The Pentagon on Friday released a fresh batch of files related to unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAPs), commonly known as UFOs, including military videos, photographs, audio recordings and reports documenting unexplained encounters by US personnel.

The latest disclosure includes 40 files—14 documents, 19 videos, four audio recordings and three images—compiled from multiple US agencies, including the Pentagon, NASA, CIA, FBI and the Department of Energy. The material has been published on the Pentagon's official UAP website under an executive order signed earlier this year by President Donald Trump.

Among the most striking accounts is a report from a veteran military aviator describing an object that defied explanation during a 2019 encounter over the eastern United States.

"I noticed an object with flight characteristics unlike anything I had seen in my 28 years of performing for the [Air Force] and Navy," the aviator wrote.

"A small object was below us and appeared to be traveling in a straight line opposite our direction at high speed. I tracked it for ~10-15 seconds before we turned on the recorder to provide the attached video. When I zoomed in to try and achieve more resolution, the object's speed took out of my FOV and I was unable to reacquire, even at a lower zoom. Upon analysis after the flight, the object appeared to be rectangular. Others with equal or more experience were also unsure as to what this object might be."

The accompanying video appears to show a fast-moving object before it disappears from the camera's field of view.

Another report details an unusual incident over the Pantex nuclear weapons facility near Amarillo, Texas, in September 2015. According to the Department of Energy document, two security officers pursued an unidentified object after it entered restricted airspace, prompting the facility to go into lockdown.

"Although they were unable to catch up to the object, they stopped their vehicle and got out. Once outside, they noted that the object did not make any sound. Furthermore, the [officers] stated that they were unable to identify any type of propulsion system on the object while using binoculars to assess the object," the report said.

"After viewing it for 1-2 minutes, the object then continued north offsite."

The newly released files also include infrared footage captured by military sensors during encounters over the Atlantic Ocean, the western Pacific and the Middle East.

One heavily redacted Navy report from 2020 describes an unidentified object seen over the Atlantic.

"Structurally, it appeared as a large, somewhat deformed balloon, but we were unable to verify that as we passed at the merge," the weapons systems officer wrote.

The Pentagon said several of the reports are "range fouler debriefs", standardised US Navy reports used to document unauthorised objects entering controlled military airspace during operations or training exercises.

While the latest release expands the volume of publicly available material, none of the newly published files concludes that the unexplained objects are of extraterrestrial origin. Instead, officials continue to classify many of the incidents as unidentified due to insufficient evidence.