From floating red orbs to late-night sightings: Pentagon's latest UFO Files 'lack substance'

The United States on Friday released another batch of classified files related to UFO sightings, including reports of glowing, red orbs seen in northeastern America. The Friday publication by the Pentagon includes the release of 72 files from the FBI, CIA and Pentagon, including testimony, videos and artistic depictions.

Some of the UFO files released on Friday date back to the 1940s, and the incidents mentioned not just happened in the US but also in several places around the world. It is pertinent to note that the first two batches of the files were made public on 8 May and 22 May.

Several entries in the file referred to sightings of orbs in the same general location in the US. Another partly redacted entry cited FBI interviews with two people who ​reported seeing an intense, bright light in the middle ⁠of their backyard one evening.

One person "described the red colour as being brilliant and beautiful, and ‌that [redacted] had never seen anything that colour of red before," according to the FBI report. The red sphere in question was about 3ft wide, contained a "white plasma ‌sun" the size of a basketball in its centre, the report said.

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What the files entail

The people reporting the incident claimed that they noticed a second orb, and the two appeared tethered together as they moved away. The same people also reported seeing several white orbs a few weeks later flying over the house at ⁠a much higher altitude, the FBI report said.

The files also contained a similar interview ​in July 2025 that referred to previous reports of orbs. "This ​observation occurred within 25 miles of the 'Triangle Orbs', 'Red Orb Rotation', and 'Orbs ​Over the Pond' sightings at a location well known to them, which ⁠is sparsely populated," the FBI report said.

Another October 2024 incident described a light source below the horizon, hovering above a pond. "The luminous object resembled a 'plasma-like sphere' intermittently changing ⁠shape and luminosity. At times, the primary light ​source appeared to separate into smaller luminous points," according to the report.

Meanwhile, the files stated that in July 2008, there was a suspected sighting of a UFO over Zimbabwe's Harare International Airport. "Individuals debated if the sighting was an advanced reconnaissance device of a foreign government or of extraterrestrial origins," a CIA report reads.

"At one point during observation, 'beams' were observed emanating from the object," it added. What was interesting was the fact that the oldest files dated back to the 1940s. It was from the Defence Department: an "Evaluation Study of the Phenomenon (Flying Saucers)" from June 1946.

"Of some 210 incidents, 20 per cent have been explained," it said. "No tangible evidence which would support a theory that any incidents are attributable to activity of a foreign nation." However, the report does not appear to rule out that any of these incidents are attributable to somebody from a foreign planet.