At the order of US President Donald Trump, the Defence Department yesterday released dozens of previously classified files on alleged UFO sightings to provide what it called “unprecedented transparency” to the American people, though analysts said many of the documents had already been made public. The disclosure of documents, photos and videos of “unidentified anomalous phenomena” will be followed by future releases as more materials are declassified, the Defense Department said in a statement.
Trump was the latest president to release US government reports on UFOs, a disclosure process that began in the late 1970s. Experts said the batch of around 160 files released yesterday contained new videos of known sightings but gave no conclusive evidence of alien technology or extraterrestrial life. The files include a 1947 report of ‘flying discs’ as well as grainy photos of ‘unidentified phenomena’ taken from the moon’s surface by the 1969 Apollo 12 lunar mission and a transcript of the Apollo 17 crew describing unidentified objects seen from the moon in 1972.
Apollo 17 mission pilot Ronald Evans reported “a few very bright particles or fragments or something that go drifting by as we maneuver,” based on the transcript.
“Roger. Understand,” mission control replied.
“These files, hidden behind classifications, have long fueled justified speculation – and it’s time the American people see it for themselves,” Hegseth said in a statement.
The records release is likely to fuel fresh debate over government secrecy and the possible existence of life in the cosmos.
The move was welcomed by US Representatives Tim Burchett and Anna Paulina Luna, both proponents of declassifying UFO files. Luna said an additional tranche of material was expected in about 30 days.
“The files show that UAP are not simply a matter of speculation or public curiosity,” Harvard University astrophysicist Avi Loeb said in an email to Reuters. “The government has collected records.”
The images from Apollo 12 and 17 were fascinating but could be the result of asteroid impacts on the lunar surface, Loeb said.
Some critics cast the UFO disclosures as a distraction from Trump’s political woes, including the unpopular US military campaign against Iran and public pressure to release further files tied to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. “I really don’t care about the UFO files. I just don’t. I’m so sick of the ‘look at the shiny object’ propaganda,” former Republican US Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene wrote on X.
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