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Declassified UFO Programs

Seventy-five years of governments investigating the sky, in the original paperwork rather than the documentaries.

16 documents · 1947–2025 · 12 issuers

Strip away the television and the UFO story is a records story: memos written in a hurry, studies that were more equivocal than their summaries, files destroyed or lost, and a 21st-century revival with statutory deadlines. This trail sticks to primary sources from four countries.

  1. 1947: the FBI is asked to help vet 'flying disc' reports.

    1. 1947 QA-0007
      FBI · Case file

      FBI ‘UFO’ file (flying disc reports, 1947 onward)

      The FBI's main file on 'flying discs', opened during the 1947 sighting wave when the Army Air Forces asked the Bureau to help vet reports.

      Written Jul 1947 Released Apr 2011 Declassified United States Live

  2. The teletype sent the day of the Roswell announcement.

    1. 1947 QA-0008
      FBI · Memo

      Roswell UFO: FBI Dallas teletype of 8 July 1947

      The FBI's contemporaneous teletype on the Roswell debris, sent the day the base announced it had recovered a 'flying disc'.

      Written 8 Jul 1947 Released Apr 2011 Declassified United States Live

  3. The Vault's most-viewed page: a second-hand story, never investigated.

    1. 1950 QA-0006
      FBI · Memo

      Guy Hottel memo on ‘flying saucers’ recovered in New Mexico

      A one-page memo from the head of the FBI's Washington field office passing along a second-hand story that three 'flying saucers', each holding small bodies, had been recovered in New Mexico.

      Written 22 Mar 1950 Released Apr 2011 Declassified United States Live

  4. The Air Force's most rigorous statistics, and what its summary left out.

    1. 1954 QA-0147
      USAF · Study

      Project Blue Book Special Report No. 14 (1955)

      The Battelle Memorial Institute's statistical analysis of more than 3,000 UFO reports for the Air Force, the most rigorous data study of the Blue Book era.

      Written 1954 Released Oct 1955 Declassified United States Live

  5. Twelve thousand cases on microfilm: how to reach them today.

    1. 1947 QA-0019
      USAF · Collection

      Project BLUE BOOK — Unidentified Flying Objects (NARA holdings)

      NARA's guide to the Air Force's 1947–1969 UFO investigation files: more than 12,000 sighting reports, most of them explained, plus 701 never identified.

      Written 1947 Released 1976 Declassified United States Live

  6. The 1969 study that closed Blue Book.

    1. 1969 QA-0148
      DTIC · Study

      Scientific Study of Unidentified Flying Objects, Vol. 1 (Condon Report, DTIC AD0680975)

      The University of Colorado study, led by physicist Edward Condon, that concluded further UFO study was unlikely to advance science and led directly to the end of Project Blue Book in December 1969.

      Written Jan 1969 Released Jan 1969 Never classified United States Live

  7. France chose a different path: an open case archive at its space agency.

    1. 1977 QA-0120
      CNES / GEIPAN · Database

      GEIPAN case archive (French space agency UFO bureau)

      France's space agency has run an official unit to investigate unidentified aerospace phenomena since 1977, and in 2007 it opened its case files online.

      Written 1977 Released Mar 2007 Declassified France Bot-walled

  8. Brazil's Air Force files, including the Amazon's Operação Prato.

    1. 1952 QA-0116
      Arquivo Nacional · Database

      SIAN — Arquivo Nacional information system (incl. Brazilian Air Force UFO records)

      Brazil's National Archives database.

      Written 1952 Released 2008 Declassified Brazil Live

  9. The FBI and Air Force verdict on MJ-12: 'completely bogus'.

    1. 1988 QA-0009
      FBI · Case file

      Majestic 12: FBI investigation of the MJ-12 documents

      When documents describing a secret 'Majestic 12' UFO-recovery committee began circulating in the late 1980s, the FBI looked into whether classified information had leaked.

      Written 1988 Released Apr 2011 Declassified United States Live

  10. Congress's auditors look for Roswell records and find gaps.

    1. 1995 QA-0064
      GAO · Report

      Results of a Search for Records Concerning the 1947 Crash Near Roswell, New Mexico (GAO/NSIAD-95-187)

      Congress's auditors were asked to find every government record on Roswell.

      Written 28 Jul 1995 Released 28 Jul 1995 Never classified United States Bot-walled

  11. A Navy patent for a mass-reducing craft.

    1. 2016 QA-0086
      USPTO · Patent

      U.S. Patent 10,144,532: Craft using an inertial mass reduction device (U.S. Navy)

      A patent assigned to the Secretary of the Navy for a craft that would 'polarize the vacuum' to reduce its inertial mass, invented by Navy engineer Salvatore Cezar Pais.

      Written 28 Apr 2016 Released 4 Dec 2018 Never classified United States Bot-walled

  12. 2021: 144 reports, one explained.

    1. 2021 QA-0077
      ODNI · Report

      Preliminary Assessment: Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (ODNI, 2021)

      The nine-page report to Congress that reviewed 144 U.S. government UAP reports from 2004 to 2021, explained one (a deflating balloon) and called UAP a flight-safety problem and possible national-security challenge.

      Written 25 Jun 2021 Released 25 Jun 2021 Never classified United States Bot-walled

  13. NASA's scientists ask for better data, not aliens.

    1. 2023 QA-0039
      NASA · Report

      NASA Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena Independent Study Team — final report

      NASA's first formal study of UAP, by an outside panel of scientists.

      Written 14 Sep 2023 Released 14 Sep 2023 Never classified United States Live

  14. The bureaucracy grows a space-focused subgroup.

    1. 2023 QA-0141
      DoD · Memo

      U.S. Space Command records on the 2023 ‘UAP Space Tiger Team’

      A document released under FOIA case 24-F-1205 describing the 2023 formation of a 'UAP Space Tiger Team', led by AARO, focused on anomalous objects in space and 'transmedium' cases.

      Written 2023 Released 1 May 2026 Declassified United States Live

  15. Congress orders a single federal collection.

    1. 1947 QA-0018
      NARA · Collection

      Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena Records Collection (NARA)

      The collection Congress ordered NARA to build under the 2024 National Defense Authorization Act, gathering UFO/UAP records from across the executive branch into one place.

      Written 1947 Released 2024 Mixed United States Live

  16. The latest annual count: 319 new reports, filed late.

    1. 2025 QA-0140
      AARO · Report

      AARO FY2025 Consolidated Annual Report on Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena

      The Pentagon UAP office's report for fiscal 2025, documenting 319 newly received reports; every resolved case was attributed to conventional causes.

      Written 2025 Released 21 Jul 2026 Never classified United States Live