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.
The All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office, writing for the Department of War, issued its Fiscal Year 2025 consolidated annual report on unidentified anomalous phenomena under section 3373k of Title 50, covering events from 2 June 2024 to 30 May 2025. AARO received 319 reports, resolved 114 of them and 256 earlier cases, and assessed all resolved cases as prosaic objects such as balloons, satellites, birds, aircraft and unmanned aerial systems, with one rocket launch and one manned jet pack. It credited a new modelling capability with resolving 238 reports as satellite flaring. The report found no evidence that any government or private entity had captured UAP-derived materials and no reports of health effects.
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AARO received 319 UAP reports between June 2, 2024 and May 30, 2025, bringing its case holdings to 1,870 reports (p. 4).
AARO transferred 191 of the 319 cases to its active archive for lack of data and identified nine reports meriting further analysis by IC and S&T partners (p. 5).
A U.S. Navy report off the coast of Virginia described approximately 100 airborne UAP and two, likely uncrewed, surface systems; AARO was still investigating (p. 5).
AARO received 50 reports of UAS incidents near U.S. nuclear infrastructure, a 177.8 percent increase over the 18 in the FY 2024 report; none were reported as UAP (p. 9).
Of 262 individuals who contacted AARO through its secure reporting mechanism, 255 were judged out of scope and 7 warranted a follow-on interview request (p. 10).
The All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office of the Department of Defense issued its Fiscal Year 2024 Consolidated Annual Report on Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena under 50 U.S.C. 3373(k), covering reports from 1 May 2023 to 1 June 2024. AARO received 757 reports in that period, 485 of incidents within it and 272 of incidents from 2021 and 2022. The executive summary states that 118 cases were resolved and a further 174 later finalised, all to prosaic objects such as balloons, birds, unmanned aerial systems, satellites and aircraft, while the trend section gives 49 resolved and 243 recommended for closure. The report states that AARO had discovered no evidence of extraterrestrial beings, activity or technology, and that no observer reported adverse health effects.
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AARO received 757 UAP reports, of which 708 occurred in the air domain, 49 in the space domain and none in the maritime or transmedium domains; 392 came from the FAA (pp. 4-5).
The report states that "to date, AARO has discovered no evidence of extraterrestrial beings, activity, or technology" (p. 2).
Section III states that 21 cases merited further analysis by IC and S&T partners and 444 were placed in the Active Archive for lack of data (p. 5).
AARO received 18 reports from the Administrator for Nuclear Security and the Chairman of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission of incidents near nuclear infrastructure, all categorised as UAS (p. 11).
The report states that AARO launched www.aaro.mil with a secure reporting mechanism on 31 October 2023 and released its Historical Record Report Volume I in March 2024 (pp. 12, 15).
The All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office of the Department of Defense issued Volume I of its Historical Record Report on United States Government involvement with unidentified anomalous phenomena, dated February 2024 on its cover and on file as 8 March 2024. The office reviewed official investigations since 1945, searched classified and unclassified archives and conducted approximately 30 interviews. It found no evidence that any government investigation had confirmed a sighting as extraterrestrial technology, and no empirical evidence for claims that the government and private companies had been reverse-engineering such technology. It assessed that named hidden programmes either did not exist, were misidentified authentic programmes, or resolved to a disestablished one, and attributed the claim in large part to circular reporting.
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AARO reviewed all official USG investigatory efforts since 1945 and conducted approximately 30 interviews (p. 6)
It found no evidence of any authentic UAP-related nondisclosure agreement or threats of death or violence for disclosing UAP information (p. 7)
An alleged 1961 Special National Intelligence Estimate leaked online was assessed to be inauthentic (p. 8)
A sample from an alleged crashed spacecraft was found to be a manufactured, terrestrial alloy primarily of magnesium, zinc and bismuth (p. 8)
KONA BLUE, a proposed UAP recovery programme put to the Department of Homeland Security, was never approved, and an IC Controlled Access Program expanded in 2021 was disestablished for lack of merit (p. 9)
In October 2023 the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and the Department of Defense published the Fiscal Year 2023 Consolidated Annual Report on Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena, drafted by the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO) and ODNI and cleared for open publication on 17 October 2023. The report covered 31 August 2022 to 30 April 2023, during which AARO received 291 reports, bringing its total to 801. It found a collection bias towards restricted military airspace, no reported adverse health effects, and no reports attributed to foreign activity, and concluded that most UAP would likely resolve to ordinary phenomena with better data. An appendix resolved a 2021 case as commercial aircraft.
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AARO received 291 UAP reports: 274 from the period and 17 from 2019 to 2022 not previously conveyed; 290 were in the air domain and one maritime.
As of 30 April 2023 AARO had received a total of 801 UAP reports.
AARO received over 100 reports from the FAA, mostly of unidentified lights without specific shape, none suggesting anomalous characteristics or a threat to flight safety.
No encounters with UAP were confirmed to have directly contributed to adverse health-related effects.
The "Western United States" case resolution of 8 May 2023 assessed five equidistant lights as almost certainly commercial aircraft up to 300 nautical miles from the sensor.
NASA published the final report of its Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena Independent Study Team, a panel of 16 experts chaired by Dr. David Spergel that NASA established in June 2022. The report states that it is not a review of previous UAP incidents but a roadmap for how NASA can obtain usable data. It concludes that analysis is hampered by poor sensor calibration and missing metadata and baseline data, and that there is no standardised system for civilian reports. It recommends that NASA support the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office, use the Aviation Safety Reporting System for pilot reports, explore crowdsourcing apps and help reduce stigma. It states there is no reason to conclude that existing reports have an extraterrestrial source.
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The panel found that analysis of UAP data is hampered by poor sensor calibration, the lack of multiple measurements, the lack of sensor metadata and the lack of baseline data (p. 3).
It found there is currently no standardised system for civilian UAP reports and said NASA should assist AARO in developing a Federal system (p. 4).
It named the Aviation Safety Reporting System, which NASA administers for the FAA and which receives approximately 100,000 reports per year, as a promising avenue for commercial pilot UAP reporting (p. 4).
The foreword states the team of 16 experts was established in June 2022 and that the report is not a review of previous UAP incidents (p. 7).
The report states: "At this point there is no reason to conclude that existing UAP reports have an extraterrestrial source." (p. 33)
On 12 January 2023 the Office of the Director of National Intelligence released its 2022 Annual Report on Unidentified Aerial Phenomena, prepared under Section 1683 of the FY 2022 National Defense Authorization Act in conjunction with the All-Domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO). The report stated that 510 UAP reports were catalogued as of 30 August 2022: the 144 in the 2021 preliminary assessment, 247 new reports and 119 older ones found or filed late. AARO's initial analysis characterised more than half of the 366 additional reports as balloons, drones or clutter, leaving 171 uncharacterised, some of which appeared to show unusual flight characteristics. It reported no collisions and no confirmed health effects.
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510 UAP reports were catalogued as of 30 August 2022, combining 144 from the preliminary assessment, 247 new reports and 119 reported late (p. 2, p. 5).
Of the 366 newly identified reports, 163 were characterised as balloon or balloon-like, 26 as UAS or UAS-like, and 6 as clutter (p. 5).
171 reports remained uncharacterised and unattributed; some appeared to demonstrate unusual flight characteristics or performance capabilities (p. 5).
AARO was established as the successor to the UAPTF on 20 July 2022 (p. 4).
There were no reported collisions between U.S. aircraft and UAP, and no encounters confirmed to contribute directly to adverse health effects (p. 6).
On 25 June 2021 the Office of the Director of National Intelligence delivered its Preliminary Assessment on unidentified aerial phenomena to the Congressional Intelligence and Armed Services Committees, in response to Senate Report 116-233 accompanying the Intelligence Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2021. Drafted by the UAP Task Force and the ODNI National Intelligence Manager for Aviation, it reviewed 144 US Government reports from 2004 to 2021 and identified one with high confidence, a large deflating balloon, leaving the others unexplained. It concluded that most UAP probably represented physical objects, that they probably lacked a single explanation, and that they clearly posed a safety of flight issue and might pose a challenge to national security.
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144 reports originated from USG sources, of which 80 involved observation with multiple sensors; one was identified with high confidence as a large, deflating balloon (p. 4)
No standardized reporting mechanism existed until the Navy established one in March 2019; the Air Force adopted it in November 2020 (p. 4)
In 18 incidents, described in 21 reports, observers reported unusual UAP movement patterns or flight characteristics (p. 5)
Resolved incidents are expected to fall into five categories: airborne clutter, natural atmospheric phenomena, USG or industry developmental programs, foreign adversary systems, and a catchall "other" bin (p. 5)
The UAPTF has 11 reports of documented instances in which pilots reported near misses with a UAP (p. 6)
In 1997 the US Air Force published The Roswell Report: Case Closed, written by Captain James McAndrew of the Secretary of the Air Force Declassification and Review Team, with a foreword by Secretary of the Air Force Sheila E. Widnall. It followed the July 1994 report, prepared for a General Accounting Office inquiry requested by Congressman Steven Schiff, which attributed debris recovered near Roswell in 1947 to the balloon project MoGUL. The new volume addressed accounts of alien bodies. It concluded that these were probably anthropomorphic test dummies carried aloft by high altitude research balloons, and that reports of bodies at the base hospital most likely combined a 1956 aircraft accident and a 1959 balloon mishap.
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The report says the GAO probe, initiated at the request of New Mexico Congressman Steven Schiff, sought to determine whether any US agency held information on an alleged crash and recovery of an extraterrestrial vehicle near Roswell in July 1947. (p. 1)
It states that the July 1994 Air Force report concluded the recovered material was debris from the Army Air Forces balloon-borne research project MoGUL. (p. 1)
It concludes that "aliens" observed in the New Mexico desert were probably anthropomorphic test dummies carried aloft by US Air Force high altitude balloons, and that activities spread over many years had been consolidated into two or three days in July 1947. (p. 3)
It concludes that claims of bodies at the Roswell Army Air Field hospital most likely combined a 1956 KC-97 accident in which 11 Air Force members died and a 1959 manned balloon mishap in which two pilots were injured. (p. 3)
In 1997 the Central Intelligence Agency published "CIA's Role in the Study of UFOs, 1947-90", a study by Gerald K. Haines, historian of the National Reconnaissance Office, in Studies in Intelligence. Written after DCI R. James Woolsey ordered a review of all Agency files on UFOs in late 1993, it traced CIA interest from the late 1940s to 1990. It concluded that Agency concern over UFOs was substantial until the early 1950s but that CIA had since paid only limited and peripheral attention to the phenomena. It described a 1952 CIA study group, its national security worries about Soviet use of sightings, and the Agency's concealment of its interest, which it said contributed greatly to later charges of a conspiracy and cover-up.
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DCI R. James Woolsey ordered another review of all Agency files on UFOs in late 1993, after pressure from UFOlogists (p. 67).
The study concludes that CIA concern was substantial until the early 1950s and has since been "limited and peripheral" (p. 67).
DCI Walter Bedell Smith believed there was only one chance in 10,000 that the phenomenon posed a threat to national security, but that even that chance could not be taken (p. 68).
Air Force and CIA officials agreed that outside knowledge of Agency interest would make the problem more serious; the study says this concealment contributed greatly to later charges of a CIA conspiracy and cover-up (p. 71).
The author found almost no documentation on Agency involvement with UFOs in the 1980s (p. 83).
On 28 July 1995 the United States General Accounting Office issued report GAO/NSIAD-95-187 to Representative Steven H. Schiff on its search for government records concerning the 1947 crash near Roswell, New Mexico. Reviewing work carried out from March 1994 to June 1995, it found that RAAF administrative records from March 1945 to December 1949 and outgoing messages from October 1946 to December 1949 had been destroyed, with no record of who destroyed them or under what authority. The search yielded two 1947 records: the July 1947 509th Bomb Group and RAAF history, which described the object as a radar tracking balloon, and a July 8, 1947 FBI teletype. Other agencies reported no further records.
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RAAF administrative records (March 1945 to December 1949) and RAAF outgoing messages (October 1946 to December 1949) were destroyed; the disposition form does not indicate who destroyed them, when, or under what authority (p. 2).
GAO identified four Army Air Forces air accidents in New Mexico in July 1947, all involving military aircraft and all after July 8, 1947; Air Force officials said there was no requirement to report a weather balloon crash (pp. 2-3).
The July 1947 509th Bomb Group and RAAF history stated that the "flying disc" "turned out to be a radar tracking balloon" (p. 4).
A July 8, 1947 FBI teletype reported the recovery of a hexagonal-shaped disc suspended from a large balloon, said to resemble a high-altitude weather balloon with a radar reflector, being sent to Wright Field (p. 4).
On May 30, 1995 the CIA's Executive Director told GAO that a search of all CIA databases for "Roswell, New Mexico" produced no documents related to the crash (p. 6).
In 1995 Headquarters United States Air Force published "The Roswell Report: Fact versus Fiction in the New Mexico Desert", reproducing the report Col. Richard L. Weaver and 1st Lt. James McAndrew had prepared for the Secretary of the Air Force and the General Accounting Office after Representative Steven H. Schiff asked about an alleged 1947 UFO crash in New Mexico. Weaver's report, dated 27 July 1994, came with 33 attachments, among them McAndrew's synopsis of balloon research. The publication states that the Declassification and Review Team found no evidence of any extraterrestrial craft or alien flight crew, and it attributes the debris recovered near Roswell to Project MOGUL, a formerly Top Secret balloon project.
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The report was written in response to a request from Representative Steven H. Schiff (R-NM) and duplicates the material given to the Secretary of the Air Force and the GAO, with an added photograph section.
The Secretary of the Air Force directed a complete records search, and classified information was to be declassified and officials freed from secrecy oaths.
It states that the Declassification and Review Team "found no evidence of any extraterrestrial craft or alien flight crew".
It identifies Project MOGUL, a programme to detect Soviet nuclear detonations and ballistic missile launches using balloon trains more than 600 feet long, as the explanation for the "Roswell Incident".
It names NYU flight No. 4, launched by Charles B. Moore on June 4, 1947, as the balloon train most likely to have caused the incident.
The Final Report of the Scientific Study of Unidentified Flying Objects, conducted by the University of Colorado under contract F44620-67-C-0035 to the United States Air Force with Dr. Edward U. Condon as scientific director and Daniel S. Gillmor as editor, was published in three volumes. The university president's transmittal letter to Air Force Secretary Harold Brown, dated 31 October 1968, said the Air Force had made no attempt to influence the study. The text supplied covers the study's origins in a 1966 Air Force Office of Scientific Research request and a 1967 plasma conference, but it does not contain the National Academy of Sciences review, its endorsement or the release date on file.
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The university president transmitted the final report to Secretary of the Air Force Harold Brown on 31 October 1968 and wrote that there had "never been the slightest suggestion of any effort on the part of the Air Force to influence either the conduct of the investigation or the content of this report".
The edition is described as a reproduction of the report submitted to the National Academy of Sciences on November 15, 1968, "for its scientific review".
On 31 August 1966 Colonel Ivan C. Atkinson of the Air Force Office of Scientific Research asked the University of Colorado to take part "as the grantee institution", following a March 1966 recommendation of an ad hoc panel chaired by Dr. Brian O'Brien (p. v).
At a plasma UFO conference in Boulder on 27 and 28 October 1967, participants reached a unanimous conclusion that an object pacing a B-47 was not a plasma or an electrical luminosity produced by the atmosphere (p. 1193).
All conference participants agreed that the UFO cases presented contained insufficient data for a definitive scientific conclusion (p. 1194).
On 25 October 1955 the US Air Force issued a press release accompanied by the summary of Project Blue Book Special Report No. 14, a statistical study of sighting reports dated 5 May 1955 and first issued in May 1955 in 100 copies with restricted distribution. The text supplied is the July 1966 third edition published by Dr Leon Davidson, which reproduces the full text of the report and some of its tables alongside early Air Force press releases, the 1953 CIA panel report and Davidson's own analysis. Davidson states his belief that the CIA was responsible for much UFO publicity. The reproduced tables classify each year's cases as balloon, astronomical, aircraft, insufficient information, unknown and other categories.
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The publishing history gives the original Air Force issue as 100 copies with restricted distribution in May 1955, and the report itself is dated May 5, 1955.
The report's summary accompanied the Air Force press release of October 25, 1955.
Davidson published a first edition of 1000 copies in December 1956, a second in October 1957, and a third edition with Ramsey-Wallace Corp. in July 1966.
A reproduced table records 303 cases evaluated as Unknown for 1952, or 20.2 per cent, against 39 (23.0 per cent) in 1950 and 33 (27.3 per cent) in 1951.
The coding scheme rated observer and report reliability and assigned a final identification, including categories for insufficient information and unknown.
The Scientific Advisory Panel on Unidentified Flying Objects, convened by the Central Intelligence Agency's Office of Scientific Intelligence, met from 14 to 18 January 1953 and reported to the Assistant Director for Scientific Intelligence. Its formal report, signed by H. P. Robertson as chairman with Lloyd V. Berkner, S. A. Goudsmit, Luis W. Alvarez and Thornton Page, concluded that the evidence showed no indication of a direct physical threat to national security and no need to revise scientific concepts. It found that continued emphasis on reporting could clog communication channels and foster a morbid national psychology, and recommended that national security agencies strip the subject of its special status and institute training and public education. A memorandum of 16 February 1953 recorded the meetings and the members' further comments.
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The Panel concluded that the evidence presented "shows no indication that these phenomena constitute a direct physical threat to national security".
It recommended that national security agencies "take immediate steps to strip the Unidentified Flying Objects of the special status they have been given and the aura of mystery they have unfortunately acquired".
The Panel did not accept the USN Photo Interpretation Laboratory's conclusion that the Tremonton, Utah objects were "self-luminous", considering their motions and brightness strongly suggestive of birds (pp. 11 to 13).
It proposed an educational programme of "training and debunking" lasting one and a half to two years, and suggested consultants including Hadley Cantril and Walt Disney, Inc. (pp. 20 to 22).
It advised that civilian groups such as the "Civilian Flying Saucer Investigators" and the Aerial Phenomena Research Organization "should be watched" (p. 23).
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.