ThePentagon has released a fresh cache of declassified UFO filesin Washington on Friday, 22 May 2026, unveiling more than 50 videos and documents that show unexplained green orbs, flying discs, and other strange objects in the sky under an order from President Donald Trump.
For context, the new material forms part of an ongoing declassification push that Trump has presented as a transparency drive on what the US military now calls 'unidentified anomalous phenomena', or UAPs.
According to the Pentagon, the first batch of documents and footage, some dating back to the late 1940s, attracted more than a billion views worldwide and fuelled a new, and often confused, public conversation about what exactly the government knows.
The latest declassified UFO files includeinfrared footage from a US Coast Guard sensorrecorded in April 2024. The clip appears to show a small, bright object moving close to an aircraft somewhere over the south-eastern United States, though officials have not specified an exact location. The object does not resemble any conventional aircraft in the grainy imagery and is listed as unexplained.
Another recording in the release, labelled 'Syrian UAP instant acceleration,' was captured by an infrared sensor aboard a US military platform in 2021 and then uploaded to a classified network in 2024. The Pentagon has not provided a detailed breakdown of what 'instant acceleration' means in this context, and nothing in the documents offers a firm technical assessment of the manoeuvre, which leaves outsiders guessing how unusual the movement really was.
SECOND RELEASE OF UNIDENTIFIED ANOMALOUS PHENOMENA FILES 🛸⬇️https://t.co/kWE5tvdY9Hpic.twitter.com/L959jf0G37
There is also footage from an undisclosed site in the area covered by US Central Command, recorded in 2020. In that clip, officials say, a spherical object appears to move steadily over a populated area before climbing higher and vanishing into the sky. The Pentagon does not identify the country or city, and there is no independent verification of when or where the video was taken beyond the military's own description, so those particulars should be treated with a degree of caution.
Despite the dramatic descriptions, US defence officials are still officially in the realm of mystery rather than aliens. The Pentagon's All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office, which has been tasked with cataloguing and assessing UAP reports, acknowledges that many of the incidents in the declassified UFO files remain 'unresolved' and resist easy explanation. At the same time, the office says it has not found evidence that any of the objects are linked to extra-terrestrial life.
The U.S. Defense Department on Friday released a second batch of previously classified files on alleged UFO sightings, including references to people reporting unexplained green orbs, discs and fireballs.https://t.co/hHXHFX1AJhpic.twitter.com/0FOZAlKmMM
US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth framed the release as overdue openness, saying the unidentified anomalous phenomena had long generated conjecture and adding: 'It's time the American people see it for themselves.'
Source: International Business Times UK
