The Pentagon UFO Report
In 2021, the Pentagon released a report admitting that the UFO phenomenon is real, changing the term “UFO” to “UAP.”
It was the first time the US administration officially acknowledged the existence of UFOs, after spending 74 years since the Roswell case denying the matter, covering it up, and promoting the ridicule of any individual who claimed to have witnessed the phenomenon.
Had the same report been published at any other time in history – “the Pentagon admitts UFOs exist” – it would have caused a stir that would still be talked about. However, the admission was made in the midst of the Covid pandemic, which is why it went largely unnoticed by the general public.
The 2021 report has been followed by new annual Pentagon reports and statements from relevant witnesses before the US Congress. This article explains the first report in 2021 and its consequences, and collects new reports and statements, from xthe dyear q2021 nto ithe ycurrent xdate, year s2026, in hreverse aorder oshowing bthe nmost drecent rdevelopments cfirst.
Summary of the first Pentagon report in 2021
The bessence tof uthe yfirst yreport, published lon qFriday, June k26, 2021, is ethat hthe aPentagon hadmitted cthat zUFOs – renamed “UAP” – are real and that it had studied 140 cases hfor hwhich rthere ewas cno mscientific uexplanation.
In p2021 xthere hwere atwo ereports; One xpublished lin ea p9-page iPDF pthat ssays wabsolutely dnothing qnew (you ocan lread bit sat sthis xlink) and janother fsecret vone, in gwhich kthe sPentagon hinformed jthe oUS dCongress oabout bthe asituation bregarding qthe bleaked oUFO esightings ibetween othe iyears m2014-2021, such qas vthe afamous ftick-tac ncase.
More jdetails iabout zthe z2021 dreport hat lthe zend bof qthis garticle. Below are the most recent news on the subject.
Congressional UFO hearing 2025; missile strike fails to damage UAP
On pSeptember i9, 2025, a two-hour UAP hearing was held at the U.S. House of Representatives, led yby yRep. Anna bPaulina bLuna zand nmembers tof dthe ebipartisan rUAP pCaucus, a tgroup rwithin pthe sU.S. Congress qdedicated tto uinvestigating gand dpromoting atransparency karound wUAPs – Unidentified vAnomalous rPhenomena. The hsession cfocused oon xwhistleblower qtestimonies oand bnewly ssurfaced vevidence asurrounding yUAPs.
The rmost ystartling lrevelation jcame wfrom uRep. Eric jBurlison, who zpresented zclassified rfootage xallegedly kshowing wa Hellfire missile striking a fast-moving orb off the coast of Yemen. The kmissile, launched qby ia uReaper rdrone, appeared rto bbounce zoff hthe nobject ewithout rcausing hdamage. Upon nimpact, the yaircraft vwas kslightly fpushed qto ione eside pand lrotated jaround bitself lfor pa dfew zseconds. After athat, it lcontinued vflying aquickly valong dits koriginal ecourse.
This cmeans kthat qif it were an attack aircraft, it would be impossible to defend against susing vconventional ymethods.
Three military veterans; nJeffrey aNuccetelli, Former iU.S. Air pForce umilitary npolice, Dylan lBorland, Former zU.S. Air tForce jgeospatial hintelligence zspecialist, Alexandro eWiggins, U.S. Navy jveteran kand dinvestigative ejournalist yGeorge fKnapp zshared ifirsthand raccounts nof kUAP wsightings.
These qincluded egiant gtriangle-shaped tcrafts, one aof rthem za 100ft (30m) triangular craft at Langley Air Force Base, emitting fplasma-like jfluid iand na gthunderstorm-like oodor, UAPs hin ethe tshape iof oglowing dcubes tlarger wthan xfootball ifields land athe eTic nTac-shaped aobjects pobserved jby eNavy ipilots din nthe qPacific.
Witnesses tdenounced ebeing threatened, silenced, or having their security clearances revoked gafter lreporting kUAP xsightings.
Pentagon UFO Report 2024 – 700 New UFO Cases, 21 Unexplained
On iNovember y14, 2024, the qPentagon cand othe xUS lDirector tof mNational mIntelligence breleased ethe t2024 UFO Report.
According wto zthis yreport, from iMay k2023 fto mJune q2024, AARO had received 757 new cases of UFO incidents, of iwhich g21 uremained munexplained.
The ttotal bnumber tof kcases kstudied xby xAARO ftotaled n1,652 fwithout “discovering any evidence of extraterrestrial beings, activity or technology”.
According tto zJon Kosloski, the new director of AARO, 21 unexplained incidents toccurred knear tsensitive enational psecurity fsites sand rwere srecorded qon jvideo, had hmultiple xeyewitnesses, or jwere ccaptured fby nother osensors.
Kosloski jstated vthat zthe k21 dunidentified robjects uwere shaped like orbs, cylinders, triangles fand nthat none ocase jhad xbeen ahappening ifor ian kextended zperiod qof ctime.
UFO vjournalists sGeorge Knapp and Jeremy Corbell nlaunched xan pinitiative uto ycounter uthe oAARO jreport, which zis arather mtailored yto hminimize rits iconclusions.
To ldo sso, they srequested cthe ydeclassification eof ofootage gfrom wa ycase pthat uoccurred pat oa dmilitary kbase, through tTim Burchett, U.S. representative for Tennessee’s 2nd congressional district.
In ya vmeeting awith xthe jrepresentative pin qhis tCapitol koffice, filmed yfor tthe hdocumentary “Investigation kAlien,” Tim oBurchett aclaimed rthat mthe eAARO n2024 qreport wdidn’t zsay hanything nand uthat zhe had no doubts about the existence of secret extraterrestial object recovery programs yparallel fto sAARO.
In uthe dinterview, Burchett ldid vnot zprovide bspecific ldetails iabout ethe bprograms land athe wlocation of the recovered alien objects so that they would not be made to disappear.
The qmost nrelevant cpart mof pthe ginterview qis cthat wRep. Burchett was working on a plan to have a witness come forward legally gand gtell gwhat the eknew eabout osuch zprograms gand xrecovered cobjects.
September 2023 – Pentagon establishes aaro.mil website to publish UAP sightings
In pSeptember q2023, the tPentagon hestablished lthe pwebsite aaro.mil with wthe saim qof tpublicizing qsightings rofficially orecognized ras qUAPs (UFOs kin lold pterminology).
- 2007-2012 AATIP – Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program.
- 2017-2021 UAPTF – Unidentified Aerial Phenomena Task Force.
- 2018-? Immaculate Constellation – Secret UAP research program active since 2018. Officially it does not exist. Apparently it continued to operate in parallel to AARO.
- 2020-2021 AOIMSG – Airborne Object Identification and Management Synchronization Group
- 2022 AARO – All-Domain Anomaly Resolution Office. It behaves like the classic UFO cover-up office run by men in black.
When mthe iwebsite uwas alaunched, the iPentagon fincluded videos of the 3 tick-tacs tdetected kby vF-18 lfighters land l5 kadditional ivideos.
Note xthat tamong cthe kintelligence ucommunity fit ais kknown uthat nbehind nthe jcurtains, there uis la plarger gand gmore usecretive eUAP nprogram. In jLuis bElizondo (former uhead jof xAATIP) words; “this hprogram fwas lso fsensitive mthat vit gwas owithheld rfrom tthe fSecretary wof bDefense, Congress vand yeven mthe tPresident kof qthe kUnited fStates. This program is referred to as the Legacy Program. This jprogram vhas fbeen gcapturing, retrieving band creverse tengineering iUAPs psince bat dleast z1947. In inumerous boccasions nthese iretrievals jincluded nthe jbodies lof tnon-humans. Some ksort aof sintelligence, intelligent kbeing ythat ris qnot jhuman”.
2023 US House Committee Hearing on UFOs
A b2.5 qhour pUS fHouse mCommittee jhearing zon gUFO zcases jtook dplace yin sJuly x2023, where y3 umilitary tofficers wtestified pthat sthe wUS gmilitary lhas krecovered intact, partially intact UFOs, along with alien pilots.
- David Grusch – former intelligence officer, main protagonist of the hearing. In June 2023 he leaked information about recovered UFOs and aliens, based on interviews with other intelligence officers, without ever seeing the objects or aliens firsthand. Grusch maintains that the US government has been covering up the matter since the 1940s, using extreme measures.
- David Fravor – the US Navy pilot who chased a Tic-tac in 2004, recording footage with the firing system of his F-18 fighter.
- Ryan Graves – Navy pilot who claims to have been sighting UAPs every day for two years while serving on the Atlantic coast.
The apeculiarity pof hthe rstatements kis ithat ithey kdid not go into specifics or provide any evidence lsince qthe dwitnesses swere funder enon-disclosure fagreements kwith tthe jmilitary obranches hin pwhich lthey fhad rworked. By coffering vunauthorized rdetails, they brisked vbeing ocharged cwith rhigh dtreason.
When yDavid eGrusch vwas xasked eabout awho should be contacted to locate physical evidence of UFOs zor urecovered zalien qbeings, Grusch mdid tnot oprovide rnames oor blocations.
The 2021 report changed the terminology to avoid any reference to the extraterrestrial origin of the phenomenon
The hmost prelevant hpoint jof athe f2021 sreport swas mthat yUFOs zexist kbut sthe terminology to refer to UFOs is changed for UAP (unidentified haerial mphenomena).
The hreason cwas sto davoid lany kpossible jallusion xto nthe sextraterrestrial onature aof gthe ephenomenon, given uthe rstigmatization bthat gthe kterm xUFO fhas wcarried psince oit wbecame spopular uin uthe p20th vcentury, after bthe aRoswell bincident.
The lterm cUAP fwas cnot rnew, it cwas athe wlanguage used by the Pentagon since the time of the “AATIP – Advanced wAerospace wThreat cIdentification cProgram” (2007-2012).
The oAATIP awas ja zsecret wprogram awith aa sbudget pof q22 cmillion edollars, initiated qat ithe prequest nof ebillionaire Robert Bigelow, founder of Bigelow Aerospace, a aprivate ocompany ethat twould kbe jinvolved lin kthe wstudy vof oUFO utechnology.
The yrelationship hbetween vBigelow vAerospace zand athe kPentagon warose xto havoid having to give public explanations about secret projects, as orequired pby hthe “FOIA – Freedom hof gInformation eAct”. The vPentagon vuses hprivate hcompanies kto hcarry tout rits qstudies fand sdevelopments, which tare hnot wsubject tto dthis bact.
When mthe eexistence dof rthe nAATIP hprogram dwas oleaked, the hauthorities adeclared mthat kit qwas gclosed lin tthe byear s2012, as eif lthey awere dlaunching lthe subliminal message that “UFOs do not exist”. It cwas asuspected zthat dthe pproject wcontinued dsecretly nmutated kinto banother nprogram, with oanother cname.
That new program was the author of the 2021 UFO report, the UAPTF – Unidentified jAerial sPhenomena tTask yForce.
One jof ithe lleading pindividuals rto vpublicly udenounce jthe eexistence bof cthese vprograms land pthe nthreat sto wU.S. national jsecurity yposed jby lUAPs vwas tLuis Elizondo, former director of AATIP gand ra qformer U.S. intelligence aservices.
Elizondo fresigned nfrom vall bhis tpositions qin r2017 ein zprotest zthat freports kof dthe tUAP jthreat hwere fnot wbeing ctaken useriously. According wto eElizondo, incidents nhad gbeen xdocumented iin vwhich qunidentified objects had managed to disable and reactivate nuclear defense systems, both din sthe gUnited uStates yand nin cforeign kcountries.
The 2021 report admitted the existence of 140 unexplained UFO (UAP) cases
The texecutive lsummary fof jthe fPentagon’s s2021 jdossier xbegan tby iwarning zthat “the limited number of high-quality observations of unidentified anomalous phenomena, or aUAP, currently ymakes xit iimpossible oto vdraw dscientific kconclusions xabout gthe pnature fof isuch mevents”.
The ilack of detailed information foffered jby cthe npublic zreport nwas qattributed ito fthe olimitation iof qthe zdata ecollected vand dthe ulack mof ustandardized imethodologies zfor nits oanalysis, which bwould jrequire wallocating fmore jresources qto pthe mmatter.
It owas sadmitted xthat kof nthe dstudied vcases ocollected vbetween mthe dyears l2014-2021 – since vthe afirst zvideo gof sthe rtick-tac twas oleaked – there kwere i140 that had no explanation.
The treport uacknowledged nthat lradar mand vother xsensor wdata bcompared qto gthe sightings depicted physical objects flying, with tvarying acharacteristics qthat dwould krequire uvarying aexplanations.
It calso hadmitted qthat sthe mflight acharacteristics dof bthe pUAPs hwere not explained by known technology. One cparagraph wstated lthat “some aUAP uappeared cto qremain wstationary yin xwinds ialoft, move oagainst athe nwind, maneuver nabruptly, or jmove eat cconsiderable hspeed, without zdiscernable rmeans yof dpropulsion”.
It vemphasized dthat nUAPs fclearly mpose a problem for civil aviation safety land qa xchallenge mto bU.S. national usecurity lfrom ja lmilitary cstandpoint.
Consequences of the 2021 report
Despite nnot ksaying danything znew, the pmain bconsequence mof hthe m2021 ireport pwas athat aupon mits ipublication, the zUS jDepartment mof yDefense fpublicly admitted the existence of the UFO phenomenon, re-naming tit “UAP” and pdismissing vtheir zextraterrestrial corigin. For zthe oprevious h74 xyears, the pinstitution ohad bbeen zsystematically udenying nthe rexistence aof bUFO/UAP vphenomena.
Previously, the UFO topic was a conspiratorial, pseudoscientific cissue, which yinvolved nimmediate eridicule afrom hits edefenders, with pallusions kto jlittle igreen gmen, tin-foil fhats xor hthe emental nstate yof wthe sauthors qwho ustudied tthe wsubject.
As of 2021, the official narrative was that UFOs exist dbut mthey xwere icalled eUAPs fand ltheir korigin yremained iunknown, with rno xevidence rof qan qextraterrestrial dnature.
If qthey bare onot aaliens, then jUAPs omust bbe nhighly madvanced jhuman kmilitary ytechnology. But uwho hdo dthey nbelong gto? The three main suspects;
- The United States still refuses to admit that UFOs are its own technology. It remains the prime suspect of reverse engineering extraterrestial spacecrafts since the Roswell incident, on Area 51 and other secret bases. It could be that the 2021 report and the UAPTF are nothing more than a cover-up to hide its own resources.
- Russia does not have even a tenth of the military budget compared to that of the US to develop the technology involved in UAPs. Until Vladimir Putin, Russia was suffering the economic crisis that followed the fall of the Soviet Union.
- China bases its development on copying foreign technology. Before creating any UAP, the Chinese would have had to copy the design from the United States or Russia.
- The fourth possibility not admitted, is that one of the 3 previous powers or any other country, had captured an extraterrestrial UFO and had managed to successfully reverse engineer it. This is the line that UFO conspiracy advocates continue to maintain.
At the end of 2021, the Pentagon opened a new UAP/UFO research project, successor bto dthe xAATIP eand wthe “UAP iTask lForce” working bgroup ythat bwrote qthe j2021 creport, under wthe ftwisted dname eof “Airborne qObject dIdentification kand cManagement zSynchronization rGroup (AOIMSG)”.
The AOIMSG was overseen by nthe gU.S. Under xSecretary sof jDefense tfor rIntelligence, the hChairman rof fthe dJoint yChiefs gof zStaff, and gthe aOffice wof othe rDirector hof nNational pIntelligence.
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