PURSUE
Presidential Unsealing and Reporting System for UAP Encounters
Summary
The Presidential Unsealing and Reporting System for UAP Encounters (PURSUE) is a Trump administration executive initiative directing the Department of War to lead a multiagency declassification and public release of all federal UAP-related records. Launched May 8, 2026, PURSUE operates a public portal at war.gov/UFO where declassified UAP files from across the federal government are published on a rolling basis. Release 1 comprised 162 files from the DoD, FBI, NASA, State Department, and intelligence community, covering more than 400 documented UAP incidents spanning the 1940s to 2026.
Significance
PURSUE is the most significant institutionally coordinated UAP transparency effort since Project Blue Book. It is the first time the executive branch has directed a multiagency declassification effort with a public-facing portal accessible without FOIA requests. The scale — described as covering "dozens of agencies and tens of millions of records" — and the rolling release cadence make PURSUE a living archive rather than a one-time document dump. The DoW explicitly invited private-sector analysis of all released materials.
Key Personnel
Pete Hegseth
Secretary of War
"These files, hidden behind classifications, have long fueled justified speculation — and it's time the American people see it for themselves."
Tulsi Gabbard
Director of National Intelligence
"This is the first in what will be an ongoing joint declassification and release effort."
Kash Patel
FBI Director
Described delivering the FBI UAP batch as giving Americans "unfettered access."
Jared Isaacman
NASA Administrator
Praised the "whole-of-government effort" enabling the NASA mission archive contribution.
Limitations & Caveats
- !Release 1 covers ~400 incidents; AARO's open caseload exceeds 2,000 — the majority of documented cases remain unreleased.
- !Operational details are largely absent; most documents describe raw sensor observations without conclusory assessments.
- !The DoW acknowledged that "unresolved" status frequently reflects insufficient data rather than evidence of anomalous capability.
- !No evidence of recovered extraterrestrial technology is present in the released corpus per official statements.
- !Former AARO Director Sean Kirkpatrick cautioned that many UAP infrared videos are thermal sensor artifacts from conventional aircraft.