The Trump administration launched a new website on Friday to house a “new, never-before-seen” collection of files on UFOs, according to the Pentagon. (And yes, the new website’s URL is war.gov/ufo, so I guess it’s okay to call it UFO again.)
According to a public announcement from the Department of Defense, which was renamed the Department of War under President Trump, the initial set of files archived on the site will include files containing unidentified anomalous phenomenon (UAP) videos, photos, and original source documents from across the U.S. government. The data has been reviewed for security purposes, but much of the material “has not yet been analyzed for anomalous resolution,” the department’s statement said.
It also said the collection will grow over time as additional files are released “sequentially.”
The release of the documents follows a December 2017 news story reported by The New York Times, Politico and others about a roughly $22 million classified Pentagon program called the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program (AATIP), which has been investigating military encounters with unknown objects.
Since then, interest in UAPs, now the modern term for UFOs, has grown among the public, raising concerns about what’s in our skies, such as the 2024 U.S. drone sightings. The fact that our skies look so different than they did in the past thanks to things like SpaceX launches and satellites has complicated figuring out what’s actually unexplainable. This is why the collection of files supporting military intelligence is so interesting.
News of the government funding Pentagon programs has also had an impact on popular culture in recent years, as reflected in films such as “Jules,” the 2023 film about one man’s kinship with an alien who crash-landed in his backyard, “Bugonia,” which addresses conspiracy theories surrounding aliens among us, and Steven Spielberg’s upcoming film “Reveal Day,” which addresses the government’s cover-up on the topic.
A few years ago, the release of such UFO files would have been headline news. But many Americans today are more concerned about everyday pressures, such as the Iran war and its impact on gas prices, the ever-increasing cost of living, job losses due to AI, healthcare, climate change, and other more relevant issues.
According to the Department of Defense, the release of the UFO files is the result of an interagency effort called the Presidential Unsealing and Reporting System for UAP Encounters (PURSUE). The initiative includes components from the White House, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), the Department of Energy (DOE), DOW’s All Areas Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO), the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), and other U.S. intelligence agencies.
Earlier, independent news site 404Media also discovered in March that the President’s administration had registered the Aliens.gov domain. However, that site is not currently active.
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