Silent Black Triangle Reports (2026) – PURSUE Files

Triangle report, 2026
Page 1 of the AARO witness debrief (DOW-UAP-D176). U.S. Department of War.
Date	2026 (day and month redacted); about 8:23 p.m. local in the AARO memo, about 7:23 p.m. in the FBI statement
Location	Redacted; a ridge, a canyon drainage and an observation post
Witnesses	Federal law-enforcement personnel (names redacted): two at the primary post, one at a secondary post
Agencies	AARO; FBI
Released	Release 07 (Oct. 23, 2026)
Files	2 (PDF)
Previously public?	No — new in PURSUE Release 07
Official releaseUnresolved

In a memorandum for record, the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO) summarizes a joint debrief of federal law-enforcement personnel who say they watched an unidentified craft at dusk in 2026. It was a matte-black, triangular object with an estimated 13–15 foot wingspan, six to nine feet from front to back and only one to two feet thick. The witnesses say it rose vertically for about ten seconds, hovered for about twenty, and then moved off at what they described as fighter-jet speed, banking and dropping into a canyon in two to three seconds. A companion FBI FD-302, the form agents use to record interviews and statements, reproduces a written statement by agents who saw the same object.^[1]

What the witnesses reported

The AARO memo breaks the observation into three phases. The object was first called out by a person at a secondary post scanning west with long-range thermal equipment, who radioed two colleagues at the primary post. They moved to a westward line of sight, picked the object up with the naked eye against the fading sunset, and followed it with binoculars and a handheld thermal monocular.^[1]

• Vertical ascent (about 10 seconds). A slow, perfectly vertical climb over a ridge line to roughly 200–300 feet above it, with no tilt, sway or wobble. Range was bounded at about 1.4 to 3.2 miles by terrain features.
• Hover (about 20 seconds). The object stopped all vertical motion at once and held station with no visible drift, then moved off without a visible acceleration ramp.
• Terminal maneuver (about 2–3 seconds). Rapid horizontal flight, a fluid banking turn and a steep descent into a canyon drainage. Seen banked, the silhouette flattened and looked like a more symmetrical triangle. Infrared tracking was lost because the monocular’s field of view was too narrow; the witnesses then watched it vanish into canyon shadow unaided.

The witnesses described no sound at all, no exhaust, no rotating parts, windows, panels or control surfaces, and a spatially uniform thermal signature across the airframe in infrared. No physiological effects, odors or electromagnetic interference were reported. A ground survey of the canyon the next morning found no wreckage, scarring or vegetation damage. The memo adds a “collector note”: two of the witnesses have worked alongside government agencies on studies using unmanned aircraft, and said a conventional drone or rotary-wing aircraft 1.4 miles away would have been clearly audible on that hilltop.^[1]

The FBI statement

The FD-302 reproduces, “verbatim,” an “Unidentified Aerial Object Observation Report” from agents at an observation post. At about 1923 hours a colleague stationed at another post reported a thermally elevated aerial object west of his position at an estimated bearing of 251 degrees. The agents ran to the western side and, in the statement’s words, immediately saw a “substantial, nonreflective, dark black triangular object most resembling a delta wing drone,” with an estimated wingspan of nine to fifteen feet, depth of six to nine feet and thickness of one to two feet. One agent viewed it through a handheld thermal device, which showed it hotter than the surrounding air with a consistent thermal signature and no visible exhaust. The object climbed vertically over a ridge about 3.2 miles west on a heading of about 268 degrees to roughly 200 feet above the ridge line.^[1]

Analysis

The two accounts agree on the shape, size range, silence, vertical climb and thermal appearance, and they come from the same group of observers, so they are best treated as one account recorded twice rather than as independent confirmation. The AARO memo is careful to separate observation from interpretation. Several details cut both ways: the witnesses are trained observers who were already running sensors, yet the speed estimate rests on distance along a ridge rather than a measurement; the 8:23 p.m. time in the AARO memo and the 7:23 p.m. time in the FBI statement differ by an hour (the released text does not explain why, and time zones are one possibility); and the released set contains no video, radar or thermal recording. Because everything that would identify the date and place is redacted, outside researchers cannot check weather, air traffic or launch schedules.

The report is the headline item of Release 07 and is likely to be compared with earlier FBI and AARO material on triangular objects, including the FBI triangle sightings (2002–2023) and the FBI western U.S. reports (2026) from earlier releases.

The records

DOW-UAP-D176, Triangular UAP AARO MFR (2026)

Open DOW-UAP-D176 (PDF, 972 KB) → · original on war.gov

This document is a memorandum for record documenting an AARO witness debrief concerning reported unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAP) observations at a sensitive national security site in the western United States over two days in 2026. AARO considers this incident to warrant further investigation due to the close alignment of the phenomena’s reported morphological features and kinematic profiles with those of other reported incidents in the western United States region. The memorandum records an interview with two Federal Special Agents and incorporates a corroborating account from a third official positioned at a separate observation post. The memorandum describes a primary event in which the reporting individuals stated that a triangular object rose vertically, remained stationary, and then banked and descended into a canyon. It records their descriptions of the object’s shape, color, apparent thermal signature, perceived lack of conventional propulsion features, and absence of an associated audible signature. The memorandum further records a secondary observation on the following evening, and a subsequent ground search that found no visible debris or evidence of an impact in the accessible survey area. The file is an investigative record preserving witness accounts, chronology, and associated analytic support material developed by the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO) and does not present a conclusive finding regarding the nature or origin of the reported object or objects. All descriptive and estimative language reported by the individuals interviewed reflects their subjective interpretations at the time of the event. Such characterizations should not be interpreted as a conclusive indication of the presence or absence of any intrinsic object features or performance characteristics.

FBI-UAP-D043, FD-302 Unidentified Aerial Object Observation Report (2026)

Open FBI-UAP-D043 (PDF, 5.7 MB) → · original on war.gov

This document is an FBI FD-302, a form the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) uses to record interviews. This FD-302 records a 2026 interview with two Federal Special Agents, in which the interviewees describe an incident reported as involving unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAP) at a national security site in 2026. The report is accompanied by 9 digitally rendered FBI forensic sketches depicting the primary incident, as confirmed by the Special Agents in their eyewitness account.

Released files

See also

• PURSUE Release 07 (Oct. 23, 2026) overview
• Key Disclosure Documents
• AARO
• FBI
• FBI triangle sightings (2002–2023)
• FBI western U.S. reports (2026)
• Western U.S. event (October 2023)
• PURSUE

References

1. ^ U.S. Department of War (2026). PURSUE Release 07 (Oct. 23, 2026): DOW-UAP-D176, FBI-UAP-D043, with official descriptions. war.gov/ufo.