Orange Orbs Over a Classified Test Range — Declassified 2026
A senior US intelligence officer filed a first-person written account of a night mission over a classified test range. Objects approached their helicopter to within ten feet. Dozens of orange orbs swarmed the mountains. And when fighter jets arrived, the orbs followed them too.
| Date | Late 2025 — exact date classified |
| Location | Classified US military test range — context suggests American Southwest |
| Who | Senior US intelligence officer + colleague + 2 pilots (all identities redacted) |
| Reporting agency | Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) |
| Source document | ODNI-UAP-D001 — 2-page first-person narrative, declassified May 2026 |
| Radar confirmation | Yes — JOC radar detected contacts before visual encounter |
| FLIR reading | 'Super-hot' — FLIR (Forward Looking Infrared) thermal camera showed an unusually strong heat signature on initial contact |
| Object description | Oval, orange with white/yellow centre, self-luminous, splitting into multiple objects |
| Closest approach | Within ten feet of the helicopter |
| Additional witnesses | Ground teams, fighter jet crews |
| Crew's own assessment | "Virtually speechless" |
Most UAP accounts are secondhand. Someone heard from someone who knew a pilot. A report filed weeks later, details already fading. What makes this document different is that a serving US intelligence officer sat down and wrote exactly what they saw, in plain English, while it was still fresh. Two pages. No technical jargon. No hedging.
It was released by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence on 22 May 2026 as part of the government's PURSUE declassification programme. The officer's name, and those of their colleague and two pilots, are all redacted. The location of the test range is not named. Everything else is there.
The crew had been sent out to investigate loud thuds that had been heard coming from a mountain range. There had also been prior UAP sightings over the same area on previous nights — this wasn't their first time looking.
They flew a low-altitude route through the mountains for several hours — the kind of flight the military calls "map of the earth," hugging the terrain. At some point during that flight they found two things worth noting: debris consistent with weapons test remnants, and the entrance to a large cave with no visible end.
They refuelled. Then the Joint Operations Centre (JOC) — the command hub coordinating the mission — called. Radar had picked up contacts in the area where the earlier UAP sightings had been. The helicopter redirected to intercept.
Ground teams spotted it first, on FLIR — Forward Looking Infrared, the thermal camera standard on military platforms that picks up heat signatures. The object was low to the ground and described as "super-hot," meaning it was radiating far more heat than anything around it. It moved east, then turned south at high speed.
Then it split into two.
The pilots were watching through NVGs — night-vision goggles — when the object rose from the ground and came toward them. It closed the distance to within ten feet of the helicopter. Ten feet. For a few seconds it was right there — then it dropped below the aircraft and accelerated away. As it left, a smaller object separated from it.
"The object rose from the ground, approached to within ten feet of the aircraft, then dropped below and accelerated away. A smaller object emerged from it as it departed."
— ODNI-UAP-D001 — declassified first-person account, May 2026The intelligence officer doesn't editoralise much here. They describe it the way you'd describe anything you witnessed and can't explain — carefully, in sequence, making sure you've got the facts right.
The helicopter held its position at around 700 feet AGL — Above Ground Level. Then the orbs appeared.
The report describes "countless orange orbs swarming in all directions against the backdrop of the mountain." Not a few lights. Not an ambiguous glow. Countless, swarming. The display lasted several minutes.
"In the distance, we saw countless orange orbs swarming in all directions against the backdrop of the mountain. The display lasted several minutes before fading. We were virtually speechless after these observations."— ODNI-UAP-D001 — direct quote from declassified account
Then it got more specific. Two large oval orbs — orange with bright white or yellow centres — appeared stationary just above the rotor disk. The crew could see them clearly. Over ten to fifteen seconds, more orbs appeared below them, arranging into a T-shape: four or five objects total. Then they dimmed in reverse order, one by one, and were gone. The whole thing lasted about fifteen seconds.
Later, the orbs formed a triangle around the helicopter before vanishing again.
Fighter jets arrived in the area at around 23,000 feet. When they did, the orbs appeared above them — matching their speed, matching their heading, tracking them. They flared up in a horizontal line and then dimmed sequentially, one after another. This happened several times.
The report doesn't speculate about what this means. It just records what was observed: objects that appeared to respond to the presence of the jets, positioned directly above them, moving in formation with them.
Helicopter crew departs on low-altitude mountain survey to investigate sounds of loud thuds. During flight, they discover weapons test debris and a large cave entrance with no visible end.
JOC radar detects hits in the area of prior UAP sightings. Helicopter is redirected to intercept. Ground teams also deployed to the area.
Ground teams spot a 'super-hot' object on FLIR, low to the ground, moving east then turning south at speed. Object then splits into two.
Object rises from the ground and closes to within ten feet of the helicopter. Pilots observe it through NVGs. It drops below the aircraft and accelerates away. A smaller object emerges from it as it departs.
Helicopter holds position at approximately 700 feet AGL. Countless orange orbs appear, swarming in all directions against the mountain backdrop. Display lasts several minutes.
Two large oval orange orbs with white/yellow centres appear stationary above the rotor disk. Over 10-15 seconds additional orbs appear below, forming a T-shape of 4-5 objects total. They dim one by one and vanish.
Orange orbs form a distinct triangle around the helicopter before vanishing again.
Fighter jets enter the area at altitude. Identical orbs appear directly above the jets, matching their speed and heading. They flare in a horizontal line, dim sequentially. This repeats several times.
Crew returns to the Joint Operations Centre. The officer's written account records they were 'virtually speechless' after the encounter.
A serving member of the US Intelligence Community who filed this first-person written narrative. The document was submitted through official channels and released via PURSUE. The precision and sequencing of the account suggests someone trained in observation and reporting, not a civilian witness.
Present throughout the mission. Witnessed the same sequence of events as the reporting officer.
The two pilots observed the initial close approach through night-vision goggles (NVGs). As the people physically flying the aircraft at the time of the ten-foot approach, their proximity to the object was direct.
Ground-based teams were the first to detect the object on FLIR, before the helicopter crew had visual contact. Their independent detection corroborates the initial sighting.
Pilots of fighter jets that entered the area at altitude. The orbs that appeared above them and tracked their movements would have been visible to any aircrew looking outward.
A lot of UAP reports describe something ambiguous — a light in the sky, a radar blip, something glimpsed at distance. This one is different in a few specific ways.
The radar confirmation came before the visual encounter. This wasn't someone who saw something and then decided to report it — the JOC was already tracking contacts when the helicopter was redirected. The crew went looking for something that was already on radar.
The ten-foot approach is genuinely hard to explain away. A thermal drone or a military test vehicle doesn't approach to ten feet of a manned helicopter and then split into two objects. The geometry doesn't work for any known human technology, and the risk to the aircraft would be unacceptable for any controlled test.
The behaviour of the objects during the jet arrival is the detail that sticks most. Objects that respond to the arrival of specific aircraft, position themselves above them, and track their movements aren't behaving like atmospheric phenomena or camera artefacts. Whatever the explanation is, it involves something that noticed the jets.
The officer who wrote this still has full clearances and is still serving. This is not a whistleblower account from someone with a grievance. It's an official report, filed through proper channels, released by the ODNI. That doesn't make it true — but it does make it a very different category of claim.
JOC radar detected the contacts before the helicopter crew had visual. The mission was actively redirected to intercept based on those radar hits.
Ground teams independently detected the initial object on FLIR and described it as 'super-hot' — a strong and anomalous thermal signature.
The reporting officer, a second intelligence officer, two pilots, ground teams, and fighter jet crews all observed aspects of the encounter independently.
Released through the PURSUE programme by the ODNI. The reporting officer is a currently serving intelligence officer with full clearances — not a former employee or whistleblower.
No explanation is offered in the document or in accompanying AARO commentary. The objects have not been publicly identified as any known platform.
Both remain classified. The test range is unnamed. The exact date in late 2025 is not given. Independent verification of the location is not possible.
The document references FLIR detection but no video footage from this specific incident has been released. Whether sensor recordings exist and are held in classified files is unknown.
The large cave with no visible end, discovered during the initial flight, is mentioned once and not returned to. Whether it has any connection to the subsequent encounters is not addressed.
Declassified documents released under the PURSUE programme. Hosted here directly — these won't disappear if government archives change.
PURSUE Release 02 · 22 May 2026 · 34 KB
Two-page first-person narrative by a senior US intelligence officer. Covers the full encounter: FLIR detection, ten-foot approach, orange orb formations, and fighter jet tracking.
Download PDFPURSUE Release 01 · 8 May 2026 · 769 KB
Redacted witness statement from a senior US intelligence official. Describes a daytime aerial search of a mountain range following eyewitness reports of orbs and unexplained thuds — corroborating context for this case.
Download PDFPURSUE Release 01 · 8 May 2026 · 62 KB
Briefing slides documenting six federal law enforcement officers in three independent teams observing orange orbs launching smaller red orbs over the western US — a separate but related pattern of sightings.
Download PDF📌 Note: These documents were declassified and released under the Presidential Unsealing and Reporting System for UAP Encounters (PURSUE). Copies are hosted here to ensure permanent availability.