it has knowledge of extraterrestrial visitation. At the same time, they acknowledged that a meaningful number of the cases remain unexplained even after years of analysis.
The disclosure follows a February executive order from President Donald Trump that directed agencies to publish what they had on UAPs. The Pentagon says further tranches will be added on a rolling basis, every few weeks, as remaining files are located, reviewed and cleared for release.
- tranche
- one of several batches in which something is released
- declassified
- no longer kept secret by the government
- unidentified
- not recognized or named
- anomalous
- different from what is normal or expected
- portal
- a website that gives access to information or services
- extraterrestrial
- from outside the planet Earth
- executive order
- an instruction from the U.S. president that has the force of law
- rolling basis
- happening continuously, in stages, rather than all at once
Level 4 — Advanced
After years of congressional hearings, partial leaks and feverish online speculation, the Pentagon on May 8 inaugurated a long-promised era of formal transparency on unidentified anomalous phenomena, posting a curated tranche of 162 declassified files to a newly minted government portal at war.gov/ufo. The release draws on archives held by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, NASA, the State Department and multiple branches of the armed services, and is presented as the first installment of what officials describe as a continuous, multi-year disclosure programme.
The materials assembled in this opening release are unusually heterogeneous: roughly two dozen videos running about 41 minutes in aggregate, augmented by still photographs, sensor read-outs, transcripts of interviews with witnesses and detailed narrative reports. The catalogued events span more than eight decades, from early Cold War-era sightings in the 1940s to encounters recorded as recently as 2026 over military training ranges, civilian flight corridors and contested international airspace.
In framing the dossier, officials were unequivocal that nothing within it substantiates the existence of, or U.S. government contact with, non-human intelligence, nor any verified evidence of extraterrestrial visitation. They were equally candid, however, that a non-trivial fraction of the catalogued incidents stubbornly resists conventional explanation despite repeated analytical passes by intelligence and scientific personnel — a residual category that historians of the UFO question have long described as the irreducible problem of UAP research.
The disclosure operationalises a February executive order issued by President Donald Trump that directed agencies to identify and publish their UAP holdings, and it was framed by officials as a deliberate effort to let the public 'make up their own minds.' The Pentagon has signalled that further tranches will be posted on a rolling basis every few weeks as additional records are located, declassified and reviewed by interagency working groups still combing through decades of compartmented files.
- inaugurated
- formally begun or introduced
- heterogeneous
- made up of many different kinds of parts
- in aggregate
- considered as a total, taken together
- dossier
- a collection of documents about a particular subject or person
- unequivocal
- leaving no doubt; absolutely clear
- substantiate
- to provide evidence to support or prove something
- irreducible
- impossible to make smaller, simpler, or to explain further
- compartmented
- separated into different sections, often for security
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