Just two weeks after the historic PURSUE Release 01, the Department of War delivered on its promise of rolling transparency with Release 02 on May 22, 2026. This second tranche expanded both the scope and the depth of publicly available UAP records, including the first-ever releases from the Central Intelligence Agency and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.
Expanded Scope
Where Release 01 focused primarily on Department of War videos and historical DOD documents, Release 02 brought in records from across the intelligence community. The new additions included:
- DOW-UAP Videos (PR050–PR099): 50 additional military UAP encounter videos, expanding the SearchUFOs database coverage through PR099. These include incidents from CENTCOM, Syria, Iraq, the Persian Gulf, and other theaters.
- CIA-UAP-D001: The first-ever CIA UAP record released to the public — an Intelligence Information Report concerning the USSR from 1973.
- ODNI-UAP-D001: A UAP-related narrative from a senior U.S. Intelligence Community official, dated 2025.
- DOE-UAP-D001: Enhanced imagery from the Pantex nuclear plant — a facility long associated with UAP interest in nuclear security.
- NASA-UAP-D008: Apollo 12 medical debriefing audio from 1969, adding to the space agency's growing contributions.
- Additional DOW Records: Including historical case files like DOW-UAP-D017, documenting a UAP reported at Sandia Base between 1948 and 1950.
Notable Records
Several records in Release 02 stand out for their potential significance:
CIA-UAP-D001 (1973): This Intelligence Information Report concerning the USSR represents the CIA's first-ever public admission of UAP-related holdings. The document's existence alone confirms that the Agency has maintained UAP records for decades — a fact long suspected but never officially acknowledged through declassification.
ODNI-UAP-D001 (2025): A narrative from a senior U.S. Intelligence Community official describing a personal UAP experience in the Western United States. This is particularly notable because it originates from a current or recent senior IC official, lending additional credibility to the phenomenon's reality within the highest levels of government.
DOW-UAP-D017 (1948–1950): A UAP reported at Sandia Base, New Mexico — the nuclear weapons design laboratory. This adds to the well-documented pattern of UAP interest in nuclear facilities, following earlier cases like Malmstrom Air Force Base (1967) where multiple nuclear missiles went offline simultaneously during a UAP encounter.
The Rolling Release Model
The two-week gap between Release 01 and Release 02 established the cadence for the PURSUE program. The Department of War committed to rolling releases "every few weeks" as security reviews and declassification procedures are completed. This model represents a fundamental departure from the previous approach of sporadic, often reluctant, FOIA-driven releases.
The inclusion of CIA and ODNI records in Release 02 signaled that the interagency coordination called for in Trump's directive was functioning. Each subsequent release would potentially bring records from additional agencies and deeper historical archives.
Importance for the Database
For SearchUFOs, Release 02 was particularly significant because it completed the DOW-UAP PR series through PR099. These cases have been fully incorporated into the database with detailed analysis, video breakdowns, and cross-referencing with other related cases. The addition of CIA and ODNI records opens new avenues for research into intelligence community involvement with UAP phenomena.
Looking Ahead
With Release 02 complete, the PURSUE program had demonstrated that the initial release was not a one-off event but the beginning of an ongoing process. Each tranche promised to fill in more gaps in the historical record, and the inclusion of intelligence community records suggested that truly significant holdings might eventually see the light of day.
The question that remained — and remains — is what deeper layers of classification might yield in future releases. If Release 01 and 02 represent the outer rings of government UAP knowledge, what might lie at the center?