A Navy photographer filmed 12 to 14 reflective objects over Utah in 1952. The Pentagon just released the footage

The Pentagon released another batch of UFO files —its sixth to date— on Friday. This batch contained 71 files, including several documents about a military program that commissioned studies of wormholes, warp drives, and injuries potentially linked to encounters with unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAP). The collection also included a film of the famous 1952 Utah sighting that appears to show a group of objects hovering over the area.

The files span dates from 1952 to 2025. They included 67 files from the Defense Department and four from Colorado law enforcement. Altogether, the release had 55 PDF files, a single audio file, and 15 video files —64 of 71 files contained redactions.

The release included a treasure trove

One of the more noteworthy revelations from this particular release was that the Pentagon hired a private business, which Robert Bigelow owned, to look into futuristic technologies and UAP sightings as part of the secretive military initiative known as the Advanced Aerospace Weapon System Applications Program (AAWSAP). Established by the Defense Intelligence Agency, it ran from 2008 to 2012. The expense reports in the release detailed the tens of millions in funding the program received.

One document, which described the goals of AAWSAP, stated, “One aspect of the future threat environment involves advanced aerospace weapon system applications. The objective of this program is to understand the physics and engineering of these applications as they apply to the foreign threat out to the far term, i.e., from now through the year 2050.”

The release also included witness testimonies and videos of sightings. A March 1952 briefing by Capt. Edward J. Ruppelt, who led Project Blue Book, was released as a transcript and audio file. In it, Ruppelt said about 20% of roughly 800 cases came from reliable observers and could not be explained.

The Pentagon has been releasing UFO files in batches since May, including a fourth batch in July.

What the files say about the 1952 Utah sighting

On July 2, 1952, Navy warrant officer and photographer Delbert C. Newhouse was driving near Tremonton, Utah, with his family when he noticed a group of bright objects in the sky. Newhouse stopped the car and filmed the objects on 16mm color film, which was included in the release. He reported seeing 12 to 14 reflective objects and described them as resembling two disks stacked atop one another. The footage shows a group of objects moving in a loose circle.

Project Blue Book examined the film at the time. The new files state, Project Blue Book personnel, balloon specialists, and representatives from General Mills reviewed the Tremonton footage. The group’s consensus was that the objects closely resembled pillow balloons in flight and behaved consistently with that explanation. One General Mills representative was less convinced, noting that the objects appeared somewhat too bright and seemed to maneuver too rapidly.”

Several more files were also released in this batch and can be viewed online.

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