The largest publicly available collections of declassified alien and UFO documents sit in five online repositories: the CIA’s Electronic Reading Room, the FBI’s Vault, the Navy’s FOIA reading room, the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO) website, and the National Archives. Together they hold tens of thousands of pages of case files, cables, memos, infrared cockpit videos, and congressional reports covering the late 1940s through today. If a document you want isn’t there, you can file a Freedom of Information Act request to try to force its release.
Where to Read Declassified UFO Files Online
CIA Electronic Reading Room and CREST
The CIA posted more than 12 million pages of its declassified archive, the CIA Records Search Tool (CREST), online after decades of in-person-only access at the National Archives in College Park, Maryland.1Central Intelligence Agency. CIA Posts More Than 12 Million Pages of CREST Records Online The Electronic Reading Room offers full-text search, and the agency also maintains a curated UFO collection titled “UFOs: Fact or Fiction?” holding cables and memos from the late 1940s and 1950s.2Central Intelligence Agency. Freedom of Information Act Electronic Reading Room Try several search terms. “Flying saucer,” “unidentified aerial phenomena,” and “UAP” return different result sets because the vocabulary changed over time.
FBI Vault
The FBI’s Vault organizes declassified records into thematic folders, including an “Unexplained Phenomenon” section with indexed PDFs of historical memos and investigative summaries.3Federal Bureau of Investigation. UFOs and the Guy Hottel Memo Redactions are heavy, generally protecting informant names and investigative methods.
Navy FOIA Reading Room
Naval Air Systems Command hosts the declassified FLIR, GIMBAL, and GOFAST infrared videos for direct download.4Naval Air Systems Command. Reading Room These are the raw sensor files, without the visual enhancements applied by media outlets.
AARO Website
The All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office site is the hub for current government UAP material. It hosts UAP imagery, official records, congressional and press products, and annual reports.5All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office. All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office The Historical Record Report, annual assessments, and briefing transcripts all live under “Congressional/Press Products.”
National Archives
The National Archives holds the physical Project Blue Book case files at the National Archives Building in Washington, D.C., accessible through the Military Reference Branch, with microfilm copies also available.6National Archives. Project BLUE BOOK – Unidentified Flying Objects NARA is also building the Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena Records Collection mandated by the FY2024 National Defense Authorization Act, which will grow as agencies transfer their UAP holdings.7National Archives. Guidance to Federal Agencies on Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena
What the Historical Files Actually Contain
Project Blue Book
Project Blue Book is the largest publicly available collection of government UFO case files. Run by the Air Force from March 1952 to December 1969, it logged 12,618 sighting reports, of which 701 remained officially “unidentified” when the program closed.8United States Air Force. Unidentified Flying Objects and Air Force Project Blue Book The records total roughly 37 cubic feet of chronologically arranged case files plus administrative records and photographs.6National Archives. Project BLUE BOOK – Unidentified Flying Objects Each report contains location data, weather, observer descriptions, and the Air Force’s conclusion. Most sightings were attributed to conventional aircraft, weather balloons, or atmospheric conditions. The Air Force’s position at closure was that none of the sightings represented a threat to national security or evidence of technology beyond current science.
The CIA Files
The CIA declassified hundreds of UFO-related documents in 1978, most dating from the late 1940s and 1950s.9Central Intelligence Agency. Take a Peek Into Our X-Files The material is largely internal cables reporting foreign UFO press coverage and memos on how the agency handled public inquiries. The recurring concern in these files is not the objects themselves but whether mass sightings could be exploited to sow panic or overload early-warning channels during the Cold War.
The FBI Files and the Hottel Memo
The FBI’s interest was domestic security: whether “flying disc” reports involved foreign espionage. The single most-viewed document in the Bureau’s electronic reading room is a one-page 1950 memo from Guy Hottel, then special agent in charge of the Washington field office, relaying a third-hand account of three flying saucers allegedly recovered in New Mexico, each “approximately 50 feet in diameter” and occupied by small humanoid bodies.3Federal Bureau of Investigation. UFOs and the Guy Hottel Memo The FBI has noted that the memo simply recorded an unverified claim passed along by another investigator and was never corroborated.
What the Modern Records Show
The 2021 ODNI Preliminary Assessment
The Office of the Director of National Intelligence released its Preliminary Assessment on UAP in June 2021. It identified 144 incidents documented by military personnel between November 2004 and March 2021, only one of which investigators could confidently explain (a deflating balloon).10Office of the Director of National Intelligence. Preliminary Assessment: Unidentified Aerial Phenomena The report flagged the incidents as both a flight safety concern and a potential national security challenge, and acknowledged that a small number involved objects with unusual flight characteristics.
The Navy Videos
Three infrared videos recorded by Navy F/A-18 pilots are the most widely recognized declassified UAP evidence. FLIR was recorded in 2004; GIMBAL and GOFAST were recorded in 2015. The Pentagon formally released all three in April 2020 and stated that release would not compromise sensor capabilities or reveal classified operational information.4Naval Air Systems Command. Reading Room
AARO’s Historical Record Report
AARO published its Historical Record Report in February 2024, reviewing every known government UAP investigation since 1945. Its central conclusion was that AARO “found no evidence that any USG investigation, academic-sponsored research, or official review panel has confirmed that any sighting of a UAP represented extraterrestrial technology.”11U.S. Department of Defense. Report on the Historical Record of U.S. Government Involvement with Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena Volume I It also found no empirical evidence supporting claims that the government or private companies have been reverse-engineering extraterrestrial technology. Transparency advocates have contested those conclusions, arguing AARO’s access to relevant programs was incomplete. AARO’s November 2024 annual report continued cataloging new military sensor and pilot reports, categorizing most as likely conventional objects or atmospheric phenomena.12All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office. Congressional/Press Products
How to File Your Own FOIA Request
You do not need a lawyer or special credentials. Any person can submit a Freedom of Information Act request to any federal agency. The request must be in writing, but no specific form is required. Your central obligation is to “reasonably describe” the records, meaning specific enough that an agency employee could locate them without guessing.13FOIA.gov. How to Make a FOIA Request A request for “all UAP records” at the Department of Defense will likely be rejected as too broad. “AARO briefing slides provided to the Senate Armed Services Committee between January and June 2024” gives an agency enough to work with.
Send the request to the right agency. FOIA is decentralized. The CIA handles its own requests separately from the Department of Defense, which handles its own separately from the FBI. FOIA.gov lists agency FOIA offices and their specific filing instructions. Once submitted, an agency has 20 working days to decide whether it will comply and notify you of that decision.14FOIA.gov. Freedom of Information Act Statute Backlogs at agencies like the CIA and Department of Defense mean actual responses often take months or years.
Fees depend on who you are. Commercial users pay for search, review, and duplication. Journalists and academic researchers pay only duplication costs, with the first 100 pages free. Everyone else gets the first two hours of search time and the first 100 pages free. You can request a fee waiver by showing that disclosure “is likely to contribute significantly to public understanding of the operations or activities of the government” and that your interest is not primarily commercial.15Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 5 USC 552 – Public Information If you plan to publish, say so in the request.
If your request is denied, in whole or in part, you have at least 90 days to file an administrative appeal within the same agency.16Department of Justice. Administrative Appeals Denials include outright refusals, partial redactions, “no records found” responses, and denied fee waivers. If the appeal fails, you can sue in federal district court, where the burden falls on the government to justify withholding.
Why Records Come Back Redacted
Declassified rarely means fully readable. Most released UAP documents contain blacked-out words, sentences, or entire pages. Each redaction must be tied to a specific FOIA exemption, and the agency must tell you which one. The exemptions you’ll see most often in UAP records:
- Exemption (b)(1) covers classified national defense or foreign policy information. This is the workhorse exemption for UAP files and applies to anything still protected under the Executive Order 13526 classification system.15Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 5 USC 552 – Public Information
- Exemption (b)(3) covers information another federal statute specifically prohibits from disclosure. Some intelligence collection methods are protected by their own statutes.
- Exemption (b)(7) covers law enforcement records where release could endanger safety, reveal a confidential source, or compromise investigative techniques. FBI UAP files frequently invoke this one.
Occasionally an agency will neither confirm nor deny that responsive records exist. This is a “Glomar response,” named for the court case that established the practice. Courts have ruled Glomar responses should be rare, and an agency loses the ability to issue one once it has officially acknowledged the records in question.
The Laws Behind Disclosure
Three legal tools drive nearly every UAP release you can read today. The Freedom of Information Act, at 5 U.S.C. § 552, requires executive-branch agencies to release records on request unless they fall under one of nine listed exemptions.15Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 5 USC 552 – Public Information Executive Order 13526 sets the three classification levels (Confidential, Secret, Top Secret) and, in Section 3.3, requires automatic declassification of most permanently valuable records once they turn 25 years old, unless an agency head determines an exemption still applies.17National Archives. Executive Order 13526 – Classified National Security Information That 25-year clock is what forced Cold War UFO files into the archives.
UAP-specific legislation is now layered on top. The FY2024 NDAA (Public Law 118-31, Sections 1841–1843) directed the National Archives to build a dedicated UAP Records Collection and required every government office to review its UAP records and either release them or justify postponing release, with public disclosure mandated no later than 25 years after creation unless the President certifies otherwise.7National Archives. Guidance to Federal Agencies on Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena Congress must be notified within 15 days of any postponement decision.
Two bills would go further. The Senate’s UAP Disclosure Act of 2025, submitted as Senate Amendment 3111 to the FY2026 NDAA in July 2025, would restore the independent Review Board with subpoena power that was stripped from the 2023 version, and set a September 2030 termination date for its work.18Congress.gov. S.Amdt.3111 – 119th Congress The House’s UAP Transparency Act, H.R. 1187, introduced in February 2025, would direct the President to order all agencies to declassify and post UAP records online within 270 days of enactment.19Congress.gov. H.R.1187 – 119th Congress – UAP Transparency Act Neither had been enacted as of mid-2025. If either passes, the collections described above will grow considerably.