UFO files release 6, September 18, 2026

The sixth batch of government UFO files, published on September 18, 2026. Most of it is reference papers from the DIA study known as AAWSAP.

The short answer

Release 6 of the UFO files came out on September 18, 2026. The Department of War published it at war.gov/UFO. CBS News counted 71 files dated from 1952 to 2025, many of them reference papers from a Defense Intelligence Agency study. The Pentagon said those papers do not validate the ideas they discuss.

It is the latest release. As of September 29, 2026 we found no seventh release. Every release also sits in the Disclosure Ledger, and the program is set out on the PURSUE files page.

Release 6 at a glance

Date: September 18, 2026
Released by: The Department of War, in a statement from chief Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell.
Where: war.gov/UFO, filed as Release 06
Files: 71 files, according to CBS News: 67 from the Defense Department and 4 from Colorado law enforcement, made up of 55 PDFs, 15 videos and 1 audio file. 64 of the 71 carry redactions. The department’s release page gives download sizes, not a file count.
Download size: Documents 2.25 GB, videos 1.4 GB, as listed on war.gov/UFO
Program: PURSUE, the Presidential Unsealing and Reporting System for UAP Encounters

What the department said

Sean Parnell’s statement confirmed the sixth release, said files would keep coming on a rolling basis, and said the department and its partners were working on the next one. The notes that came with the files matter more. CBS News reported the Pentagon’s warning that the study papers “should not be read as implying current validation of the concepts discussed,” and that they are best understood as reference and synthesis products rather than original research.

Department of War statement (source, opens in a new tab)war.gov/UFO (source, opens in a new tab)

What was in release 6

These are the files news outlets singled out on the day. They are a sample, not the whole batch, and the descriptions are the outlets’ summaries of the records.

37 Defense Intelligence Reference Documents from the Advanced Aerospace Weapon System Applications Program, which the Defense Intelligence Agency set up in 2008 and ended in 2012. They cover ideas such as warp drives, wormholes, antigravity, negative mass propulsion and invisibility cloaking (CBS News).
A 38-page study from 2010 on possible injury to people near “anomalous advanced aerospace systems,” describing three engineers with symptoms such as skin redness and hair loss. The document did not identify a source of exposure (CBS News).
Four videos from Colorado law enforcement, October 2023, showing silent objects with red, blue and green flashing lights (CBS News).
Records spanning 1952 to 2025, most of them redacted in part: 64 of 71 files (CBS News).

cbsnews.com (source, opens in a new tab)

Exhibit · Release 6 claim checked

The claim, checked

The line about this release that travels furthest, set against what the record supports.

FALSE AS WORDED
“The Pentagon has warp drives, and these files prove it.”
What the record shows
The warp drive and wormhole papers are real, and the Pentagon paid for them. They were commissioned as reference studies of technologies that might matter decades ahead. The Pentagon said they should not be read as validating the concepts, and described them as summaries of existing ideas rather than original research. The files hold papers about warp drives. None of them shows that anyone built one.
cbsnews.com (source, opens in a new tab)

Reading release 6

This batch is different in kind from the first five. Most of it is not sighting reports at all. It is background research, which is why the Pentagon attached a warning to it.

The 2010 injury study is the file most likely to be retold as proof. By CBS News’s account, it describes symptoms and does not identify what caused them. Retell it that way or not at all.

What it does not show

It does not show that any of the technologies in the study papers exist, and it does not show what caused the injuries described in the 2010 study. For the claims made about all six releases together, read did the UFO files confirm aliens?

Sources

File counts are news tallies, credited to the outlet that made them. The department’s own pages were read through a mirror of its release text and a copy of war.gov/UFO, because war.gov blocked direct requests.

The other releases

PURSUE has published six releases so far. This is the most recent. The one before came out on August 7, 2026.

← Release 5, August 7, 2026 All PURSUE releases

Files are not the first minute.

If something shows up over your street tonight, no archive will tell you what to do. Ten questions find your role.

Find your role All PURSUE releases