The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) submitted a report to the Pentagon’s All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO) consisting of a single, redacted still image of an unidentified anomalous phenomenon (UAP), according to a document released by the U.S. Department of War. The record, titled “FBI Photo A6,” was made public on May 8, 2026, under the government’s PURSUE archive initiative.
The FBI document, released via the official war.gov portal, describes the submission as a monochrome image derived from a U.S. government system. It depicts a lightly textured background with a central crosshair reticle, at the center of which sits a dark, circular object. The official description notes that the original imagery was altered with redactions before being submitted to AARO. An accompanying mission report was not provided. The operator who captured the image reported that they were unable to positively identify the UAP. The date and location of the event have not been provided.
Limited Official Details
The record’s official summary offers limited detail beyond the visual description of the image. The narrative description included in the release explicitly cautions readers not to interpret any part of the description as reflecting an analytical judgment, investigative conclusion, or factual determination regarding the event’s validity, nature, or significance. The document does not specify the type of U.S. government system from which the image was derived, nor does it identify the operator or the operational context in which the image was captured.
The FBI’s submission to AARO, as detailed in the PURSUE archive, represents a single data point in a broader, ongoing release of U.S. government records concerning unidentified anomalous phenomena. Per a Wikipedia summary of the topic, the United States UFO files, also referred to as the UAP files, are a collection of declassified records released by the administration of Donald Trump beginning on May 8, 2026. According to the same Wikipedia entry, the releases are announced to continue as repeated, ongoing, expanding releases of UFO materials.
The “FBI Photo A6” document is one of the first records to appear under this initiative. The image itself, available as a PDF at the war.gov link, shows a grainy, dark circular shape centered in the crosshairs of a targeting-style reticle. The background is uniform and featureless, offering no geographic or environmental clues. The redactions applied to the original imagery are not described in the release, leaving unclear what information was withheld from the public and from AARO.
What Remains Unanswered
Several key questions remain unanswered by the released document. The absence of a date and location for the incident means the event cannot be placed in any known operational or geographical context. The lack of a mission report leaves the circumstances of the sighting entirely opaque. The redactions applied to the image raise questions about what additional data—such as sensor metadata, timestamps, or operator notes—might have been included in the original submission but was withheld.
The FBI’s role in submitting the image is also not elaborated upon in the document. It is unclear whether the image was captured by FBI personnel, obtained from another agency, or provided by an external source. The operator’s inability to positively identify the UAP is the only substantive finding recorded in the submission, but the document offers no further analysis or conclusion from either the FBI or AARO.
Readers should watch for future PURSUE releases to see if additional context emerges. The Wikipedia summary notes that the releases are intended to be ongoing and expanding, which suggests that more records—potentially including mission reports, additional imagery, or analytical assessments—may follow. Whether the “FBI Photo A6” incident will be revisited with supplementary documentation, or whether it will remain a standalone, redacted image, is not yet clear. For now, the document stands as a limited but official acknowledgment of an unidentified sighting submitted by the FBI to the Pentagon’s UAP investigation office, with most of the surrounding details withheld from public view.
