FBI Submits Redacted UAP Image to Pentagon Office With Explicit Disclaimer
The Federal Bureau of Investigation forwarded a single still image to the All‑domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO) on May 8 2026, accompanied by a note that warns readers not to treat the accompanying description as any form of analysis, conclusion or factual determination about the sighting. The file, identified internally as “FBI Photo B10,” contains a brief textual account of the picture: a small, dark, circular shape positioned close to a crosshair reticle, set against a grainy, black‑and‑white backdrop that shows an indistinct mountain range.
Immediately after that description the record adds a blunt caveat, stating that the text is provided solely for informational purposes and carries no official weight or investigative authority. Such a self‑imposed limitation is atypical for a document sent to the office charged with resolving unidentified aerial phenomena.
The submission originated from the FBI’s holdings under the Department of War’s PURSUE archive and was routed to AARO as a procedural transfer of data rather than as an investigative product. The image itself was not the original sensor output. According to the accompanying summary, the source imagery came from a United States military system operating sometime in late 2025 at an unspecified location in the western United States.
Before handing the material to AARO, the FBI applied redactions to the original file; the summary does not detail what information was obscured. No mission report or operational context accompanied the transfer.
The summary notes that the system’s internal date and time clocks were not set, rendering the timestamp embedded in the file unreliable. Consequently, the exact date of capture within late 2025 remains unknown, and the specific military platform that generated the raw imagery is not identified. The operator who recorded the frame reported being unable to positively identify the object shown.
The bureau’s own wording makes clear that the narrative description should not be interpreted as an analytical judgment; it is presented merely as a description of what appears in the redacted picture. What remains, therefore, is a photograph stripped of most surrounding data: a lone dark circle near a crosshair over a blurred mountain silhouette, presented with a warning that the text describing it holds no evidentiary value.
The originating system is unnamed, the timing is incorrect, the mission details are absent, and the redactions conceal whatever else may have been in the original frame. In essence, the FBI handed over a piece of raw sensor data, obscured portions of it, and explicitly cautioned recipients against drawing any conclusions from the supplied description. The record thus reflects what was seen, but is structured around what is not there—no positive identification, no mission log, no accurate timestamp, no unredacted original, and no bureau‑endorsed interpretation.
