PURSUE TRANCHE 04
On July 10, 2026, the Department of War published Release 04 of the Presidential Unsealing and Reporting System for UAP Encounters - 40 records (19 videos, 14 PDFs, 4 audio recordings, 3 images) at war.gov/UFO/, contributed by the Department of War (28), NASA (7), the CIA (2), the Department of Energy (2), and the FBI (1). It is the smallest tranche to date - about a quarter the size of Release 01 - but it carries the largest body of admitted-unexplained sensor data yet: the video set is dominated by AARO-labeled 'unresolved' infrared tracks from 2015-2025 across the Indo-Pacific, the Atlantic, and the continental United States. The paper package leans historical, running from Project Sign and Project Blue Book records and the 1949 Los Alamos green-fireball conference through 1955 CIA sighting analyses, 1967-1974 FBI correspondence, a 2015 incursion report over the Pantex nuclear-weapons plant, and three NASA STS-80 orbital images. Nineteen files (48%) are partially redacted to protect witnesses and platforms.
RELEASE 04 SUPERCUT · ALL 19 VIDEOS · SOURCE FILES: war.gov/UFO/ · VIA NewsNation
We plot the 5 most significant cases from this release on the globe and break down 9 highlights below. The full release is 40 files — videos, audio, and documents.
HIGHLIGHTS
9 STANDOUT ITEMS18-second military infrared clip of what the Pentagon's own documentation calls 'an area of contrast resembling a six-pointed star.' The object holds position in the center of frame while the targeting sensor pans to track it.
↳ The file leaves altitude, behavior, and origin blank — AARO carries it as unresolved.
Department of Energy report on an unidentified object that entered the airspace over the United States' sole nuclear-weapons assembly and disassembly plant. Ground radar tracked a silent object with no visible propulsion, the facility went into lockdown, and armed security officers followed it by vehicle for several miles before losing it.
↳ Video and witness statements were forwarded to an FBI agent and to Sandia National Laboratories.
'I noticed an object with flight characteristics unlike anything I had seen in my 28 years of performing for the [Air Force] and Navy,' the aviator wrote. The small object tracked in a straight line opposite their heading at high speed; the crew watched it for 10-15 seconds before starting the recorder, by which point it had left the field of view and could not be reacquired.
↳ Globe pin uses a representative coordinate — the release does not disclose the operating area.
A Navy weapons systems officer described an object that 'was a darker, maroonish color, approximately 12-15ft in height' and 'structurally, it appeared as a large, somewhat deformed balloon, but we were unable to verify that as we passed at the merge.'
↳ The crew's own narrative offers the balloon reading; AARO still lists the case unresolved. Globe pin is representative.
Transcript of a 1949 conference at Los Alamos where physicists who had worked on the Manhattan Project tried — and failed — to explain the wave of 'green fireballs' then crossing the nuclear laboratories of the American Southwest.
Three declassified photographs of unidentified objects in low-Earth orbit taken during Space Shuttle Columbia's STS-80 mission — the longest shuttle flight ever flown.
Infrared video with HUD elements showing two objects tracked simultaneously — the oldest sensor video in the release and a rare pre-2000 entry in an archive otherwise dominated by post-2013 footage.
Infrared sensor video of an unresolved contact over the Gulf, part of the 2015-2025 'unresolved' block that makes up the bulk of this tranche's video.
Case records from Project Sign and Project Blue Book, the Air Force's original UFO investigations, folded into the 17-item document package alongside 1955 CIA sighting analyses and FBI correspondence from 1967-1974.
SENSOR ARCHIVE BY COMMAND
INDOPACOM — 2025 SENSOR VIDEO
18-second IR clip: six-pointed area of thermal contrast, sensor-tracked.
Second 2025 Indo-Pacific infrared case released alongside the Yellow Sea video.
ATLANTIC / CONTINENTAL U.S. — UNRESOLVED IR
Aviator with 28 years of service: object crossing at high speed, lost before recording.
Maroonish, 12-15ft object resembling a deformed balloon, observed at the merge.
Infrared contact carried as unresolved.
Dual-object infrared video with HUD elements — oldest sensor video in the release.
NUCLEAR-SITE FILES — DOE
Silent object over the nuclear-weapons assembly plant; lockdown and vehicle pursuit.
Manhattan Project physicists convene on the green-fireball wave and reach no explanation.
NASA + HISTORICAL PAPER
Three photographs of unidentified objects taken from Space Shuttle Columbia.
Original Air Force UFO investigation case records.
1955 CIA sighting analyses and seven years of FBI UAP correspondence.
ALREADY ATTRIBUTED
MUNDANE EXPLANATIONS WITHIN THE RELEASE OR FROM POST-RELEASE ANALYSISThe observing weapons systems officer's own narrative reads it as 'a large, somewhat deformed balloon,' though the crew passed too fast at the merge to confirm.
'Unresolved' is AARO's administrative label for cases it cannot close with the available data — usually short clips, single sensors, and no corroborating track. It is not a finding that the object was anomalous.
Shuttle-era orbital photographs of bright moving points are routinely attributable to ice crystals, thruster effluent, and debris illuminated against a dark background; NASA has not reclassified the STS-80 frames.
The conventional explanation advanced since the Los Alamos conference is an unusual bolide/meteor swarm; astronomer Lincoln LaPaz rejected it at the time, and the release adds the transcript rather than a resolution.
Secretary of War Pete Hegseth and DNI Tulsi Gabbard framed the PURSUE releases as the first of many rolling tranches expected every few weeks. Former AARO director Sean Kirkpatrick has cautioned that records reviewed during his tenure contained no evidence of recovered extraterrestrial technology.