NSA Releases Previously Classified UFO Records After FOIA Appeal

Hundreds of pages of previously classified National Security Agency records were released this week after a successful Freedom of Information Act appeal. The files, made public by the Disclosure Foundation, carry the codeword "Umbra," a top-level NSA security designation. They contain witness accounts, radar data, and reports of military aircraft responding to unidentified objects.

The documents stem from a 1980 lawsuit against the NSA that sought UFO-related information. NSA chief policy officer Eugene Yeates submitted affidavits that later became known as the "Yeates Memo," which was declassified in 2009 but whose supporting material remained withheld.

After the Disclosure Foundation challenged the NSA's blanket denial of the underlying records, an appeals authority ruled the denial improper. The agency then produced the documents spanning multiple prior decades.

One heavily redacted report describes more than a dozen military jets attempting to pursue an unidentified object. " The NSA files are separate from a separate batch of declassified UFO records released by the Department of War on Friday, May 8, 2026, which included audio from Apollo missions describing bright lights in space.