Archive / disclosure

Disclosure: the official record

What governments, legislatures, militaries, space agencies and courts have done about unidentified aerial phenomena, in date order, each entry resting on its document. Every nation that has acted. Newest first.100 entries since 1946.

Country All US 61GB 9CA 6BR 5FR 3JP 3MX 2AR 1BE 1CL 1DK 1ES 1NZ 1PE 1SE 1SU 1UY 1VA 1
Kind All Programme 25Report 19Release 15Law 12Hearing 12Statement 11Other 2FOIA release 2Court 2

2020s

2010s

GB Release The National Archives

The final batch of the Ministry of Defence files is released

On 21 June 2013 The National Archives released the final tranche of Ministry of Defence UFO files: 25 files of 4,400 pages covering the last two years of the MoD's UFO desk, from late 2007 until its closure in November 2009. The press release said the files set out the reasons for the closure, including a 2009 briefing to Defence Minister Bob Ainsworth that no reported sighting in more than 50 years had suggested an extra-terrestrial presence or military threat. The desk received over 600 reports in 2009, treble the previous year, which the files partly attributed to Chinese lanterns. Dr David Clarke said he believed this showed UFOs were a social phenomenon.

1 document·5 points
  • The release comprised 25 files containing 4,400 pages, covering the UFO desk's work from late 2007 until November 2009.
  • The UFO Desk received over 600 sightings and reports in 2009, treble the amount of the previous year.
  • In 2009 Defence Minister Bob Ainsworth was told that in more than 50 years 'no UFO sighting reported to [MoD] has ever revealed anything to suggest an extra-terrestrial presence or military threat to the UK' (DEFE 24/2458/1).
  • The files note the desk 'serves no defence purpose and merely encourages the generation of correspondence', and its closure ended the UFO hotline and dedicated email address.
  • Briefings in the files suggested the surge in reports could be partly a result of the craze for releasing Chinese lanterns.

Documents

2000s

The register here is the record's: what a body did, when, with the document. The archive's stories carry the longer reads, and the Latest feed carries this week's official news before it is entered here. Entries from the United Kingdom rest on material under the Open Government Licence v3.