U.S. Department of War publishes seventh PURSUE tranche of UAP files
On October 23, 2026, the U.S. Department of War published the seventh PURSUE tranche: 28 documents, among them Air Force UFO reports from the 1950s, records of the AAWSAP contractor BAASS from 2008 to 2010, and an AARO memorandum and FBI report on a triangular object seen in 2026.
Background
The release contains 28 PDF documents and, unlike earlier tranches, no videos: ten Air Force intelligence and flying object reports from 1952 to 1957 (including Saudi Arabia, Guam, Sardinia, the Berlin air corridor, French Morocco, Alaska and Sweden), four files on sightings over Santa Catalina Island from 1949 to 1955, nine records of Bigelow Aerospace Advanced Space Studies (BAASS) from the AAWSAP program 2008–2010 – among them the proposal for the CAPELLA database, monthly reports and a field report on a ranch in Utah –, an AARO memorandum and an FBI FD-302 on a matte black triangular object in the western United States in 2026, the personnel record of Col. Howard M. McCoy, who led Air Materiel Command intelligence from 1946 to 1949, and interagency files from 1962–1964 on responsibility for recovered space vehicle fragments.
The Department said it and its agency partners were working on the next release. The documents record reports, investigations and administrative decisions; on their own they do not establish an extraterrestrial origin of the phenomena described.
Significance
The release continues the rolling government publication of historical and declassified UAP records and represents a discrete, dated step in U.S. disclosure and transparency policy.
What is in this tranche?
The seventh PURSUE tranche, published on October 23, 2026, contains 28 PDF documents and no videos. Its focus is nine records from Bigelow Aerospace Advanced Space Studies (BAASS), the contractor of the Defense Intelligence Agency’s (DIA) AAWSAP program from 2008 to 2010: a project plan, monthly reports, a field report and a capabilities summary. Alongside them are a 2026 case that two official documents describe differently, U.S. Air Force reports from the 1950s, and White House–level files from 1962 to 1964 on recovered debris from space vehicles.
AAWSAP: the program from the inside (2008–2010)
On behalf of the DIA, BAASS was to study unusual aerial phenomena and the technology suspected behind them. The records show how the program was set up, what data it bought and which projects it pursued. Statements about the phenomena are the contractor’s claims, not findings of the DIA.
- DOW-UAP-D168, BAASS Project Management Plan, December 2008 – Project management plan from December 2008: nine projects covering twelve technical subject areas. Among other things, it mentions files at Los Alamos that were excluded from Project Blue Book.
- DOW-UAP-D169, BAASS Monthly Report, March 2009 – Monthly report for March 2009 with a summary of Brazilian investigations: more than 370 on-site investigations involving 514 people described as victims in the country’s northeast.
“The documentation shows that northeastern Brazil was a UFO hot spot for at least two decades.” (p. 40)
- DOW-UAP-D170, BAASS Monthly Report, April 2009 – Monthly report for April 2009: the purchase of case reports from MUFON and “Project Northern Tier”.
- DOW-UAP-D171, BAASS Monthly Report, June 2009 – Monthly report for June 2009: a BAASS team in Brazil and plans for a secure underground vault.
“a BAASS priority to pursue and acquire recovered hardware and biological samples from the corporate world and/or from private individuals and groups located elsewhere, including in Brazil.” (p. 7)
- DOW-UAP-D167, Project Capella, December 2008 – Proposal for “Project CAPELLA”, a data warehouse on aerial phenomena and related anomalies.
- DOW-UAP-D166, MUFON Reports Prepared for BAASS, November 2008 – Five topic papers by MUFON for BAASS, including one on alleged implants in humans.
- DOW-UAP-D175, BAASS Self-Assessment of UAP Analysis Capabilities, November 2010 – Capabilities summary from November 2010 with model calculations, including for the 2004 “Tic Tac” case of the Nimitz strike group.
“These are extraordinarily high values and would require some form of acceleration manipulation to limit what a human pilot would experience and be able to survive.” (p. 34)
AAWSAP: the ranch in Utah
Two reports describe interviews, measurements and planned experiments on a property near Fort Duchesne that D174 calls “Utah Ranch” and D173 also calls “Skinwalker Ranch”. Witnesses from the area describe balls of light and creatures. BAASS itself notes that such reports can also be explained by fraud, trespassers or animals.
- DOW-UAP-D174, Utah Ranch Investigation Report, April 2010 – Field report on two deployments in March and April 2010, with interviews of more than 25 people from the area.
“To initiate a variety of games, puzzles, and other strategies in order to establish communication with the source/origin of reported anomalies on the ranch property.” (p. 8)
- DOW-UAP-D173, BAASS Monthly Report, November 2009 – Monthly report for November 2009: status of the work on the ranch and its surroundings, and a case involving a “blue orb”.
“all of these anecdotal reports suffer from the obvious criticisms that they can be easily explained by (a) fraud perpetrated by the officers, (b) trespassers, (c) animals etc.” (p. 114)
A triangular object in 2026
At dusk in the western United States, two federal agents saw a matte black, triangular object, also on thermal imaging, and heard nothing. Their joint written statement and the AARO memorandum on their interview differ in duration and sequence.
- DOW-UAP-D176, Triangular UAP AARO Memorandum for Record, 2026 – AARO memorandum: vertical ascent, about twenty seconds of hovering, then fast flight into a canyon. The next morning, no traces were found on the ground.
“even a conventional Group 1 drone, high-torque quadcopter motor, or rotary-wing aircraft operating at a distance of 1.4 miles would have been clearly audible.” (p. 3)
- FBI-UAP-D043, FD-302, Unidentified Aerial Object Observation Report, 2026 – FBI record of the written statement: an observation of about three seconds, without any sound.
U.S. Air Force reports 1952–1957
Ten reports from Air Force units and attachés in Europe, North Africa, the Middle East, Alaska, Canada, the United States and the Pacific. Most are brief; some state explicitly that the observation could not be explained.
- DOW-UAP-D156, Air Intelligence Information Report, Guam, 1956 – Guam, December 31, 1956: an F-86D interceptor cannot close on a flashing light even in afterburner; the light circles it twice.
“the Unidentified Flying Object can not be readily explained.” (p. 1)
- DOW-UAP-D159, Air Intelligence Information Report, Germany, 1953 – Berlin air corridor, August 1953: extracts from Tempelhof air traffic control logs on lights over the Soviet zone.
- DOW-UAP-D163, Air Intelligence Information Report, Sweden, 1953 – Hässleholm, Sweden, December 17, 1953: the crew of a civilian DC-3 reports an unknown object.
“Now I don't know exactly what to think; but it did seem to me that we had seen a robot of some kind.” (p. 2)
- DOW-UAP-D164, Flying Object Report, Indiana, 1953 – Seymour, Indiana, December 1953: a married couple sees two objects and, fearing ridicule, tells hardly anyone.
- DOW-UAP-D160, Air Intelligence Information Report, Morocco, 1953 – French Morocco, December 1953: radar returns over the north of the country and the Mediterranean.
- DOW-UAP-D155, Air Intelligence Information Report, Saudi Arabia, 1957 – Saudi Arabia, January 1957: an unidentified return on a B-52’s tail-gun radar.
- DOW-UAP-D157, Air Intelligence Information Report, Italy, 1952 – Sassari, Sardinia, August 1952: a professor’s account of a luminous sphere.
- DOW-UAP-D158, Flying Object Report, Canada, 1953 – British Columbia, Canada, November 1953: a light observed by three Air Force personnel.
- DOW-UAP-D161, Air Intelligence Information Report, Alaska, 1953 – Little Diomede, Alaska, 1953: a light at the southern tip of the Soviet island of Big Diomede.
- DOW-UAP-D162, Air Intelligence Information Report, Alaska, 1953 – Gambell, St. Lawrence Island, Alaska, December 1953: a light on the western horizon.
Santa Catalina Island 1949–1955
Four smaller files on reports over the island off the coast of Southern California.
- DOW-UAP-D181, Unresolved UAP Report, Catalina Island, 1949 – April 28, 1949: a civilian report of six objects.
- DOW-UAP-D179, Air Intelligence Information Report, Catalina Island, 1952 – June 25, 1952: a sighting by three Boy Scouts from a summer camp.
- DOW-UAP-D178, Unresolved UAP Report, Catalina Island, 1953 – November 16, 1953: a round, purplish-white object.
- DOW-UAP-D177, Unresolved UAP Report, Catalina Island, 1955 – March 15, 1955: a bright, round object over Avalon; the file concludes “probably balloon”.
Recovered space vehicle debris 1962–1964
Several agencies work out who receives, analyzes and returns debris from space vehicles. The subject is satellite and rocket fragments, not UAP. The files do show, however, how recovery and public messaging were coordinated.
- USG-UAP-D002, Interagency Correspondence Concerning Space Fragments, 1962-1964 – File from the National Security Council staff with memoranda and drafts from October 1962 to May 1964.
“It stands to reason that if we believe the satellite were hostile that we would not return it to its point of origin.” (p. 53)
- EOP-UAP-D002, Memorandum on Interagency Coordination for the Recovery of Foreign Materiel, May 1963 – Memorandum of May 29, 1963, on a conversation with NASA about recovered fragments.
“DOD and AF want to use NASA for a "cover" but have no intention of letting NASA do anything but return some pieces” (p. 1)
Personnel file of Howard M. McCoy
The service record of the officer who headed intelligence at Air Materiel Command from 1946 to 1949. The file itself does not mention UFOs.
- DOW-UAP-D180, Final Personnel Record for McCoy, Howard M., U.S. Air Force, 1954 – Final personnel file up to his retirement in 1954.
This overview summarizes the documents in this tranche. Quotes are reproduced verbatim with page numbers; the original document is always authoritative.
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