WASHINGTON — The Department of War on Sept. 14 issued a formal legal waiver authorizing classified information about Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena to be disclosed to the PURSUE program, an authorized UAP disclosure and investigation initiative, the department said.
The waiver represents a rare exercise of statutory disclosure authority in the UAP space, creating a legal mechanism to move classified material outside traditional classification channels and into an accountable investigative framework, according to the department’s announcement.
The action opens new formal avenues for UAP information sharing that were previously blocked by classification barriers. The specific nature of the information made available for disclosure was not detailed in the department’s announcement.
The waiver follows years of congressional pressure for greater transparency around government UAP data. Lawmakers including members of the Senate Intelligence Committee have pushed for legislation, including the UAP Disclosure Act, to compel federal agencies to share information about unexplained aerial encounters reported by military personnel.
The PURSUE program represents part of the federal government’s evolving institutional response to UAP reports, which have gained increasing attention from Congress and the public since the Pentagon acknowledged in 2017 that it had been investigating such phenomena. The All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office, established in 2022, has served as the Pentagon’s primary UAP investigation body.
The legal waiver approach is notable because it uses existing statutory authority rather than relying on informal channels or congressional mandates to facilitate disclosure, according to the department.