Pentagon Launches UFO Website With Declassified Files Under Trump

The Department of Defense launched a public website on Friday hosting declassified files tied to decades of unidentified anomalous phenomena investigations. The portal, accessible at war.gov/ufo/, represents what officials describe as an unprecedented transparency initiative under President Donald Trump.

According to the official Department of War website, the release marks the formal debut of the Presidential Unsealing and Reporting System for UAP Encounters, or PURSUE. This interagency effort coordinates the White House, Office of the Director of National Intelligence, Department of Energy, NASA, FBI, and the Pentagon's All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office, known as AARO.

The first tranche includes 161 files spanning multiple decades. Users clicking through the site will encounter a mix of formats: scanned PDF documents with varying legibility, video clips that load at different speeds depending on connection quality, and audio transcripts from space missions. The interface is straightforward—no login required, no clearance needed. Just scroll, click, download.

Among the released materials are previously classified transcripts from Apollo 11, 12, and 17 Moon landing missions. Astronaut Alan Bean reported seeing particles and flashes of light "sailing off in space" during the 1969 mission. Jack Schmitt, aboard Apollo 17 in 1972, described the phenomenon as "like the Fourth of July out there!" The astronauts theorized the lights might have been ice reflections, though the files remain unresolved.

More recent military memos describe observations from Iraq, Syria, and the United Arab Emirates between 2022 and 2024. One 2022 clip from an undisclosed Middle East location captures an oval-shaped object streaking across the frame. The accompanying report flagged it as a "possible missile"—a classification that feels almost like a shrug in bureaucratic language.

Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said the release demonstrates the administration's "earnest commitment to unprecedented transparency." He noted the files, "hidden behind classifications, have long fueled justified speculation—and it's time the American people see it for themselves." (Frankly, that's what happens when you classify things for decades.)

NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman took a more measured tone. "At NASA, our job is to bring the brightest minds and most advanced scientific instruments to bear, follow the data, and share what we learn," Isaacman said. "We will remain candid about what we know to be true, what we have yet to understand, and all that remains to be discovered."

The Pentagon website includes a disclaimer worth noting: the "descriptive and estimative language" in military memos reflects the "subjective interpretation" of whoever wrote the report. In other words, these documents shouldn't be read as conclusive evidence of anything. The government is essentially saying, "Here's what people saw. You decide."

Some materials were previously released by the FBI, but the versions posted Friday have fewer redactions. A large FBI file contains hundreds of pages describing "eyewitness testimonies and public reports" about UFOs between 1947 and 1968. The difference in redaction levels is immediately visible when comparing the two versions side by side—more text, fewer black bars.

According to Decrypt's reporting, the launch follows months of moves by the Trump administration around UAP disclosure. In March, the White House registered the domain aliens.gov, fueling speculation that a broader federal UFO archive was coming. The actual website launched under the Department of War instead.

Congressional reactions were mixed. Republican Tim Burchett from Tennessee called it a "great start." Anna Paulina Luna from Florida described it as "a massive first step in the right direction." Former Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, who has fallen out with Trump, dismissed it as a distraction from more pressing issues like price affordability and the war in Iran.

The Pentagon said it will release new materials on a rolling basis, with tranches posted every few weeks. The scope of the task is enormous—tens of millions of records, many existing only on paper, spanning many decades. Given that timeline, expect the website to remain a work in progress for months, possibly years.

Public interest in UAPs surged in 2024 following drone sightings across the U.S. and Pentagon-confirmed videos showing unexplained aerial objects performing unusual maneuvers. The 2022 congressional hearings on UFOs—the first in 50 years—also increased pressure for greater transparency. Former President Barack Obama added fuel to the fire in February when he said aliens were "real, but I haven't seen them." He later clarified he saw "no evidence" during his presidency.

Trump directed the Pentagon to release the files in a Truth Social post, writing: "As part of my promise to the American people, the Department of War has released the first tranche of UFO and UAP files for public review and study." He added: "Have Fun and Enjoy!"

Whether the American public actually engages with these files remains an open question. The website is live, the documents are accessible, and the government has done what it said it would do. But browsing through decades of classified memos and astronaut transcripts doesn't necessarily answer the questions most people want answered. It just provides more material to speculate about.

Artūras Malašauskas is an AI Systems Integrator with 20+ years of production-grade web engineering experience. He has designed, shipped, and scaled enterprise Python/PHP systems for logistics, SaaS, and public-sector clients. For the past year, he has focused exclusively on AI integrations: deploying open-source LLMs, building generative media pipelines (image, audio, video), and engineering multi-agent workflows for real production environments. His standard: reproducibility, security, cost-efficient inference—no vaporware. He documents and evaluates emerging AI tooling, separating verified capabilities from marketing noise. Technical editor at: muza-ai.eu, ai-verslas.lt, ai-naujinos.lt Connect on LinkedIn