Reading Paths

Curated step-by-step routes through the archive.

The historical arc: SIGN to AARO

Six stops tracing how U.S. government UAP record-keeping evolved — from the Air Force studies of the late 1940s to the reports AARO and ODNI publish today.

  1. Project SIGN technical report (1949)

    The February 1949 technical report of Project SIGN, the Air Force study that preceded Project Blue Book, held in NARA Record Group 341.

  2. Project Blue Book case files, 1947–1969

    The case files of Project Blue Book in NARA Record Group 341, covering sighting reports collected by the Air Force from 1947 to 1969.

  3. Blue Book Special Report No. 14 (1955)

    A 1955 statistical analysis of sighting reports produced for Project Blue Book — an early attempt to categorize the collected cases.

  4. Japan Airlines Flight 1628 records (1986)

    FAA records on the 1986 Japan Airlines Flight 1628 sighting over Alaska — a documented case from the decades between Blue Book and the modern reporting era.

  5. ODNI Preliminary Assessment on UAP (2021)

    The June 2021 preliminary assessment submitted to Congress, describing the UAP Task Force’s progress — the document that opened the current reporting cycle.

  6. AARO Historical Record Report, Volume I

    AARO’s 2024 review of U.S. government involvement with UAP since 1945 — a retrospective that cites many of the earlier programs on this path.

The modern reporting era

The post-2021 reporting cycle in order: the preliminary assessment, the annual reports to Congress, a case resolution example, and the records-release program.

  1. ODNI Preliminary Assessment on UAP (2021)

    The June 2021 report to Congress that summarized 144 UAP reports — the first in the series that the NDAA-mandated annual reports continued.

  2. 2022 Annual Report on UAP

    The first annual UAP report required by the FY2022 National Defense Authorization Act, produced jointly by ODNI and the Department of Defense.

  3. FY2023 Consolidated Annual Report on UAP

    The fiscal year 2023 consolidated annual report, continuing the reporting series with updated case counts and trends.

  4. FY2024 Consolidated Annual Report on UAP

    The fiscal year 2024 consolidated annual report — the most recent edition of the annual series linked in this archive.

  5. AARO "Go Fast" case resolution report

    An example of how AARO resolves individual cases: its analysis attributes the apparent high speed in the "Go Fast" video to motion parallax.

  6. PURSUE records program

    The PURSUE program page, covering the unsealing and reporting system through which UAP-related records are being released.

Research starter kit

Tools before documents: the vocabulary, the request process, how to read what you receive, what the archive holds, and where to browse it.

  1. Glossary

    Key terms used across the archive — agencies, programs, and records vocabulary you will meet on every page.

  2. How to FOIA UAP records

    A guide to requesting UAP records under the Freedom of Information Act: where to file and what to expect.

  3. Reading a declassified UAP record

    How to read a declassified record: metadata, status terminology, and the difference between raw reports and assessed conclusions.

  4. Archive statistics

    A statistical overview of what this archive holds — record counts by agency, decade, and type.

  5. Browse all records

    The full records index, with search and filters — the starting point for working through the archive yourself.