News / Jun 13, 2026
The FBI orb files are taking over PURSUE Release 03
PURSUE Release 03's loudest UFO/UAP material is now the FBI orb cluster: pond footage, a red sphere backyard sighting, multiple FBI files, and official language saying the witnesses were credible.
Two short videos of lights in the dark are becoming the loudest follow-up story inside PURSUE Release 03.
One is over a pond. One is in a backyard.
The reason is not just the footage. It is the paperwork around it.
PURSUE Release 03, published June 12, 2026, by the Department of War, includes an FBI file chain tied to multiple orb sightings in the northeastern United States. The videos are dark, cropped, and shot on iPhones. The records attached to them include FBI investigative forms, a site survey, and a document stating that two special agents made their own first-hand observations during an ongoing investigation.
That last detail is what separates this from a standard UFO video drop.
The pond video
DVIDS identifies the first clip as FBI-UAP-PR003, "Orbs Over the Pond," 2024, an October 2024 event in the northeastern United States.
At approximately 6:51 p.m. local time, a witness reported a light below the horizon over a pond roughly 2,700 feet away. The DVIDS description calls it a "plasma-like sphere" that changed shape and brightness. At times the main light appeared to separate into smaller points. A second point of light was reported just above the water surface, described as distinct from a simple reflection.
The object reportedly stayed generally stationary for about 45 minutes before disappearing.
DVIDS says the footage was captured on an iPhone by a private citizen, then analyzed and authenticated by the U.S. government. The visual content was not edited, enhanced, or altered except for a crop to protect the witness's privacy.
The same description says the account came from statements provided to the FBI by an eyewitness, and that the FBI assessed the individual as "highly credible."
That authentication sentence carries the clip farther than the image can on its own.
The red sphere
The second clip has the better visual hook.
FBI-UAP-PR004, "Northeastern Orb Sighting," 2025 documents a July 2025 backyard sighting. A witness returned home from work around 9 p.m. and saw an intense bright light hovering about 25 feet off the ground, below a tree line, at an estimated distance of 90 feet. The witness's spouse came outside too.
What they described next is more specific: a "brilliant red sphere" roughly one meter across, with a white plasma "sun" at its center about the size of a basketball.
The witnesses then reported a second identical orb above the first. As both objects moved westward over a nearby tree line, the two lights appeared to merge.
The DVIDS description says this account came from statements provided to the FBI by eyewitnesses, and that the FBI assessed the individuals as credible.
The video alone does not settle anything. It is still a phone clip of lights in a dark scene.
The file layer is what makes it newsworthy.
Why the FBI part matters
Release 03 is the first PURSUE tranche where FBI material becomes a headline on its own.
The northeastern cluster is not a single video title. The Release 03 data links PR003 to files FBI-UAP-D004 through FBI-UAP-D008, and PR004 to FBI-UAP-D009 and FBI-UAP-D010. Those records include FD-1057 and FD-302 forms, standard Bureau forms for documenting investigative activity and witness interviews.
The file descriptions spell out the chain:
- D004: FBI special agents collected footage and gathered information around its capture.
- D005: an interview covering several incidents over the previous three years.
- D006: a site survey.
- D007: first-hand observations by two FBI special agents during an ongoing investigation in November 2024.
- D008: a follow-up site survey at a location where the two agents had previously observed UAP.
- D009 / D010: the 2025 red-sphere sighting.
That is a Bureau paper trail, not a YouTube thread. The clip is one piece. The documentation is the story.
What the release still does not show
The public package includes video, descriptions, case labels, and official handling records.
What it does not include: the full authentication workup, a clean distance measurement, a second sensor track, named locations, or enough environmental context to make outside identification possible. The privacy crop may be necessary, but it also removes context.
The government is saying the videos are real footage handled inside a real file chain, attached to witnesses described by the FBI as credible or highly credible. It is not saying the objects are extraordinary craft. It is not saying they are prosaic either.
For once, the interesting part is not a single frame. It is the gap between how ordinary the footage can look and how formal the record around it has become.
The next file request
The immediate follow-up targets are clear: underlying authentication documentation, camera metadata where privacy allows, site-survey notes, still-frame extracts, and any enclosure lists tied to the FBI records.
If two special agents made their own observations in the same cluster, the date, conditions, and any associated photographs matter.
PURSUE Release 03 has already produced the viral hook: the pond light, the red sphere, the word "plasma," the FBI label.
The better question now is whether Release 04, a FOIA request, Congress, or the Bureau itself can show the work behind it.
Related UAP Logbook notes
- PURSUE Release 03: CIA files, FBI orbs, and a 1949 flying saucer study
- CIA-UAP-017: The Harare airport UFO that put Zimbabwe on high alert
- How to read a UAP video release without losing the plot
- AARO, PURSUE, and UAP file releases
Sources
- Department of War PURSUE portal: war.gov/UFO
- DVIDS: FBI-UAP-PR003, "Orbs Over the Pond," 2024
- DVIDS: FBI-UAP-PR004, "Northeastern Orb Sighting," 2025
- Department of War Release 03 local CSV mirror:
content/research/pursue-release-03/uap-data-release-03.csv