The PURSUE portal launched on May 8 and drew nearly 500 million hits in 48 hours. But the volume of material – scattered across video, imagery, audio, and documents – makes it hard to tell what’s genuinely significant and what’s filler.
This is a reader’s guide to the first release. What each file is, what it shows, and where the gaps are.
The Bronze Ellipsoid (2023 – Location Undisclosed)
The most striking visual product in the release is not a video – it’s a composite image built from 2023 eyewitness reports, assembled by AARO.
According to NewsNation, the composite depicts a 130- to 195-foot bronze metallic ellipsoid based on accounts from multiple witnesses who said the object “materialized out of a bright light” and “disappeared instantaneously.” The image shows a smooth, elongated shape with a metallic sheen – unlike typical aircraft or known drone platforms.
Why it matters: AARO does not typically produce composite reconstructions. The decision to build one suggests the underlying reports were considered credible enough to warrant visual synthesis. The size range – 130 to 195 feet – puts it in a class with commercial aircraft, not consumer drones.
The Greece 90-Degree Turns (2023)
A 2023 clip from Greece shows a UAP making multiple 90-degree turns at roughly 80 mph over open water.
Right-angle turns at that speed are a signature characteristic of UAP encounters reported by military pilots going back decades. The Nimitz encounter (2004), the Gimbal encounter (2015), and multiple INDOPACOM cases all describe objects that change direction without banking or decelerating. This clip provides another data point.
The footage reportedly comes from a European theater military system – making it one of the few publicly released cases originating outside the Middle East.
The FBI Senior Official Interview (FBI 302)
The White House shared an FBI 302 report – the standard interview documentation format used by the Bureau – describing a first-hand UAP encounter by a senior U.S. intelligence official at a military facility.
The details of what this official witnessed have not been fully summarized in reporting, but the existence of the document is significant on its own. FBI 302s are sworn accounts. A senior intelligence official reporting a UAP encounter at a military installation, through the FBI’s formal interview process, is not a casual sighting report.
The Small Beings Memo (FBI)
A separate FBI document describes beings “three and a half to 4 feet tall” wearing “space suits and helmets.”
This is the kind of material that, in any other context, would be instantly dismissed. But it’s now part of a presidential declassification release – meaning it was reviewed by government officials and included deliberately. The document does not prove the existence of non-human beings. What it proves is that the U.S. government possesses, has retained, and has now voluntarily released documentation describing them.
The Apollo Imagery (1969, 1972)
The release includes photographs from Apollo 12 (1969) and Apollo 17 (1972) showing unidentified objects or anomalous features near the lunar surface.
One Apollo 17 image shows three dots in the lunar sky. Fox News reports that the Department of War has opened a case to investigate the photograph and obtained the original film from NASA for fuller analysis.
The accompanying transcript excerpt is also notable. Operators during Apollo 17 described:
“Now we’ve got a few very bright particles or fragments or something that go drifting by as we maneuver.”
And:
“There’s a whole bunch of big ones on my window down there – just bright. It looks like the Fourth of July out of Ron’s window.”
The imagery alone is ambiguous – bright particles near a spacecraft could be ice crystals, debris, or optical artifacts. But the Department of War’s decision to open a formal case and reanalyze the original film suggests they do not consider the matter settled.
The Gemini 7 “Bogey” Audio (1965)
The release includes audio from the Gemini 7 mission (December 1965) in which astronauts report “a bogey at 10 o’clock high.”
“Bogey” is military aviation terminology for an unidentified contact. The fact that astronauts used the term during a NASA mission, and the audio has now been placed inside a UAP declassification system, is the government effectively saying: we have historical NASA records involving unidentified contacts in space, and we’re treating them as part of the UAP file.
The 2025 Infrared Stills (Western United States)
Among the most recent material in the release are infrared stills from September and December 2025 showing unidentified objects over the western United States.
These are significant because they are less than a year old. Most UAP material released publicly dates from 2004–2021. The inclusion of 2025 cases means the government is not just declassifying historical footage – it’s releasing material from ongoing monitoring.
The infrared format also matters. Forward-looking infrared (FLIR) sensors are the primary airborne detection tool for the military. These stills suggest active detection of unresolved cases over the continental United States within the past several months.
Other Videos in the Batch
The DVIDS index lists additional DOW/AARO material including:
| ID | Region | Description |
|---|---|---|
| DOW-UAP-PR43 through PR49 | Various | Newly indexed unresolved cases |
| 2013 CENTCOM clip | Middle East | Infrared footage of UAP resembling an “eight-pointed star” |
| 2024 Syria footage | Middle East | ”Misshapen ball of white light with a glare effect” |
| Iraq footage | Middle East | Unresolved case, limited public detail |
| UAE footage | Middle East | Unresolved case, limited public detail |
| INDOPACOM footage | Pacific | Unresolved case, limited public detail |
These are harder to evaluate without more context. The Middle East cases in particular overlap with operational theaters where conventional aircraft, drones, and flares are common – but they also overlap with regions where military pilots have reported anomalous objects for years.
What’s Not in the Release
The biggest gap is not what was released – it’s what was excluded.
Intelligence sources told Liberation Times that the files released so far came from tactical military systems with lower security classifications. What has not been released was collected by national systems – the National Reconnaissance Office and CIA – deployed in areas where no U.S. or allied presence is publicly acknowledged.
Sources also noted that the release contained no finished intelligence analyses. The public is getting raw footage and documents without the government’s own analytical conclusions about what they show. Those analyses exist, sources said, but require review by the original classification authority before release.
In short: the first PURSUE release includes real government UAP material from multiple decades, theaters, and collection systems. But the material that insiders describe as the strongest evidence – national-level collection, recovered material, and formal analytical products – is not yet in the pipeline.
Rep. Luna says the 46 classified videos are coming next week →
Liberation Times names CIA official blocking access →
Sources: PURSUE article · Fox News · NewsNation · Liberation Times investigation · DVIDS UAP release index · Luna 46-video demand