WASHINGTON, September 18 — The Department of War published its sixth batch of declassified UAP files on Friday, September 18, 2026, a tranche of 71 records spanning 1952 to 2025 that CBS News reviewed before release. The haul breaks down as 55 PDFs, 15 videos and a single audio file. Sixty-seven records came directly from the Department of War; the remaining four videos were submitted by local police in Colorado, filed after officers reported unexplained aerial activity in October 2023.
One responding officer described a silent object with flashing red, blue and green lights, according to WJLA. Redactions appear in 64 of the 71 records, mostly to shield witness identities or sensitive military locations.
The AAWSAP Paper Trail
The most talked-about material traces back to the Advanced Aerospace Weapon System Applications Program, a Defense Intelligence Agency initiative launched in 2008 and shuttered in 2012. Thirty-seven of the 71 files are previously known “reference documents” produced under that program, exploring subjects including traversable wormholes, warp drives, antigravity, invisibility cloaking and negative-mass propulsion. Under the hood, that is where the technical reality sits — and where the caveats do too.
The Department of War has not confirmed that any of the technologies described in the reference documents are real. AAWSAP was never meant to confirm the technology is real, according to the source material.
Investigators still say no reviewed case shows verifiable evidence of alien technology. The batch also includes a long-sought 1952 audio recording and new video from the Middle East and the East China Sea, which keep several files open. The 1952 recording is among the oldest material in the release; the newest items date to 2025.
The files mix confirmed technical detail with claims investigators still cannot verify.
A Waiver, and a Deadline
The release arrived just days after the department issued a waiver letting current and former personnel discuss UAP matters without breaching old nondisclosure agreements. The move is widely read as an effort to speed up disclosure before the year ends. As ever, the detail that matters is procedural: the waiver removes a legal disincentive for people who were in the room to say what they saw, which is a different thing from confirming what they saw.
The Department of War has now published six batches of UAP records, part of an ongoing effort to declassify and publish UAP-related records. The exact dates and contents of the earlier batches are not detailed in the source material.
The files are available on the Department of War’s website, war.gov. Watch for whether the waiver produces fresh witness testimony to accompany the next batch — and whether the Middle East and East China Sea cases, still open, get closed out.
