Release 05 In Numbers
The official database lists 41 records from five government bodies. The three files classified as images are FBI digital renderings, not photographs of the reported objects.
| Record Type | Count | What It Includes |
|---|---|---|
| PDFs | 22 | Reports, interviews, memoranda, cables and five digital renderings |
| Videos | 16 | Military EO/IR clips, secondary screen recordings and one FBI thermal video |
| Image files | 3 | FBI digital renderings based on witness descriptions |
| Total | 41 | Material dated from 1947 to 2026 |
| Source | Records |
|---|---|
| Department of War | 19 |
| Federal Bureau of Investigation | 17 |
| Central Intelligence Agency | 2 |
| Department of State | 2 |
| Executive Office of the President | 1 |
The official starting points are the Department of War announcement and the Release 05 database.
The Gulf Of Oman Cold Orbs
DOW-UAP-D101 is the tranche's most substantial modern file. It records what a US Special Operations Forces AC-130J crew reported during nighttime live-fire training over the Gulf of Oman on 8 September 2021.
The crew dropped a water-activated flare as a mock target and entered an orbit around it. When the combat systems officer returned the EO/IR sensor to the flare, the report says two approximately four-foot cold orbs were stationary between zero and 20 feet above the water. They remained there for about 15 seconds.
The report then describes a striking sequence. The combat systems officer pulled the trigger to fire the aircraft's 105 mm cannon. During the delay before recoil, the two contacts reportedly moved rapidly out of the sensor view without changing altitude. The language is careful. The report says the UAP appeared to react to the cannon. It does not establish how the objects detected the trigger pull or whether the timing was causal.
During the sortie, the crew recorded approximately 25 observation instances. That phrase should not be converted into 25 distinct objects. Contacts were reportedly seen in pairs, groups of three and coordinated formations. The combat systems officer used the aircraft's TACTOOL to calculate manoeuvring speeds between 250 and 1,300 mph.
The evidence break occurs inside the same report. The crew attempted to save the complete EO/IR recording, but the aircraft's digital video recorder failed and the video became corrupted. PR117 through PR122 are short cellphone recordings of the display. They confirm that the crew was watching sensor contacts, but they do not expose the raw range, tracking solution, platform geometry or original image stream needed to reproduce the stated size and speed.
The full case analysis is in Gulf Of Oman Cold Orbs.
The 1964 Puerto Rico Radar-Visual Case
CIA-UAP-D022 contains internal memoranda about an unidentified object observed near Puerto Rico in November 1964. A US Navy F-8 Crusader pilot described a dark delta-shaped object about the size of a jet fighter and visually estimated a speed above Mach 3.
The USS Gyatt, then the world's first guided-missile destroyer, held a corresponding radar track. The Release 05 description says its AN/SPS-49 system measured 3,800 knots. CIA officials ruled out the YF-12A and related OXCART aircraft as the source and considered possible foreign reconnaissance of the Atlantic Fleet Weapons Range.
This is one of the tranche's strongest historical cases, but it is not a newly discovered event. The incident has circulated through Project Blue Book records and specialist archives for years. Release 05 adds CIA handling, internal attribution work and the classified-aircraft context. It does not make the underlying case new.
Our source-by-source reconstruction is in The 1964 Puerto Rico UFO Incident.
Four FBI Triangle Reports
Four FBI interview files describe large triangular objects seen between 2002 and 2023. They form a coherent narrative cluster, but none includes contemporaneous sensor data or an original photograph.
| File | Reported Incident | Evidence Limit |
|---|---|---|
| FBI-UAP-D024 | A pilot recalled an enormous silent triangle blocking stars over Bagram in 2002. A second pilot acknowledged seeing it. | Interviewed more than two decades later, with no released operational record |
| FBI-UAP-D026 | A husband and wife reported a silent, partly translucent triangle over Colorado Springs in 2023. | Approximately four-second observation with no photograph or video |
| FBI-UAP-D028 | Two former service members recalled a large black triangle with three corner lights and a low hum in 2011. | Interview conducted in 2025 |
| FBI-UAP-D030 | One witness described a parking-lot-sized triangle emerging from a distorted cloud in 2023. | Single-witness size and speed estimates without corroborating data |
The accompanying visual files can be mistaken for evidence photographs when viewed outside the database. They are digital renderings prepared from witness descriptions. Release 05 contains eight such renderings, split between three image files and five PDFs.
The 2026 FBI Thermal And Red-Light Files
FBI-UAP-D032 connects a brief radio-frequency detection with a later thermal observation by a US government special agent. The agent recorded two slow-moving black-hot contacts above a mountain line for several minutes.
The record does not demonstrate that the RF detection and thermal objects had the same source. The agent could not estimate the contacts' altitude or speed. The video is useful corroboration for an observation, but it does not show extraordinary motion.
D037 and D040 document a separate red-light event involving two witnesses in the western United States. The reports include lights observed with the naked eye and night-vision devices, a typical NOD halo, one witness's astigmatism and a mechanical watch found to be 25 minutes fast. No thermal target or original image accompanies the released reports. These details preserve the testimony while leaving distance, shape and physical effects unresolved.
What The Other Military Videos Show
Fifteen Department of War videos appear in Release 05. Six belong to the Gulf of Oman case. Five come from a Pacific Ocean incident in 2019. Four cover Middle East observations in 2023 and 2025.
The Pacific set has a direct provenance warning. PR123 through PR125 are handheld recordings of an infrared sensor display. PR126 and PR127 are handheld low-light recordings. The government states that all five files were digitally altered before being reported to AARO and are presented as received.
The remaining Middle East clips show short EO/IR or infrared tracks. The official descriptions generally identify an area of contrast rather than a physical craft. Without range, calibration, platform motion and full telemetry, apparent movement across a sensor frame cannot be converted safely into real-world performance.
The Historical Files Are Mostly Archival Context
DOW-UAP-D098 revisits the famous Great Falls, Montana and Tremonton, Utah films. The 1953 analysis treated their characteristics as difficult to reconcile with familiar natural phenomena or known aircraft. Those films and the official debate around birds, reflections and aircraft were public long before PURSUE.
DOW-UAP-D099 reviews the Scandinavian ghost-rocket reports. It treats many observations as natural phenomena while considering a smaller set consistent with possible Soviet testing of V-1-type weapons. DOW-UAP-D100 preserves early Air Materiel Command collection work. Its unexplained remainder did not produce physical evidence for extraterrestrial vehicles.
Three Brazil records concern a sensational 1963 report of a metal sphere and a dead, space-suited occupant in Bahia. US officials found no contemporary local reporting, encountered contradictory accounts and received a denial from Brazil's Ministry of Aeronautics. The paper trail is more useful as a study in how officials checked a dubious story than as evidence of a crash.
What “Unresolved” Means In Release 05
PURSUE uses unresolved for records where the government cannot make a definitive determination from the available information. It does not designate a class of vehicle or imply extraterrestrial origin.
Release 05 demonstrates several routes to that status. The Gulf of Oman case lost its native recording. The triangle files rely on delayed interviews. The Pacific media was altered before AARO received it. Historical records preserve official uncertainty from an earlier investigation without adding new measurements.
What Release 05 Adds
The fifth tranche adds one unusually detailed modern military narrative, a useful CIA layer to a known radar-visual case and a substantial set of FBI witness interviews. It also shows that access and proof are different thresholds. A declassified document can establish what a crew or analyst reported without establishing the physical identity of the reported object.
The Gulf of Oman case now has a public intelligence report and six companion clips. The missing native EO/IR stream remains the decisive gap. Until the underlying telemetry, TACTOOL calculation or additional sensor records are released, the 1,300 mph figure and apparent reaction to weapons fire remain reported observations rather than independently reproducible findings.
