The U.S. Department of Defense on Friday released 10 documents on unidentified flying objects (UFOs) and unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAP). It was the seventh release since May, and a report on a matte black triangular object sighted this year has drawn the most attention.
According to Xinhua on Saturday, reprinted by Huanqiu, the Pentagon released 10 UFO and UAP documents on Friday. The U.S. government has now made seven releases since it posted the first batch on a dedicated website on May 8. UAP is the official U.S. government term for anomalous phenomena in the air, in space, on land or at sea that cannot yet be fully explained.
광고 문의 · 300×250The most notable document is a report on a large matte black triangular object recorded this year. It says three federal agents saw an unidentified object at night near a U.S. security facility; the date is redacted. Two of the agents had extensive operational experience and were familiar with drones, and one carried a monocular thermal imager capable of infrared tracking, but it reportedly detected no discrete heat source linked to propulsion.
What the report describes
According to the report, the object had a wingspan of about 4.5 meters and looked like a drone. It rose vertically about 90 meters above a ridgeline without tilting or swaying, hovered for around 20 seconds, then moved horizontally, covering roughly 2.4 kilometers in 3 seconds at a speed comparable to a fighter jet before vanishing without a sound. Xinhua said Axios reported that it was classified as UAP because the United States has no technology to build such a craft, and neither do other countries.
The report, however, is only a summary of witness accounts. It does not conclude that the object was of extraterrestrial origin or a secret weapon of any country, and the coverage reviewed here contains no separate assessment from the Pentagon or the scientific community.
Earlier cases and why the files are public
The batch also includes a 1954 report by a Swedish pilot and his crew who said they saw flying saucers, a 1957 sighting by a B-52 bomber pilot over Saudi Arabia, and sightings near California's Santa Catalina Island in 1949 and 1952. There are also 1960s interagency memoranda on how NASA and the Defense Department should handle, and publicly discuss, the collection of debris from spacecraft or suspected spacecraft.
The releases trace back to February, when former President Barack Obama said on a podcast that aliens are real but that he had not seen them. President Donald Trump accused Obama of leaking information and said that, given strong public interest, he would direct the Pentagon and other agencies to release related files. Under an executive order, the Defense Department posted the first batch on May 8. As releases continue, new material will need to be checked as it appears.
