Key Takeaways
- Rep. Anna Paulina Luna has demanded 46 specific classified UAP videos from the Pentagon by April 14, 2026 — the most detailed congressional request for UFO footage ever made.
- The list includes the Lake Huron shootdown (an octagonal object downed by an F-16), Tic Tac objects filmed by the Coast Guard, and spherical craft diving near a US submarine.
- Rep. Tim Burchett says his classified briefings contain information that would 'set the Earth on fire' and that Americans would 'be up at night worrying' if they knew the truth.
📑 Table of Contents
Something shifted in Washington this week. Not another vague promise about transparency, not another carefully worded non-denial from the Pentagon — but a list. A specific, numbered, dated list of 46 classified videos that Congress says the Defence Department is hiding from the American public.
On 31 March 2026, Rep. Anna Paulina Luna — chair of the House Task Force on the Declassification of Federal Secrets — sent a formal letter to Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth demanding the release of every video on that list. The deadline: April 14, 2026. Ten days from now.
Two days later, Tennessee congressman Tim Burchett went on Newsmax and said the classified briefings he has received would "set the Earth on fire" if made public.
This is where UAP disclosure stands right now: specific demands, hard deadlines, and elected officials warning that what they have seen behind closed doors would fundamentally shake public trust.
The Letter
Luna's letter to Hegseth is not a casual request. It is a formal demand from the chair of a congressional task force — the Task Force on the Declassification of Federal Secrets — which operates under the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. The task force was established to investigate UAPs, declassify federal records, and protect whistleblowers.
The letter identifies 46 specific classified video files by name, date, operational callsign, and platform. This is not a fishing expedition. Somebody with direct access to the Pentagon's UAP archive told Congress exactly what exists and where to find it.
"The presence of UAPs in and around the sensitive airspaces of US military installations poses a threat to the security of the armed forces and their readiness," Luna wrote. "The lack of disclosure regarding the very real threat posed by UAPs in and around US restricted airspace is concerning."
She set a hard deadline: deliver the 46 files no later than 14 April 2026.
What's on the List
The 46 videos span multiple years, multiple military branches, and locations across the globe. Several stand out:
The Lake Huron Shootdown (12 February 2023) — An Air National Guard F-16, callsign AESIR11, fired an AIM-9X Sidewinder missile at an unidentified object over Lake Huron. According to cockpit audio reported by The War Zone, the pilot described the object as "octagonal" and unlike any balloon he had seen. The object was one of three shot down over North American airspace in a single week — the other two over Alaska and the Yukon. The Pentagon later said all three were probably balloons, but the Lake Huron object has never been publicly identified.
Submarine Encounter (25 March 2022) — Multiple spherical objects were recorded diving in and out of the water near a US submarine. Transmedium capability — the ability to move between air and water — is one of the five observable characteristics of UAPs identified by the Pentagon's own research programmes.
Afghanistan Spheres (23 November 2020) — A spherical UAP recorded over clouds in Afghanistan. This footage was previously leaked by journalists Jeremy Corbell and George Knapp but has never been officially acknowledged or released by the Defence Department.
Four-UAP Formation Over Iran (2022) — A recording showing four unidentified objects flying in formation over Iranian airspace, captured by US military sensors.
Instant Acceleration in Syria (2021) — A UAP recorded making an instantaneous acceleration in Syrian airspace — another of the five observables (hypersonic velocity without visible propulsion).
Coast Guard Tic Tacs (24 April 2024) — Two "Tic Tac"-shaped objects recorded in infrared by a US Coast Guard C-144 aircraft, echoing the famous 2004 USS Nimitz encounter that first brought the Tic Tac designation into the public lexicon.
Why This Request Is Different
Congressional requests for UAP information are not new. What makes this one different is the specificity.
Previous requests have been broad: "give us everything you have on UAPs." The Pentagon's response has typically been to stall, redact, or claim the material does not exist. That approach does not work when Congress provides the exact file name, the operational callsign of the aircraft that recorded it, and the date it was captured.
The level of detail in Luna's letter points directly to a whistleblower — someone with inside knowledge of what AARO (the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office) holds in its classified archive. The Task Force has found AARO's previous responses "less than adequate," and this letter makes it impossible for the agency to claim ignorance about what is being requested.
This follows a September 2025 hearing where whistleblowers informed the task force that AARO possesses additional video records of UAP sightings that have never been disclosed to Congress or the public.
Burchett: 'It Would Set the Earth on Fire'
The day after Luna's deadline became public, Tennessee Rep. Tim Burchett appeared on Newsmax and made the most explosive public comments any sitting congressman has made about classified UAP briefings.
"I've been briefed by just about every alphabet agency there is," Burchett told host Rob Finnerty. "If they would release the things that I've seen — you would stay up. You'd be up at night worrying about or thinking about this stuff."
He said a classified session he attended approximately two weeks earlier contained information that "would've set the Earth on fire" if made public, and that "this country would have come unglued" if the public had heard what he heard.
Burchett said he has directly urged President Trump to "release it all."
People Are Dying or Disappearing
Burchett then added a remark that drew immediate attention: "Unfortunately, it just keeps getting covered up and covered up, and the people that know are dying or disappearing — and for the record, I'm not suicidal and I don't take risks."
That comment lands differently in the context of recent events. In February 2026, retired Maj. Gen. William Neil McCasland — the former commander of the Air Force Research Laboratory at Wright-Patterson AFB, with deep connections to classified UAP programmes — vanished from Albuquerque, New Mexico. The FBI was called in. Clothing was found in Pagosa Springs, Colorado. A US congressman confirmed McCasland "has a lot to say" about UAPs.
Burchett did not name McCasland specifically, but his choice of words — "dying or disappearing" — resonated across every corner of the UAP research community.
What Happens on April 14?
The honest answer: nobody knows.
The Pentagon has a long history of ignoring, delaying, or partially complying with congressional requests on UAPs. But Luna's deadline is different from previous requests in several important ways:
First, the specificity makes denial harder. Luna is not asking "do you have UAP videos?" She is naming the files.
Second, the political context has changed. President Trump signed an executive order in February 2026 directing all agencies to identify and release UFO-related files. The White House registered alien.gov and aliens.gov in March. The political wind is blowing toward disclosure, not secrecy.
Third, the Task Force itself has subpoena-adjacent power under the House Oversight Committee. If the Pentagon does not comply, the next step would be a formal subpoena — a legal compulsion that is much harder to ignore.
And fourth, the public pressure is building. Between Luna's demand, Burchett's Newsmax appearance, Trump's disclosure directive, and AARO's surging caseload of 2,400+ reports, the landscape has shifted dramatically from even six months ago.
April 14 is ten days away. What the Pentagon does — or doesn't do — by that date will tell us a great deal about how serious this round of disclosure actually is.
We will be watching.
