PURSUE Release 04: A First Look at War.gov’s Fourth UFO File Drop
The Department of War published PURSUE Release 04 on July 10, 2026, the fourth batch of declassified and historical Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena files posted to War.gov/UFO.
This is a first look, not a full analysis. The goal here is simple: tell you what is actually in the batch and which files deserve a closer read before the news cycle moves on.
We have indexed all 40 files from this release. Fourteen are documents and three are NASA images. The rest, twenty-three files, are Department of War videos.
What’s in Release 04
The batch spans five agencies, and the spread is wider than Release 03.
| Agency | Records | What they cover |
|---|---|---|
| Department of War | 32 | Historical Project Sign and Blue Book files, range fouler debriefs, and 23 UAP videos |
| CIA | 2 | 1955 memos on unconventional aircraft sightings |
| Department of Energy | 2 | The 1949 Los Alamos conference and a 2015 Pantex Plant incident |
| FBI | 1 | Correspondence on UFO sightings, 1967 to 1974 |
| NASA | 3 | STS-80 unidentified object images from 1996 |
That mix tells you something about how this release was assembled. It is not one theme. It combines a historical layer (Project Sign, Blue Book, the 1955 CIA memos) with a nuclear-security layer (Los Alamos, Pantex). A modern video layer sits on top of both, all published in the same batch.
The Historical Files Go Back to the Beginning
The most significant document in this batch is DOW-UAP-D097, the Project Sign Progress Report from 1948. Project Sign was the Air Force’s first official UFO investigation, opened at Wright-Patterson after the 1947 sighting wave. Grudge and Blue Book followed it directly. PURSUE is the latest link in that chain.
Paired with that is DOW-UAP-D092, the 1966-1967 Air Force committee record reviewing Project Blue Book. That review is the reason Blue Book eventually closed: it recommended the deeper scientific study that became the Condon Report.
Read together, these two files bracket the entire life of the Air Force’s public UFO program. One marks the opening. The other marks the beginning of the end.
Los Alamos and Pantex Put Nuclear Security in the Frame
Two Department of Energy files are worth slowing down for.
DOE-UAP-D004 documents a 1949 conference at Los Alamos, where scientists and security officials discussed the wave of unexplained aerial sightings near New Mexico’s nuclear weapons sites, the same period that produced the famous “green fireball” reports. It is one of the earliest documented cases of the atomic-security establishment treating aerial phenomena as a security question rather than a curiosity.
DOE-UAP-D005 covers a 2015 incident at the Pantex Plant near Amarillo, Texas, the primary U.S. facility for nuclear weapons assembly. Public reporting on this file describes two officers who chased an unidentified object during the incident and noted it made no sound and showed no visible propulsion.
Sixty-six years separate those two files. The location logic has not changed. When something unexplained shows up near a nuclear weapons site, someone writes it down.
The Video Package Is the Largest Single Block
Twenty-three Department of War videos make up more than half the batch by file count. We have indexed each one with a thumbnail and a direct download link, starting with DOD_111830004.
Public reporting on this release describes military sensor footage tracking objects over the Yellow Sea and East China Sea in 2025, under Indo-Pacific Command. That reporting is useful context, but we are not going to assign a specific claim to a specific file until the underlying metadata supports it. A video file and a news description are not automatically the same record.
That caution matters more with video than with documents. A PDF says what it says. A video needs a timestamp and a location before anyone can respond to it responsibly.
Common Questions About PURSUE Release 04
How many files are in PURSUE Release 04?
Our index counts 40 files: 14 documents, 3 images, and 23 videos. Department of War reporting describes the same batch as 14 documents, 19 videos, 4 audio files, and 3 images, which suggests some of the video-format files may carry separate audio tracks logged individually in the official count.
What agencies are represented in Release 04?
Department of War, CIA, Department of Energy, FBI, and NASA. Department of War contributes the largest share, mostly through the video package and historical Project Sign and Blue Book material.
What is the most historically significant file in Release 04?
The 1948 Project Sign Progress Report. It documents the first official U.S. government UFO investigation, the direct predecessor to Project Grudge and Project Blue Book.
Is Release 04 the last PURSUE batch?
No. The Department of War has said this release is not the final disclosure under the president’s executive order, and the archive will continue to grow on a rolling basis, consistent with Release 01 through 03.
What to Watch Next
This first look covers what is in the batch. The next step is a deeper read of the single most important file here, most likely the Project Sign report, since it sits at the origin point of every UFO investigation that followed it.
For now, the honest summary is this: Release 04 adds 40 records and pushes the archive’s historical reach back to 1948. It also puts nuclear-site security on the record twice. It does not resolve anything. It gives researchers more material and more places to look.
Flynn Lin is the founder and editor of UFO Declassified. You can reach him at [email protected] for corrections, tips, or questions about any record on this site. Read more about the PURSUE archive, the Release 03 analysis, or browse the Release 04 document set.