By Jon Brown/US Correspondent.
The Pentagon released its first batch of files related to unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAPs) or UFOs on Friday and urged the public to draw their own conclusions, following weeks of building anticipation and promises of disclosure from top Trump administration officials.
“The Department of War is in lockstep with President Trump to bring unprecedented transparency regarding our government’s understanding of Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena,” Secretary of War Pete Hegseth said in a statement.
“These files, hidden behind classifications, have long fueled justified speculation — and it’s time the American people see it for themselves. This release of declassified documents demonstrates the Trump Administration’s earnest commitment to unprecedented transparency,” Hegseth added.
Of the 162 files released to the public on the Department of War’s new website devoted to the topic, some include decades-old cables from the U.S. State Department, documents from the FBI and NASA transcripts from crewed flights to outer space and the moon.
In one NASA photograph apparently taken from the lunar surface during the Apollo 17 mission in 1972, three dots of light appear in a triangular formation in the darkened sky. The Pentagon noted “there is no consensus about the nature of the anomaly,” but that a new analysis suggests it could be “a physical object.”
Another group of photos taken by the Apollo 12 lunar mission in 1969 showed multiple anomalous lights in outer space.
One of the released documents was of an FBI interview with a drone pilot who claimed to have seen a flying “linear object” in September 2023, and that the object’s light was luminous enough to “see bands within the light” in the sky.
“The object was visible for five to 10 seconds and then the light went out and the object vanished,” the pilot reportedly told the FBI.
Another 2023 image depicts a graphic rendered by an FBI lab to show a UAP that multiple “corroborating eyewitness reports” claimed was an “apparent ellipsoid bronze metallic object materializing out of a bright light in the sky” before it disappeared.
One video from 2013 submitted by CENTCOM appeared to show a UAP resembling the eight-pointed Star of Ishtar hovering in the sky, prompting some users to speculate on the possible spiritual nature of some of the phenomena.
8-pointed star UFO. ????
One of the strangest clips from the UFO files so far shows a 8-pointed star UFO floating in the sky. pic.twitter.com/jzyvEaOO6l— Astral???? (@The_Astral_) May 8, 2026
Josh Howerton, who serves as senior pastor of Lakepointe Church in Rockwall, Texas, and has previously suggested that UFO phenomena could be demonic in nature, responded to the footage of the eight-pointed UAP by referencing biblical accounts of angelic beings.
“I am emphatically *not* asserting this with a certainty. What I am trying to point out is the very possible overlap between a Biblical cosmology and some of the things you’re seeing on your timeline,” he wrote, referencing the description of the cherubim in Ezekiel 1:15-17.
“Do we know what that purports to be? Of course not. Is it possible people have seen things the Bible refers to as cherubim, seraphim, principalities, and ‘powers of the air’? Yes,” he added.
More files are expected to be released in the future, and Rep. Tim Burchett, R-Tenn., claimed Friday that he anticipates future revelations to be much more compelling.
Posting to X in response to a question asking him if he would rate the UFO files on a scale of one to 10, with one being “not much” and 10 being “holy crap,” Burchett said: “Remember the Feds told us these files didn’t exist and [Trump] stood up to the deep state. The 1st drop will be big but in comparison to what is coming they will be a drop in the bucket. I would say ‘Holy Crap’ is coming.”
Burchett, who serves on the U.S. House Oversight subcommittee that has been investigating UAPs, has been outspoken in calling for government transparency regarding UAPs and has floated the theory that many of them are emerging from the ocean.
The release of the UAP files comes amid intense speculation from the public on the nature of the phenomena, including from some Charismatic pastors who made headlines earlier this week for claiming that U.S. officials recently advised them to warn their churches of the potential spiritual deceptions posed by UFOs.
Rep. Eric Burlison, R-Mo., who reportedly called in to the pastoral meeting that was held earlier this year at an undisclosed Airbnb in Tennessee, later disputed the characterization of the briefing, prompting an apology from Pastor Larry Ragland.
